Art | Oxford Literary Festival

Sophia Bennett, Sofia Karamani, Safia El Dabi and Rachel Noel

The Bigger Picture: Women Who Changed the Art World
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Rachel Moss Interviewed by Janina Ramirez

The Book of Durrow
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren

Flaming Dene. A Victorian Stunner, Nude Model and Actress
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 1 Monday, 1 April 2019 See this event
Marcus du Sautoy

The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Mon 1 Monday, 1 April 2019 See this event
Robin Choudhury

Leonardo to Present: The Story of the Heart
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Jamie Camplin

Books Do Furnish A Painting
St Cross College 12:00pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Anna Marie Roos

Martin Lister and his Remarkable Daughters: The Art of Science in the 17th Century
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Martin Kemp Interviewed by Laura Battle

Leonardo 500: Fifty Years of Living with Sanity and Insanity in the Art World and Beyond SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 5 Friday, 5 April 2019 See this event
Martin Kemp and Robert Hollingworth

Leonardo 500: Shaping the Invisible
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Fri 5 Friday, 5 April 2019 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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 Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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