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Monday 27 March

Tom Fletcher Interviewed by Peter Guttridge

The Ambassador
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Writing the Book you Want to Write
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Diana Darke

The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Jeremy Bowen Interviewed by Mary Hockaday

The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Sian Harding

The Exquisite Machine: The New Science of the Heart
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Esme Young Interviewed by Sophie Ratcliffe

Behind the Seams: My Life in Creativity, Friendship and Adventure SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Giles Sparrow Introduced by Martin Rees

Phaenomena: Doppelmayr’s Celestial Atlas
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Jasmine Donahaye Interviewed by Jem Poster

Birdsplaining: A Natural History
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Vernon Bogdanor

The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain: Politics and Power before the First World War
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Roy Strong Interviewed by Richard Barber

The Stuart Image: An Introduction to English Portraiture 1603 to 1649
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Ian Bostridge Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Song and Self: A Singer’s Reflections on Music and Performance
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Sherine Tadros Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Taking Sides: A Memoir about Love, War and Changing the World
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Nicholas Orme

Tudor Children
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Beatrice Searle and Ellie Evelyn Orrell Chaired by David Isaac

The Power of Art: Stone Will Answer and An Indigo Summer
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Ruth Clarke and Annie McDermott Chaired by Polly Barton

Translation Slam
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Adam Brookes Interviewed by Rana Mitter

Fragile Cargo: China’s Wartime Race to Save the Treasures of the Forbidden City
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Jonathan Healey

The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Martin Rees Interviewed by Nick Higham

Science and Innovation Award: If Science is to Save Us
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Dennis Grube

Why Governments Get It Wrong And How They Can Get It Right
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
David Constantine and Ra Page Interviewed by Jem Poster

The Short Story
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Sam Fowles, Andrew Blick and Adam Wagner Chaired by Mary Hockaday

Upholding Democracy: How we must Fight for our Freedoms and Values
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.