Architecture

Peter Stanford

If These Stones Could Talk: The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Geoffrey Tyack

The Historic Heart of Oxford University
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Simon Jenkins

Europe’s 100 Greatest Cathedrals SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
John Goodall

St Cross College Lecture.The Castle: A History
St Cross College 6:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Jeremy Morris

A People’s Church: A History of the Church of England
St Cross College 12:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.