Law

Nigel Biggar Interviewed by James Orr

What’s Wrong with Rights?
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Jonathan Sumption Interviewed by David Runciman

Law in a Time of Crisis SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
Susie Alegre Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate Our Minds
St Cross College 6:00pm Tue 29 Tuesday, 29 March 2022 See this event
James Hanratty Interviewed by Ian Goldin

The Making of an Immigration Judge CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.