Wednesday 1 April 2020

Christina Hardyment

Novel Houses: Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Stephen Law

What Am I Doing With My Life?
St Cross College 10:00am Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Richard Harries

Seeing God in Art: The Christian Faith in 30 Images
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Clare Hastings

Hold the Front Page! For the star of Fleet Street
St Cross College 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Adrian Tinniswood

The House Party: Leisure, Pleasure and the Country House Weekend
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Adam Kucharski

The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread and Why they Stop
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
John Guy

Gresham’s Law: The Life and World of Queen Elizabeth I’s Banker
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Samir Okasha

Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction
Blackwell’s Marquee 1:15pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack
St John’s College 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Iain MacGregor

Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind Chaired by Ian Goldin

The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Rob Hopkins

From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
David Miles

The Land of the White Horse: Visions of England
St Cross College 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Henry Blofeld

My A-Z of Cricket: A Personal Celebration of our Glorious Game
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Sally Bayley, Arizona Smith and Georgina Hellier

No Boys Play Here: A Girl’s Coming of Age Through Shakespeare
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Errol Fuller

Elephant
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Roger Crowley

Accursed Tower: The Crusaders’ Last Battle for the Holy Land
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Richard Hamilton

Tangier: From the Romans to The Rolling Stones
St Cross College 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Alessandro Bianchi

Art and Literature in Print: The Publishing Market in Tokugawa Japan
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Celia Paul Interviewed by Christopher le Brun

Self-Portrait
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Anna Cento Bull

Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction
Blackwell’s Marquee 5:15pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Jonathan Sacks Interviewed by Nick Higham

Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Adam Sisman

The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Jonathan Sumption

Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Faith Martin

The English Country Murder Mystery
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event
Adrian Tinniswood

The Royal Society and the Invention of Modern Science
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Wed 1 Wednesday, 1 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

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.

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.

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 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.