Sheldonian Events

Penelope Lively Interviewed by Chris Patten

Chancellor’s Lecture: Life and Work
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 27 Friday, 27 March 2020 See this event
Harry Potter

Celebrating the Harry Potter Books
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Alexandra Harris, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and Roy Foster Chaired by Hermione Lee

Princeton Conversation: Lives of Houses
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Val McDermid and Emma Smith

Shakespeare and Marlowe: Rivals, Collaborators, or Aliases – an Early Modern Mystery
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Prue Leith and Peta Leith Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

The Vegetarian Kitchen
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Chris Packham Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Peter Roberts Compassion in World Farming Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Jung Chang Interviewed by Nick Higham

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of 20th-Century China
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Allie Esiri

Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Sebastian Barry, Kevin Barry and Sinéad Morrissey Chaired by Boyd Tonkin

Voice of Ireland
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Brenda Hale and Vernon Bogdanor

British Academy Lecture: Is the UK Constitution Fit for Purpose?
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Mon 30 Monday, 30 March 2020 See this event
James Barr Interviewed by Peter Frankopan

Lords of the Desert: Britain’s Struggle with America to Dominate Middle East
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Mon 30 Monday, 30 March 2020 See this event
Trevor Eve Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

An Acting Life and Lomita for Ever
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Jim Al-Khalili Interviewed by Clive Cookson

The World According to Physics
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 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
Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm 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
Karen Armstrong

The Lost Art of Scripture
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
David Lammy Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Tribes: How our Need to Belong can Make or Break the Good Society
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Pat Barker Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

2020 Bodley Lecture and Award of Bodley Medal: The Silence of the Girls
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Thu 2 Thursday, 2 April 2020 See this event
Michael Wood

The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilisation and a People
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Steve Jones

Here Comes the Sun: How it Makes us What we are
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Alexander McCall Smith

A Celebration of A Writing Life and Honorary Fellowship
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Donna Leon Interviewed by Peter Kemp

Trace Elements
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Robin Stevens

Murder Most Unladylike
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
A C Grayling

The Good State: On the Principles of Democracy
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Maggie Aderin-Pocock

An Interactive Tour of Space
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Anthony Horowitz

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Alex Rider
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Anthony Horowitz

Licence to Thrill
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
Julia Neuburger

Antisemitism: What It Is. What It Isn’t. Why It Matters
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
Tom Holland Interviewed by Alex Preston

Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event
Lucy Worsley

The Austen Girls
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.