October 30

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

Festival information:

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 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.