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DEPRESSING? NOT A BIT OF IT! - MARCH 22 - 5.39pm

Shedding light on an emotional epidemic

Let me first describe the set-up: a talk by journalist and writer Johann Hari on why depression and anxiety are not caused by chemical imbalances but by the way we live. It was at 4.00pm and frankly it was the last thing I needed. In fact, I almost thought of ditching it and going to the pub but a strict and irritating sense of duty compelled me to turn up. And boy am I glad I did... When it comes to connecting with an audience, this guy sets the bar high. So much so that when his talk ended, instead of feeling flat and listless (which was what I was dreading) I bounded out. Incredible.

Festival media partner

Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK

Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme

International radio partner

Supporter of programme of science and medicine and annual science and innovation award

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture

The Cervantes Institute, London

The Italian Embassy: supporter of the programme of Italian literature and culture

Festival London hotel partner

Festival literary heritage partner

Festival on-site and online bookseller

Festival hotel

Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection

Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

CEO of Project People

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314

New College founded 1379

Worcester College founded 1714

Lincoln College founded 1427

St Cross College founded 1965

Trinity College founded 1555

Magdalen College founded 1458

Accountants to the festival

Wines of the Douro Valley

Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024

Sponsor of the EBRD Literature Prize since 2018

Georgia's leading lifestyle hotel brand since 2012. Supporters of the programme of Georgian literature and culture

Partner of Oxford Literary Festival

Oxford International Centre for Publishing

Festival academic partner

Olive oil from Sicily

Local radio partner

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Alumni Office

Oxford University Images

Supporter of the programme of Georgian literature and culture

Corporate communications

K T Bruce Photography

Festival information:

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.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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

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 Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners