| Oxford Literary Festival

Tom Tugendhat MP gave this year's FT Weekend lecture

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

James Naughtie and Edmund de Waal celebrate the life of literary agent Felicity Bryan

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

Gary Younge, Alex von Tunzelmann, Elijah Lawal, and Stephen Law debate the toppling of statues

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

Katherine Rundell was as popular as ever on the children's programme this year

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

Delia Smith talking about her life and about a new book in which she encourages us to think about our existence

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

Literary walks with Alastair Lack were hugely popular again this year

Image credit: K T Bruce ©

The Divinity School is one of the festival's historic venues

Thank you for supporting the festival this year. Save next year’s dates now. We’ll be back Saturday 25 March to Sunday 2 April 2023

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

International radio partner

Title partner

Supporter of programme of science and medicine

Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

CEO of Project People

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

Prestige publishing partner

The festival hotel

Festival on-site and online bookseller

Festival London hotel partner

Supporter of Italian programme

Partner of Jewish programme

Sponsor of American novelists and poets

Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom

Accountants to the festival

Woodstock festival hotel

Eastgate Hotel, a festival hotel

St Cross College: Festival college partner.

Lincoln College

Worcester College

Trinity College

Exeter College

Regional media partner

Local radio partner

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Alumni Office

Olive oil from Sicily

Oxford University Images

Siren Communications - corporate consultants

Estate agents

K T Bruce Photography

Festival printers

Wines of the Douro Valley

Wines of Tuscany

Wines of Provence

Hattus Books

Sheldonian events

Festival information:

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

International radio partner

Title partner

Supporter of programme of science and medicine

Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

CEO of Project People

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

Prestige publishing partner

The festival hotel

Festival on-site and online bookseller

Festival London hotel partner

Supporter of Italian programme

Partner of Jewish programme

Sponsor of American novelists and poets

Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom

Accountants to the festival

Woodstock festival hotel

Eastgate Hotel, a festival hotel

St Cross College: Festival college partner.

Lincoln College

Worcester College

Trinity College

Exeter College

Regional media partner

Local radio partner

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Alumni Office

Olive oil from Sicily

Oxford University Images

Siren Communications - corporate consultants

Estate agents

K T Bruce Photography

Festival printers

Wines of the Douro Valley

Wines of Tuscany

Wines of Provence

Hattus Books

Jacqueline Wilson arrives at the Sheldonian for her 2022 appearance

Tom Tugendhat MP gave this year's FT Weekend lecture

James Naughtie and Edmund de Waal celebrate the life of literary agent Felicity Bryan

Gary Younge, Alex von Tunzelmann, Elijah Lawal, and Stephen Law debate the toppling of statues

Katherine Rundell was as popular as ever on the children's programme this year

Delia Smith talking about her life and about a new book in which she encourages us to think about our existence

Literary walks with Alastair Lack were hugely popular again this year

The Divinity School is one of the festival's historic venues

Sheldonian events

Jim Al-Khalili

The Joy of Science

A C Grayling

Technology, Climate, Justice and Rights: Can We Get The Whole World To Agree On Any Of Them?

Charlie Higson Interviewed by Triona Adams

Whatever Gets You Through the Night

Penelope Lively Interviewed by Chris Patten

Chancellor’s Lecture: Life and Work

Harry Potter

Celebrating 25 Years of the Harry Potter Books

Delia Smith Interviewed by Nick Higham

You Matter: The Human Solution

Katherine Rundell

The Good Thieves

Lemony Snicket Interviewed by Imogen Russell Williams

Poison for Breakfast

Val McDermid Interviewed by Emma Smith

The Past is Never Dead: Crime Fiction from Christopher Marlowe to 1979

Kate Pankhurst

Fantastically Great Women

Freya North and Wendy Holden Chaired by Lucy Atkins

Little Wing and The Duchess CANCELLED

Sola Akingbola Interviewed by Nicholas Janni

Music as a Gateway of Connection

Allie Esiri, Natascha McElhone, Ronni Ancona, Mark Quartley and Diana Quick

Poetry for Every Day of the Year

David Owen Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma: Two Hundred Years of Britain-Russian Relations SOLD OUT

John Bell, Andrew Pollard, Sarah Gilbert, Teresa Lambe and Catherine Green Chaired by Nick Higham

The Race Against the Virus: A Tribute to the Oxford Vaccine Team

Onjali Q Raúf

The Boy at the Back of the Class

Elijah Lawal, Gary Younge and Alex von Tunzelmann Chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Toppling Statues and Fallen Idols

Edmund de Waal Interviewed by James Naughtie

Felicity Bryan Tribute Conversation: Letters to Camondo

Nicholas Crane Interviewed by Nick Higham

Latitude: The True Story of the World’s First Scientific Expedition

Ian McEwan, Karen Leeder and Laurence Laluyaux Introduced by Richard Ovenden

The Gift of Translation CANCELLED

Richard Moxon Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Brain Fever: How Vaccines Prevent Meningitis And Other Killer Diseases

Howard Jacobson Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

Mother’s Boy: A Writer’s Beginnings

Ed Miliband

The Provost of Worcester College Lecture. Go Big: 20 Bold Solutions to Fix our World

Zadie Smith Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

2022 Bodley Lecture and Award of Bodley Medal: Life and Work

Peter Hain Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

A Pretoria Boy: The Story of South Africa’s Public Enemy Number One

Martin Rees Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

On the Future: Prospects for Humanity and The End of Astronauts

Muir Gray Interviewed by Nick Higham

Increase your Brainability and Reduce your Risk of Dementia

Donna Leon Interviewed by Peter Kemp

Vice-chancellor’s Lecture: Give Unto Others

Chris Bail Interviewed by Mary Hockaday

Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms less Polarizing

Joanna Lumley Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

The True Meaning of Compassion: The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture

Jacqueline Wilson

The Primrose Railway Children and The Runaway Girls

Mariana Mazzucato Introduced by Martin Sandbu

Voices of Europe. Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism

Tom Tugendhat Interviewed by Alec Russell

FT Weekend Lecture: Britain, the Conservative Party and the World

Richard Dawkins Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution

Ben Garrod

Why did Dinosaurs go Extinct and Saving Endangered Species

Michael Morpurgo