Environment | Oxford Literary Festival

Philip Lymbery Interviewed by Nick Higham

Pasture to Plate®. Saving Life on Earth: Feeding People without Trashing the Planet
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Roger Scruton

Pasture to Plate®: How to Think Seriously about the Planet SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 5:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
George Monbiot

Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Mary Robinson Interviewed by Nick Higham

Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Charles Godfray, David Stanley, Maggie Charnley, Tony Wardle and Elinor Newman-Beckett Chaired by Lucian Hudson

Earthwatch Debate. Food for Thought: Can Veganism Save the Planet
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Mike Berners-Lee

There is no Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 1 Monday, 1 April 2019 See this event
Matt Hern and Am Johal

Global Warming and The Sweetness Of Life: A Tar Sands Tale
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Isabel Thomas

This Book is Not Rubbish
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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Brasenose College founded in 1512

Founded 1884

Reuben College founded in 2019

Magdalen College founded 1458

Trinity College founded 1555

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