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Voices of europe

Tom Gallagher

Salazar: The Dictator Who Refused to Die CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Catherine Ashton

Voices of Europe. And Then What? Inside Stories of 21st-Century Diplomacy
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm 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
Stefan Hertmans Interviewed by Max Liu

The Ascent: A House can have Many Secrets
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Leo Timmers and Fiona Ross

Elephant Island
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Sun 2 Sunday, 2 April 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.