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Italian Programme

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
Skye McAlpine Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

A Table Full of Love: Recipes to Comfort, Seduce, Celebrate and Everything Else in Between
Exeter College: Marquee 12:00pm 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
Alessandro Gallenzi

Written in Water: John Keats’s Final Journey
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Viola di Grado Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Blue Hunger
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 2:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Jane Stevenson

Siena: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval City
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Greta Scacchi Interviewed by Peter Guttridge

An audience with Greta Scacchi
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Jonathan Keates

La Serenissima: The Story of Venice SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Italian Dinner

Celebrating the Programme of Italian Literature and Culture SOLD OUT
Exeter College: Hall 7:15pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.