Faith | Oxford Literary Festival

Richard Harries Interviewed by John Carey

Haunted by Christ: Modern writers and the Struggle for Faith SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Aatish Taseer Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges
St Cross College 2:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Peter Stanford

Angels: A Visible and Invisible History
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Andrew Copson and Andrew Grey Chaired by Stephen Law

The Oxford Debates. Assisted Dying and Euthanasia: Is it Morally acceptable?
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Thu 4 Thursday, 4 April 2019 See this event
Andrew Briggs

It Keeps Me Seeking: The Invitation from Science, Philosophy and Religion
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Thu 4 Thursday, 4 April 2019 See this event
Nadim Nassar

The Culture of God: The Syrian Jesus
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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