Farming

Joanna Lumley in conversation with Philip Lymbery

For the Love of Life
Sheldonian Theatre 6:30pm Fri Jan 31 Friday, 31 January 2025 See this event
Andy Cato, Deborah Meaden and Philip Lymbery chaired by Kate Humble

Why we Need More Compassion in our Food and Farming
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
Miriam Margolyes talks to Philip Lymbery

Compassion for All Life: The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
James Rebanks talks to Dinah Rose

President of Magdalen Lecture: The Place of Tides
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Tom Heap

Land Smart: How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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 night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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 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.

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.