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Pasture To Plate

Henry Dimbleby Introduced by Philip Lymbery

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Adam Alexander and Claire Ratinon Interviewed by Dan Saladino

Unearthing a History of Vegetables
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Leah Garcés Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Michael Morpurgo Interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Farms for City Children: The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Graham Harvey, Jake Fiennes and Sarah Langford

Saving the British Countryside and Our Health
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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

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.

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 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 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.

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 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.