Christian Tradition

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
Richard Harries

Hearing God in Poetry: Fifty Poems for Lent and Easter
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm 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
Simon Jenkins

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

Beyond the Odds: Providence in Britain’s Wars of the 20th Century
Bodleian: Divinity School 10:00am Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
George Carey Interviewed by Angela Tilby

The Truth Will Set You Free: Memoirs Continued
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 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:

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.