Nature | Oxford Literary Festival

Lucy Jones

Losing Eden: Why our Minds need the Wild
St Cross College 10:00am Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Matthew Stadlen

How to see Birds: An Enthusiast’s Guide
St Cross College 2:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Alex Rogers

The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of our Oceans and How we can Protect Them
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Errol Fuller

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

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

Title partner

International radio partner

Festival ideas partner

Festival cultural partner

Partner of Jewish programme

Supporter of Italian programme

Supporters of the Irish programme

MIT Press. Sponsors of the programme of American literature and culture

Festival London hotel partner

Festival on-site and online bookseller

Festival academic partner

Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Worcester College

Lincoln College

11th St Hilda's day at the festival

St Cross College: Festival college partner. All facilities generously donated to the festival

Woodstock

Woodstock

Festival green room sponsor

Alumni Office

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Local radio partner

Regional media partner

Oxford University Images

K T Bruce Photography

Estate agents

Foodbuy

Wines of Tuscany

Wines of the Douro Valley