Biography

Ananyo Bhattacharya Interviewed by Tim Harford

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Katherine Rundell

Super-infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Andrew Roberts

George III: The Life and Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch
Randolph Hotel: Ballroom 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Jacques and Alina Peretti Interviewed by Lucian Hudson

Voices of Europe. Little Bird of Auschwitz: How My Mother Escaped Death and Found our Family
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Robert Sackville-West

The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Patrick Mackie Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm 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
Joe Moshenska Interviewed by Alison Gomm

Making Darkness Light: The Lives and Times of John Milton
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Christopher Prendergast

Living and Dying with Marcel Proust
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Brian Mountford Interviewed by Angela Tilby

Church Going Gone – A Biography of Religion, Doubt and Faith
Bodleian: Divinity School 10:00am Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 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
Harry Freedman

Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Jo Willett

The Pioneering Life of Mary Wortley Montague: Scientist and Feminist
Bodleian: Divinity School 10:00am Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 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
Adam Sisman and Geoffrey Streatfeild

Dashing for the Post: The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Matthew Dennison

The Queen
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Charlotte Philby Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Edith and Kim
St Cross College 4:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Daniel Snowman

Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938 to 2021 CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Alexandra Lloyd

Defying Hitler: The White Rose Pamphlets
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Helen Batten

The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer, and Rebel Victorian
St Cross College 10:00am Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Howard Jacobson Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

Mother’s Boy: A Writer’s Beginnings
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Osman Yousefzada Interviewed by Sally Bayley

The Go-between: A Portrait of Growing Up Between Different Worlds
St Cross College 2:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Frances Stonor Saunders

The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Mark Ford, Lyndall Gordon, Jason Harding, Hannah Sullivan and Geoffrey Streatfeild

T. S. Eliot: A Celebration of his Life, Work, and Legacy, and of the T.S. Eliot Foundation and Prize
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Daisy Hay Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Dinner with Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age
St Cross College 4:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Andrew Lownie

Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 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
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
Rachael Wiseman Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
Lincoln College 2:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Julia Parry

The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters, and Elizabeth Bowen
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Jane Stevenson

The Light of Italy: The Life and Times of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino
Randolph Hotel: Ballroom 4:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Christopher de Bellaigue Interviewed by Lucian Hudson

Voices of Europe. The Lion House: The Coming of a King
Lincoln College 4:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Helen Rappaport Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

In Search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon
St Cross College 6:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.