Bbc World Service

Jocelyn Bell Burnell talks to Nuala McGovern

BBC World Service. Forward Thinking: Why We Need More Diversity in Space
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 10:45am Sat 23 Saturday, 23 March 2024 See this event
Gary Francione and Ron Weiss talks to Nuala McGovern

BBC World Service. Forward Thinking: Can Veganism Feed the World? (and Save the Planet in the Process)
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 1:45pm Sat 23 Saturday, 23 March 2024 See this event
Venki Ramakrishnan talks to Nuala McGovern

BBC World Service. Forward Thinking: Who Wants to Live Forever?
10:45am Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 See this event
Kerry McInerney talks to Nuala McGovern

BBC World Service. Forward Thinking: Can Feminism Fix the Internet?
1:45pm Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 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.

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.

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.

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

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.