March 30 | Oxford Literary Festival

Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course: A Sense of Place SOLD OUT
St Cross College 9:30am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
John Elliott Interviewed by Frances Lannon

Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion SOLD OUT
St Cross College 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Gill Lewis Interviewed by Damian Kelleher

The Closest Thing to Flying
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Harry Potter

Celebrating the Harry Potter books
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
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
Melissa Harrison Interviewed by Oliver Balch

Pasture to Plate®: All Among the Barley
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Christopher Lloyd

Best Moments in British History
Bodleian Weston Library: Blackwell Hall 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Yuval Zommer and Charlotte Guillain

The Skies Above My Eyes
Story Museum: Story Exchange 11:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Amy Wilson

World Building Workshop
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Darcey Bussell Interviewed by Nick Higham

Evolved SOLD OUT
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
David Fickling, Candy Gourlay and Dan Freedman

What Makes a Great Children’s Book?
St Cross College 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Graham Harvey Interviewed by Robin Hicks

Pasture to Plate®. Grass-Fed Nation: Getting back the Food we Deserve
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Zoe Harcombe

Pasture to Plate®. The Diet Fix: Pasture-grazed Meat and Health
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Jenny Hartley

Charles Dickens: A Very Short Introduction
Blackwell’s Marquee 1:15pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Lucy Worsley

Lady Mary: Tales of Tudor Intrigue SOLD OUT
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Melvyn Bragg Interviewed by Peter Kemp

Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Martin Brown

Lesser Spotted Animals 2
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Chitra Soundar

Stories of India
Story Museum: Story Exchange 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Gelong Thubten

A Monk’s Guide for Young People SOLD OUT
St Cross College 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Hans Herren and Philip Lymbery

Pasture to Plate®: How to Nourish the World
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Tessa Hadley Interviewed by Harriett Gilbert

BBC World Service Recording: Book Club with Tessa Hadley
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 1 2:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Christopher Lloyd

Absolutely Everything! A History of Earth, Dinosaurs, Rulers, Robots and Other Things Too Numerous
Bodleian Weston Library: Blackwell Hall 3:30pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Martin Rees Interviewed by Ian Goldin

Princeton Lecture. On the Future: Prospects for Humanity
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Maz Evans

Who Let the Gods Out? Greek Mythology as Never Seen Before SOLD OUT
St Cross College 4:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Sydney Padua

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Henry Edmunds Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Pasture to Plate®: Farming in Harmony with Nature
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Ben Okri, Suzanna Crampton and Graham Harvey

BBC World Service Recording: Food and Storytelling
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 1 4:00pm 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
Charles Spencer

To Catch a King: Charles II’s Great Escape SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm 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
Ben Okri Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

The Freedom Artist
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Graham Harvey, Roberta Bellekom and Alastair Collingwood

Pasture to Plate® Dinner: No Finer Life
St Cross College 7:45pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 March 2019 See this event
Bodleian Libraries

Old School Tour: 60 Minutes
5:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 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 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 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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.

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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