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Saturday 25 March

Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course. Where do you get your ideas?
Wadham College: Locke Access Centre 9:30am Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
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
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
Adam Alexander and Claire Ratinon Interviewed by Dan Saladino

Unearthing a History of Vegetables
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Reggie Nelson

Opening Doors: How Daring to Ask For Help Changed My Life CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Puneet Bhandal

Bollywood Adventures
Exeter College: Marquee 12:00pm 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
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
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Leah Garcés Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Jonathan Stroud Interviewed by Ben O’Donnell

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
John Parrington

Mind Shift: How Culture Transformed the Human Brain
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Martin O’Neill Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

On Days Like These: My Life in Football
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Georgette Bennett

Religicide: Confronting the Roots of Anti-Religious Violence
Exeter College: Marquee 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Philippe Sands

The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm 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
Michael Morpurgo Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Farms for City Children: The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Frances Hardinge Interviewed by Elizabeth Garner

Unraveller
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm 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
Samuel Ramani

Putin’s War on Ukraine: Russiaʼs Campaign for Global Counter-Revolution SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Sally Gardner Interviewed by Suzi Feay

The Weather Woman
Exeter College: Marquee 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Samson Kambalu Interviewed by Claire Armitstead

The Jive Talker: Or How to get a British Passport
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Graham Harvey, Jake Fiennes and Sarah Langford

Saving the British Countryside and Our Health
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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

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.

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.