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Biography

Carlo Rovelli Interviewed by Peter Frankopan

Anaximander and the Nature of Science
Trinity College 7:00pm Mon 20 Monday, 20 February 2023 See this event
Philippe Sands Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

Chatwin, Patagonia, and the Bodleian: Searching for a Nazi SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Sarah Barclay and Charles Spicer Chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Lives in the Shadow of War: Eden’s Keepers and Coffee with Hitler
Exeter College: Marquee 4:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Paul Corthorn

Enoch Powell: Politics and Ideas in Modern Britain
Blackwell’s bookshop 2:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Andrew Logan

Reflections
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Jonathan Romain

The Naked Rabbi: His Colourful Life, Campaigns and Controversies
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Sherine Tadros Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Taking Sides: A Memoir about Love, War and Changing the World
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Claire Harman Interviewed by Alexandra Pringle

All Sorts of Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Hermione Lee Interviewed by Nicolette Jones

Tom Stoppard: A Life
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
A N Wilson Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Confessions: A Life of Failed promises
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Julia Boyd

A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Norman Lebrecht Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Why Beethoven? A Phenomenon in 100 Pieces SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Marina Benjamin Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

A Little Give: The Unsung, Unseen, Undone Work of Women
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Miranda Gold and Angela Findlay Chaired by Matthew Stadlen

The Traumatic Inheritance of War
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Michael Cockerell

Unmasking our Leaders: Confessions of a Political Documentary-Maker SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Paul Clements

Jan Morris: Life from Both Sides
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Don Paterson Interviewed by Boyd Tonkin

The Arctic, Toy Fights and a Creative Life CANCELLED
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Mick Herron Interviewed by Chris Patten

Chancellor’s Lecture: A Life of Crime
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Michael Collins

Raphael’s World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Matthew Dennison

The Queen: An Example to the Nation
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Graham Boynton

Wild: The Life and Times of Peter Beard
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Michael Marshall

Edward King: Teacher, Pastor, Bishop, Saint
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Miranda Seymour Interviewed by Suzi Feay

I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys
Exeter College: Marquee 2:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Tom Gallagher

Salazar: The Dictator Who Refused to Die CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Thomas Hertog

On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Colm Tóibín Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

Bodley Lecture and Award of Bodley Medal: Life and Work
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Caroline Moorehead Interviewed by Alexandra Pringle

Edda Mussolini: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe
Exeter College: Marquee 10:00am Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Alessandro Gallenzi

Written in Water: John Keats’s Final Journey
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Catherine Ashton

Voices of Europe. And Then What? Inside Stories of 21st-Century Diplomacy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Peter Stothard

Crassus: The First Tycoon
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Clare Morgan and Susan Sellers

Conversations Across Time: Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield SOLD OUT
Blackwell’s bookshop 6:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Adam Gopnik Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery
Blackwell’s bookshop 10:00am Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Leta McCollough Seletzky

The Kneeling Man: The Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Simon Kuper

Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Erica Wagner Interviewed by Frederick Studemann

Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Keiron Pim Interviewed by Rebecca Abrams

Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 2023 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.

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.

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.

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

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.