CHAPTER ONE… MARCH 1 - 7.10PM - 2020

Countdown to Oxford Literary Festival 2020

Today is March 1st, which means in just 26 days all 26 letters of the alphabet will effortlessly combine to bring this year’s 2020 Oxford Literary Festival to fruition. In some instances, these myriad collections of words will form articles, essays, stories, dramas and fantasies that are many hundred if not thousands of years old. Or so newly born, the ink will barely have had time to dry... Thankfully words and language, like life, forever strive to evolve, involve and resolve, ensuring that this year’s festival, like every one before, continues to surprise, delight, challenge and provoke. And starting today, my regular thumbnail sketches will, I hope, throw a little extra illumination over the events of each and every day. But in the run-up to its launch, I’ll be attempting to take a measured, judicious and occasionally tongue-in-cheek appraisal of just what treats and marvels await you... Jeremy Smith