FIVE… (4, 3, 2, 1 WILL FOLLOW) - MARCH 12 - 11.56am

Fun for tots (and just like panto, mum and dad too)

Following on from Saturday’s post, here’s a further look at events tailor-made for young families -

* Ten Fat Sausages
Michelle Robinson
Sunday, 18 March 2018
11:00am, Story Museum: Long Room £8

* Mirrors and Masks: A Crafts Session
Jane Ray
Saturday, 24 March 2018
10:00am, Story Museum: Long Room £7

* The Big, Fat, Totally Bonkers Diary of Pig
Emer Stamp
Sunday, 25 March 2018
10:00am, Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room £7

* Animal Adventures
Nicola Davies
Sunday, 25 March 2018
12:00pm, Story Museum: Story Exchange £8

* Planet Dinosaur
Elaine Wickson
Sunday, 25 March 2018
2:00pm, Museum of Natural History £7

Title partner

International radio partner

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

Worcester College: Festival college partner

Supporters of the Irish programme

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Sponsors of the programme of American literature and culture

Festival London hotel partner

Festival on-site and online bookseller

The festival hotel

Festival green room sponsor

Sponsor of Gibraltar Lecture

Broadcast media partner

Lincoln College

St Cross College

St John's College

The Queen's College

Exeter College

Keble College

Regional media partner

Local radio partner

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Alumni Office

Oxford University Images

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.

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

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

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.

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.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival partners & sponsors