Fiction

Charlie Higson Interviewed by Triona Adams

Whatever Gets You Through the Night
Blackwell’s bookshop 4:00pm Fri 25 Friday, 25 March 2022 See this event
Penelope Lively Interviewed by Chris Patten

Chancellor’s Lecture: Life and Work
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 25 Mar Friday, 25 March 2022 See this event
Mick Herron Interviewed by Triona Adams

A Thrilling Life: the Slough House Series SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Lucy Atkins Interviewed by Simon Mason

Oxford’s Literary Ghosts and Magpie Lane
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Tessa Hadley Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Free Love
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Sharon Bolton and Catherine Ryan Howard Chaired by Carolyn Kirby

The Pact and 56 Days
St Cross College 2:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Alan Johnson

The Late Train to Gipsy Hill
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Val McDermid Interviewed by Emma Smith

The Past is Never Dead: Crime Fiction from Christopher Marlowe to 1979
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Pankaj Mishra

Run and Hide CANCELLED
St Cross College 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Freya North and Wendy Holden Chaired by Lucy Atkins

Little Wing and The Duchess CANCELLED
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Alison Moore

The Retreat CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Lianne Dillsworth, Rebecca Watson and Keiran Goddard Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Debut Panel: Theatre of Marvels, Little Scratch, and Hourglass CANCELLED
St Cross College 4:00pm Sun 27 Sunday, 27 March 2022 See this event
Sarah Burton and John Spurling Interviewed by Jem Poster

A Mirror for Monkeys and The Strange Adventures of H
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Salley Vickers Interviewed by Triona Adams

The Gardener
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 28 Monday, 28 March 2022 See this event
Mark Grenside Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Fall Out: Making Movies Shouldn’t be Murder
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Valérie Perrin

Voices of Europe: Fresh Water for Flowers and Three CANCELLED
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Wed 30 Wednesday, 30 March 2022 See this event
Xiaolu Guo Interviewed by Angus Phillips

China Lecture: Life and Work
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm 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
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
Antonio Munoz Molina Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

Voices of Europe. To Walk Alone in the Crowd CANCELLED
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm 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
Zadie Smith Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

2022 Bodley Lecture and Award of Bodley Medal: Life and Work
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Thu 31 Thursday, 31 March 2022 See this event
Jaap Robben

Voices of Europe: Summer Brother CANCELLED
Lincoln College 10:00am Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Joanne Harris and Kevin Crossley-Holland Chaired by Suzi Feay

Fairy Tales and Myths: Lessons in Life
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Alastair Lack

The Oxford of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Anni Domingo Interviewed by Valerie Brandes

Breaking The Maafa Chain
St Cross College 4:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Jeremy Black Interviewed by Triona Adams

The Importance of Being Poirot
Randolph Hotel: Ballroom 6:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Donna Leon Interviewed by Peter Kemp

Vice-chancellor’s Lecture: Give Unto Others
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Marlene Hauser and Elizabeth Hazen Chaired by Rose Solari

Women’s Work, Women’s Words
Bodleian: Divinity School 10:00am Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Susie Boyt and Gwendoline Riley

Mothers and Daughters in Fiction: The Pain and the Pleasure
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Alex Preston Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Winchelsea CANCELLED
Lincoln College 2:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Lionel Shriver by Mary Hockaday

Should We Stay or Should We Go SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Patrick Gale and David Downie Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

A Sense of Place
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Janet Todd

Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden: A Novel with Pictures
St Cross College 12:00pm Sun 3 Sunday, 3 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
Patrick Gale Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Mother’s Boy
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Sun 3 Sunday, 3 April 2022 See this event
Joanna Cannon and Dave Housley Interviewed by Rose Solari

A Tidy Ending and The Other Ones
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Sun 3 Sunday, 3 April 2022 See this event
Celia Imrie and Fidelis Morgan Chaired by Triona Adams

Orphans of the Storm
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Fri 16 Friday, 16 September 2022 See this event
Ian McEwan Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

Lessons
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sat 17 Saturday, 17 September 2022 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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 festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

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 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.