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Medicine

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
William Bynum and Helen Bynum

Great Discoveries in Medicine: From Ayurveda to X-rays, Cancer to Covid
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Roger Highfield and Peter Coveney Chaired by Irene Tracey

Vice-chancellor’s Interview. Virtual You: How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionise Medicine
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Kate Bingham and Tim Hames

The Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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 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.

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.