Art

Stuart Sillars Interviewed by Jem Poster

Picturing England between the Wars: Word and Image 1918-1940 CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Catherine McCormack and Rebecca Birrell Interviewed by David Isaac

Women and Art: Women in the Picture and This Dark Country
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Ruth Scurr

Napoleon: A Life in Gardens and Shadows CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Peter Davidson

The Lighted Window: Evening Walks Remembered
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Edmund de Waal Interviewed by James Naughtie

Felicity Bryan Tribute Conversation: Letters to Camondo
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Renske Mann Interviewed by Mark Hudson

The Girl in the Green Jumper: My Life with the Artist Cyril Mann
St Cross College 12:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
James Fox

The World According to Colour: A Cultural History CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Charles Dellheim

Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Ami Bouhassane

Lee Miller: A life with Food, Friends and Recipes
Blackwell’s bookshop 2:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Amber Guinness Interviewed by Alison Gomm

A House Party in Tuscany: Recipes, Stories and Art from Arniano
St Cross College 2:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Ruth Millington Interviewed by David Isaac

Muse
Blackwell’s bookshop 4:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Frances Spalding

The Real and the Romantic: English Art Between Two World Wars
St Cross College 10:00am Sun 3 Sunday, 3 April 2022 See this event
Nicolette Jones Interviewed by Christopher Le Brun

The American Art Tapes: Voices of Twentieth-Century Art
St Cross College 2:00pm Sun 3 Sunday, 3 April 2022 See this event

Festival information:

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 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 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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.