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

See 2024 Events

Tuesday 28 March

Inigo Bing Interviewed by Nick Higham

The Ten Legal Cases that Made Modern Britain SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Claire Harman Interviewed by Alexandra Pringle

All Sorts of Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Dave Rich Interviewed by Rebecca Abrams

Everyday Hate: How Antisemitism is Built into our World – and how you can Change it
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Richard Ovenden, John Garth and Stuart Lee Chaired by Grace Khuri

The Great Tales Never End: in Memory of Christopher Tolkien
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Tom Symington

Symington Wine SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Peter McCullough Introduced by Triona Adams

To Speake of Tears: A Sermon by John Donne
Lincoln College: Chapel 12:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Joseph Coelho

The Power of Poetry with the New Children’s Laureate
Sheldonian Theatre 1:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Phil Tinline

The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Hermione Lee Interviewed by Nicolette Jones

Tom Stoppard: A Life
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Emma Wells

Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedral SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Becky Smethurst

A Brief History of Black Holes and Why Nearly Everything you know about them is Wrong CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Paul Anthony Jones Interviewed by Alison Gomm

Why is this a Question? Everything about the Origins and Oddities of Language SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Jason Whittaker

Jerusalem: Blake, Parry, and the Fight for Englishness
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 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
Vanessa Winship Interviewed by Jem Poster

The Speaking Image
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Tom Symington

Symington Port SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Interviewed by Martin Sixsmith

The Russia Conundrum
Sheldonian 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
A N Wilson Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Confessions: A Life of Failed promises
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Orlando Figes

The Story of Russia CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Christopher French and Deborah Hyde Chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. Haunted: Investigating the Paranormal
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Cristina Dondi Introduced by Henry Woudhuysen

Lincoln Lecture. The 15th-century Printing Revolution in Europe: Myths and Realities
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Mary Berry Interviewed by James Naughtie

Felicity Bryan Tribute Conversation: Cook and Share
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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

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

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.