October 31

Emma Soames

Mary Churchill’s War: The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
John Holmes

Temple of Science: The Pre-Raphaelites and Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Noreena Hertz Interviewed by Ian Goldin

The Lonely Century: A Call to Reconnect
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Loyd Grossman

An Elephant In Rome: Bernini, The Pope, And The Making Of The Eternal City
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Richard Ovenden

Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Rui da Silva and Tobi Kyerematang Chaired by Magdalene Abraha

A Quick Ting On: Plantain and Theatre Sh*t CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Stephanie Shirley Interviewed by Nick Higham

So To Speak
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Tristram Hunt

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Dr Soph Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

A Manual for Being Human
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Ian Goldin

Rescue: From Global Crisis to a Better World
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 See this event
Marc David Baer Interviewed by Nick Higham

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesers, and Caliphs
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 October 2021 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.

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.

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

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.

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.