Indian Programme

Camillo Formigatti and Menaka PP Bora

A Sanskrit Treasury
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Vivek Singh Interviewed by Rosie Birkett

A Life in Food
Westgate Centre: Cinnamon Kitchen 2:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Prashant Kidambi

Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Kapil Komireddi

Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Vivek Singh

Indian Cooking Masterclass SOLD OUT
Westgate Centre: Cinnamon Kitchen 11:00am Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Kavita Puri Interviewed by Alastair Niven

Partition Voices: Untold British Stories
St Cross College 4:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

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 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.

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.