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Am I Made of Stardust?

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Saturday, 1 April 2023

12:00pm

1 hour

Sheldonian Theatre

£10

Buy Tickets Now Buy The Books

Super star space scientist and presenter of BBC’s Sky at Night for eight years, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is back with her new book, Am I Made of Stardust?, and ready to answer any question thrown at her about the wonders of the universe.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you fell into a black hole? Or whether other planets have rainbows? Or how astronauts sleep in the zero gravity conditions of the International Space Station? Aderin-Pocock will give a talk with fabulous facts, mind-blowing insights and engaging explanations, and will also explore her own journey into science and how, with enough enthusiasm, anyone can make it.

Age: all the family

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Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture

The Cervantes Institute, London

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.

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.

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 sponsors, donors & partners

Festival media partner

Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture

The Cervantes Institute, London

Embassy of Peru

Embassy of Chile

Embassy of the Dominican Republic

Promoting Catalan culture and language worldwide

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Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314

Worcester College founded 1714

Lincoln College founded 1427

Trinity College founded 1555

Magdalen College founded 1458

Brasenose College founded in 1512

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Harris Manchester College founded 1893

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