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Walking tours

Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Sat 25 Saturday, 25 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Children’s Stories Walking Tour
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

Oxford Poets with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Sun 26 Sunday, 26 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Mon 27 Monday, 27 March 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Wed 29 Wednesday, 29 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Will Lamb

Candlelit Tour of the University Church SOLD OUT
University Church of St Mary 8:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

The Oxford of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Children’s Stories Walking Tour
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Sat 1 Saturday, 1 April 2023 See this event

Festival information:

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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 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 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.

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.