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Russia

Samuel Ramani

Putin’s War on Ukraine: Russiaʼs Campaign for Global Counter-Revolution SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 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
Orlando Figes

The Story of Russia CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm 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
Maxim Osipov Interviewed by Lucian Hudson

Kilometer 101
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Timothy Phillips

The Curtain and the Wall: A Modern Journey along Europe’s Cold War Border
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Calder Walton

Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
Pusey House: Chapel 6:30pm Mon 2 Monday, 2 October 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.