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

See 2024 Events

Memoir

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
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
Colin Grant and Yomi Ṣode Chaired by Miles Young

Writing about the Black British Experience
Exeter College: Marquee 12:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Jack Parlett Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Fire Island: Love, Loss and Liberation in an American Paradise
Blackwell’s bookshop 12:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 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
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
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
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
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
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Interviewed by Martin Sixsmith

The Russia Conundrum
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Tue 28 Tuesday, 28 March 2023 See this event
Yeva Skalietska

You Don’t Know What War Is: The diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Edward Stourton Interviewed by Susannah Jowitt

Confessions: Life Re-examined
Exeter College: Marquee 4:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Greta Scacchi Interviewed by Peter Guttridge

An audience with Greta Scacchi
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Timothy Garton Ash Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

Homelands: A Personal History of Europe SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Spencer de Grey Introduced by Christopher Le Brun

Royal Academy Lecture. From Stansted Airport to the British Museum: A Life in Architecture
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Lara Feigel and Tessa Hadley

Look! We Have Come Through! Living With D H Lawrence
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.