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Travel

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
John Keay

Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Jane Stevenson

Siena: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval City
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Jonathan Keates

La Serenissima: The Story of Venice SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Emily Thomas

The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.