| Oxford Literary Festival

Mary Beard Interviewed by Nick Higham

Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Wed 6 Wednesday, 6 October 2021 See this event
Alexander McCall Smith

A Celebration of A Writing Life and Honorary Fellowship
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Wed 6 Oct Wednesday, 6 October 2021 See this event
Dominic Sandbrook

Adventures in Time: The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Martin Kemp

Visions of Heaven: Dante and the Art of Divine Light
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Naomi Ishiguro

Common Ground
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Stephen Harris

Roots to Seeds: 400 Years of Oxford Botany
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Helen Taylor

Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of our Lives
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 30 Oct Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Jenny Goodman

Staying Alive in Toxic Times: A Seasonal Guide to Lifelong Health
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 30 Oct Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper Chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Changing the World: The Women of Westminster and Great Women Speakers SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 30 Oct Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Andrew Gant

The Making of Handel’s Messiah
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Muriel Barbery Interviewed by Viv Groskop

A Single Rose
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 30 Saturday, 30 October 2021 See this event
Emma Soames

Mary Churchill’s War: The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
John Holmes

Temple of Science: The Pre-Raphaelites and Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Noreena Hertz Interviewed by Ian Goldin

The Lonely Century: A Call to Reconnect
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Loyd Grossman

An Elephant In Rome: Bernini, The Pope, And The Making Of The Eternal City
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Richard Ovenden

Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Rui da Silva and Tobi Kyerematang Chaired by Magdalene Abraha

A Quick Ting On: Plantain and Theatre Sh*t CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Stephanie Shirley Interviewed by Nick Higham

So To Speak
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Tristram Hunt

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Dr Soph Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

A Manual for Being Human
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Ian Goldin

Rescue: From Global Crisis to a Better World
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Marc David Baer Interviewed by Nick Higham

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesers, and Caliphs
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Kate Kennedy Interviewed by Charlie Lee-Potter

Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Jasper Becker

Made in China: Wuhan, Covid and the Quest for Biotech Supremacy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Henry Mance

How to Love Animals in a Human-shaped World
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Shola Mos-Shogbamimu

This is Why I Resist: Don’t Define my Black Identity CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Ian Collins

John Craxton: A Life of Gifts
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Martyn Bond

Voices of Europe. Hitler’s Cosmopolitan Bastard: Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Chemical Warrior CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Ladies Who Punch: Fifty Trailblazing Women Whose Stories You Should Know
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Charles Foster Interviewed by Nick Hunt

Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 November 2021 See this event
Maggie Aderin-Pocock Introduced by Bridget Holligan

An Interactive Tour of Space
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 7 Nov Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
John Carey Interviewed by Bernard O’Donoghue

100 Poets: A Little Anthology
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Elif Shafak Interviewed by Suzi Feay

The Island of Missing Trees SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Arthur Miller

Machines that Make Art, Improvise Music and Write Film Scripts
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 7 Nov Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Chris Packham Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Peter Roberts Compassion in World Farming Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 7 Nov Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Clive Aslet

The Story of the Country House: A History of Places and People
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Iain MacGregor Interviewed by Michael Crick

Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 7 Nov Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Michael Morpurgo, Natalie Walter and Clare O’Connell Introduced by Suzanne Aspden

The Carnival of the Animals
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Henry Eliot

The Penguin Modern Classics Book
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Julia Neuberger Interviewed by Nick Higham

Antisemitism: What It Is. What It Isn’t. Why It Matters
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 7 Nov Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Joanne Harris Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

A Narrow Door
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 See this event
Kate Griggs Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

This is Dyslexia: The Untapped Power of Dyslexic Thinking and its Vital Role in our Future
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 November 2021 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

Partner of Oxford Literary Festival

Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024

Accountants to the festival

Oxford International Centre for Publishing

Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection

Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection

Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival

Wines of the Douro Valley

Festival on-site and online bookseller

The Cervantes Institute, London

The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture

Festival ideas partner

Festival cultural partner

Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme

Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK

Festival media partner

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

Brasenose College founded in 1512

Founded 1884

Reuben College founded in 2019

Magdalen College founded 1458

Trinity College founded 1555

Lincoln College founded 1427

Worcester College founded 1714

Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314

New College founded 1379

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