I applied to Christ’s in part because of Milton. Paradise Lost was one of my A Level texts, and what a sly, seductive initiation it was - the wonder of an eighteen-year-old first discovering language that could mirror the confused mind in development. I’ve always loved the moment when Eve first sees her reflection: that luminous instant of self-recognition which is at once so innocent and so perilous. Milton’s words shimmer with both promise and warning - the awakening of awareness, the pull toward one’s own image not out of vanity, but out of a deep curiosity about what it means to exist, to take form. At that age, stepping into the bright, bewildering world beyond school, I recognised something of my own mixture of wonder and apprehension in her gaze. It seemed to capture the strange doubleness of growing up - to look, and suddenly see yourself looking back.
Katie Burge
Artist, design support
A former Christ’s student, I spent three wonderful years sat by Milton's mulberry tree, dreaming up all sorts of fancies in the mind’s eye. I’ve since hopped across the pond to Los Angeles, where I’m studying for a master’s in filmmaking and trying to make those imagined worlds tangible on the silver screen.