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
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
Allie Esiri

Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 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
Jim Al-Khalili

The World According to Physics
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Jonathan Sacks

Morality: Why We Need it and How to Find It
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
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
Maggie Aderin-Pocock

An Interactive Tour of Space
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 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
Lucy Worsley

The Austen Girls
Sheldonian Theatre 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.

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.

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 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.

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.