Scandals

Megan Davis

Bay of Thieves and Fighting Corruption
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Tim Tate

To Catch a Spy: How the Spycatcher Affair Brought MI5 in from the Cold
Bodleian: Convocation House 10:00am Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Paul Caruana Galizia

A Death in Malta: An Assassination and a Family’s Quest for Justice
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
Alpa Shah talks to Nick Higham

The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Mattias Desmet, Sunetra Gupta and Jolyon Maugham chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Covid and Corruption
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.