Saturday 26 March 2022

Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course. The Keys to Writing Fiction: Experience and Imagination
St Cross College: Seminar Room 9:30am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Stephanie Sy-Quia Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

Amnion CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 10:00am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 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
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
Dominic Sandbrook

Adventures in Time: The Second World War
St Cross College 10:00am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Harry Potter

Celebrating 25 Years of the Harry Potter Books
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Stephen Moss

Skylarks with Rosie: A Somerset Spring
St Cross College 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Joseph Sassoon

The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty CANCELLED
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Clare Chambers Interviewed by Timandra Harkness

Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm 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
Delia Smith Interviewed by Nick Higham

You Matter: The Human Solution
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman

Climb Aboard the Solar Express CANCELLED
Blackwell’s bookshop 12:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
James Currey, Claude Joseph, Onyeka Nwelue and Nkiru. Njoku Chaired by Dan Hicks

African and Caribbean Voices
Weston Lecture 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
Bodleian Guides

Children’s Stories: A Family Walking Tour
Weston Library 1:00pm 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
David Howe

Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with the Earth’s Natural Resources
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 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
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
Katherine Rundell

The Good Thieves
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Lemony Snicket Interviewed by Imogen Russell Williams

Poison for Breakfast
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm 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
Gavin Francis

Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence
St Cross College 4:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Nicholas Janni

Leader as Healer: A New Paradigm for 21st Century Leadership
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Anila Baig Interviewed by Stephen Law

The Inner Lives of Troubled Young Muslims
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event
James Crowden

The Frozen River: Seeking Silence in Ladakh
St Cross College 6:00pm Sat 26 Mar 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
Derek Frost Interviewed by Nick Higham

Living and Loving in the Age of AIDS
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm 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
Iain MacGregor

US Civil War Battle by Battle
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 26 Saturday, 26 March 2022 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.