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Events 2024

Olivie Blake in conversation with Catriona Ward

The Atlas Complex
Pusey House: Chapel 7:30pm Thu Feb 22 Thursday, 22 February 2024 See this event
Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course. Writing Short Stories SOLD OUT
Wadham College: Locke Access Centre 9:30am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Cara Hunter and Victoria Selman chaired by Triona Adams

Ain’t That the Truth: Where Crime Fact Meets Crime Fiction
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Joseph Silk

Back to the Moon: The Next Giant Leap for Humankind
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Michael Rosen

The Incredible Adventures of Gaston Le Dog SOLD OUT
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
E L Norry, David Farr and Nazneen Ahmed Pathak

Everyday Magic – Finding the Roots of Fantasy in Real Places and Experience
Exeter College: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Graham Harvey, Rosamund Young and Philip Lymbery chaired by Francine Stock

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Farming
Pusey House: Chapel 10:00am Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Pen Vogler interviewed by Diane Purkiss

Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Vaseem Khan and Carolyn Kirby chaired by Triona Adams

Empires and Crimes
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Katja Hoyer and John Kampfner Richard Ovenden

Berlin, the Wall and Modern Germany SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Ruchira Gupta interviewed by Holly Bourne

I Kick and I Fly
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Joyce D’Silva, George Carey, Amir Khan and Daniel Simpson chaired by Francine Stock

Religion and Animal Welfare
Pusey House: Chapel 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre

Adventuremice
Exeter College: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Danny Robins, Christopher French and Deborah Hyde chaired by Stephen Law

Into the Uncanny
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Bodleian Guides

Literary Oxford with the Bodleian SOLD OUT
Weston Library Steps 1:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Cara Hunter, Andrew Thompson and Joey Giddings

Watching The Detectives: Dishing the Forensic Dirt on Crime on the Telly SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Gavin Francis, Michèle Roberts and Philip Davis chaired by Peter Kemp

My Reading: What is it Like to Love a Book?
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Mike Brearley in conversation with Nick Higham

Turning over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 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 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Jacob Mikanowski

Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Henry Dimbleby, James Bailey and Philip Lymbery Francine Stock

The Politics of Food SOLD OUT
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Alasdair Beckett-King

The World of Montgomery Bonbon
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Ben Miller

Meet the Big, Bad Wolf
Exeter College: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Bodleian Libraries

Chaucer Here and Now SOLD OUT
Weston Library: Blackwell Hall 2:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Philip Ball

How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Adam Sisman introduced by Henry Woudhuysen

Lincoln Lecture: John le Carré in Oxford
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Andrew Wilson talks to Jake Kerridge

A Talent for Murder: The Lives and Crimes of Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith
Pusey House: Chapel 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Owen Davies, Sarah Wise and Louisa Treger

Locked Away in the Asylum: Two Centuries of Mental Health Scandal
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Amir Khan interviewed by Philip Lymbery

Transforming Food Production: The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Amin Ghaziani and Diarmuid Hester

Queer Identity and a Creative Life
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.