Food and drink

Delia Smith Interviewed by Nick Higham

You Matter: The Human Solution
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
James Crowden and Tom Oliver

Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life
Exeter: Rector’s Lodgings 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Rob Percival Interviewed by Henry Mance

The Meat Paradox. Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm 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
Richard Girling Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

The Longest Story: How Humans have Loved, Hated and Misunderstood other Species
Blackwell’s bookshop 4:00pm Fri 1 Friday, 1 April 2022 See this event
Tom Symington

Symington Wine and Port SOLD OUT
Exeter: Rector’s Lodgings 12:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Rui da Silva and Tobi Kyerematang Chaired by Magdalene Abraha

A Quick Ting On: Plantain and Theatre Sh*t
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 2 Saturday, 2 April 2022 See this event
Philip Lymbery and Deborah Meaden by Matthew Stadlen

Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 16 Friday, 16 September 2022 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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 night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

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.