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Simon-heffer
Simon Heffer
Marina purkiss
Marina Purkiss
Zoe-strimpel
Zoe Strimpel
Adele-zeynep-walton
Adele Walton
Yasmin alibhai-brown-0595flat
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Oxford Debate: You Ask the Questions

Simon Heffer, Marina Purkiss, Zoe Strimpel and Adele Walton Chaired by by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Thursday, 3 April 2025

12:00pm

I hour 15 minutes

Sheldonian Theatre

£8 - £20

Join our panel of leading political and media figures, Professor Simon Heffer, Marina Purkiss, Zoe Strimpel and Adele Walton, for lively debate on topics of the day, chaired by Yasmin Alibhai Brown. Ticketholders are invited to email questions before the event, and Yasmin will pick a representative range for audience members to ask.

Heffer is a journalist and historian. He is a professor of modern British history at the University of Buckingham. He works for The Daily Telegraph and has a weekly column in The Sunday Telegraph. His most recent book, Scarcely English, An A-Z Of Assaults on Our Language, details the modern horrors of bad English.

Purkiss is a political commentator and campaigner. She features on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show, Good Morning Britain, This Morning, LBC, BBC radio, Sky News and Piers Morgan’s Uncensored, and has her own ‘politically charged (but fun)’ podcast, The Trawl.

Strimpel is an author, historian and journalist who specialises in gender, relationships and sexuality. She has published three books, her most recent being Seeking Love in Modern Britain: Gender, Dating and the Rise of ‘the Single’. She writes regularly for both The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph. Her next book is about why money, sex and power are, after all, and always have been, good for women.

Walton is a British-Turkish journalist and the author of Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World. Walton has channelled a personal loss into campaigning for a safer digital world. She regularly works with parliamentarians and policy-makers, bereaved families and parents and fellow tech justice campaigners and activists to make the digital world safer for young people.

The panel is chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a journalist and author who has written extensively on issues of diversity and social justice. Her books include In Defence of Political Correctness, Refusing the Veil and Exotic England: The Making of a Curious Nation.

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine
 

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine