African Programme

James Currey, Claude Joseph, Onyeka Nwelue and Nkiru. Njoku Chaired by Dan Hicks

African and Caribbean Voices
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Patti Boulaye and Stephen Komlosy Interviewed by Nick Higham

The Faith of a Child and You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Ben Okri Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Every Leaf a Hallelujah
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Ondjaki, Ever Obi and Nikhil Singh Interviewed by Onyeka Nwelue

Transparent City, Men Don’t Die and Club Ded
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Richard Hamilton

Tangier: From the Romans to The Rolling Stones
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Wed 30 Mar Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Peter Hain Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

A Pretoria Boy: The Story of South Africa’s Public Enemy Number One
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo and Leslye Obiora Interviewed by Stephen Embleton

Life and Work and A Million Bullets and a Rose
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Sun 3 Sunday, 3 April 2022 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.

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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 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.