TAKE A LEAF FROM ROBERT FROST’S ‘THE ROAD NOT TAKEN’ - MARCH 7 - 2.25PM - 2019
The eternal appeal of the undiscovered jewel
What I like best about the Festival are not the big name authors who draw the crowds (even though, every year I can be found eagerly queuing outside the Sheldonian Theatre for the Jo Brands, Ranulph Fiennes’ and Lucy Worsleys of this world) but rather the lesser known speakers whose talks are often the most surprising. In recent years for instance, there was the memorable presentation on conspiracy theories (I still dine out on an audience query concerning Prince Phillip, satellites, sex and the CIA), a talk on the origins of gin (never have I stumbled so shamelessly from a history lesson) and a morning at Oxford’s Story Museum devoted to Star Wars (the procession of mini Vaders in masks, capes, lightsabers with grandparents in tow was little short of joyous). So my advice when choosing events this year is simple: spare a thought for the intriguing titles - * ‘Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do’ Mar 31 * ‘The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think’ April 1 * ‘Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal’ April 3 * ‘The Nocturnal Brain: Tales of Nightmares and Neuroscience’ April 4 * ‘The Gendered Brain: Shattering the Myth of the Female Brain’ April 5 * ‘Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways’ April 7 You won’t be disappointed.
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
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
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Dinomania for those aged 7 to 99 - April 3 - 3.46pm - 2022
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Heard the one about the blood donor scheme for bats…? - April 2 - 11.44am - 2022
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As dazzling as the HAL 9000, as entertaining as Woody Allen - April 1 - 3.37pm - 2022
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‘Round like a circle in a spiral…’ - March 31 - 6.15pm - 2022
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Food for thought - March 31 - 3.32pm - 2022
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Fit for Royalty - March 30 - 3.56pm - 2022
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‘A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…’ - March 30 - 11.24am - 2022