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Crime

Simon Mason and Cara Hunter Chaired by Peter Guttridge

Writing in the Shadow of Morse
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Val McDermid and Sue Black

The Facts of Fiction: The Author and the Forensic Anthropologist
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Cara Hunter, Andrew Thompson and Joey Giddings

Ask the Experts: Everything you Wanted to Know about Crime Investigations SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Tom Fletcher Interviewed by Peter Guttridge

The Ambassador
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 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
Alastair Lack

The Oxford of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Michael Burleigh

Day of the Assassins: A History of Political Murder CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 2023 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.