You are Currently viewing Past Events, Click here to see upcoming 2024 Events

See 2024 Events

Environment

Henry Dimbleby Introduced by Philip Lymbery

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Nick Acheson Interviewed by Lucy Lapwing

The Meaning of Geese: A Thousand Miles in Search of Home
Exeter College: Marquee 10:00am Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Guy Standing

The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Tim Lenton Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

James Lovelock and Gaia
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Georg Steinhauser Chaired by Stephen Law

The Fallout from Nuclear Catastrophes: Facts and Myths about Chernobyl and Fukushima
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Juliet Davenport, Rupert Read, Simon Sharpe and Gaia Vince Chaired by Stephen Law

Climate Breakdown: Habit, Fear, and Progress
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Benedict Macdonald Interviewed by Lucian Hudson

Cornerstones: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Roy Sebag Interviewed by Paul Yowell

The Natural Order of Money
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.