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Biography

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
Anne Berest interviewed by Catriona Seth

The Postcard
Pusey House: Chapel 6:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Sally Bedell Smith

George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
David Edmonds interviewed by Nigel Warburton

Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Bengt Jangfeldt

The Nobel Family: Swedish Geniuses in Tsarist Russia
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Jürgen Renn and Hanoch Gutfreund

The Einsteinian Revolution: The Historical Roots of His Breakthroughs
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Alicia Foster

Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Nikhil Krishnan

A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy at Oxford 1900-60
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
David Wyn Jones interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

The Strauss Dynasty and Habsburg Vienna
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Phil Roberts

Cardinal Wolsey: For King and Country
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
Joanna Moorhead

Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
Anthony Seldon

Impossible Office: The History of the British Prime Minister SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
John Guy and Julia Fox

Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage that Shook Europe
Pusey House: Chapel 10:00am Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Julian Jackson and Artemis Cooper chaired by Miles Young

Winner of Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for Non-fiction. France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain
Bodleian: Divinity School 12:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Olivia Horsfall Turner

Owen Jones and the V and A: Ornament for a Modern Age
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Anthony Seldon interviewed by Simon McDonald

Johnson at 10
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Monique Charlesworth

Mother Country: A Story of Love and Lies
Bodleian: Divinity School 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Gary Francione, Kate Levey, Richard Canning and Gerri Kimber chaired by Michael Caines

Remembering Brigid Brophy: Visionary Writer, Feminist and Animal rights Campaigner
Bodleian: Divinity School 4:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Marion Turner

Chaucer Here and Now
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Sam Gwynne

His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 10:00am Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Ulinka Rublack

Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 12:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Rachel Cockerell talks to Matthew Stadlen

Melting Point: A Jewish Promised Land in Texas
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Fiona Sampson

Starlight Wood: Walking Back to the Romantic Countryside
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Lesley Smith interviewed by Samuel Fanous

Handwritten: Remarkable People on the Page
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Fiona Maddocks interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile
Pusey House: Chapel 10:00am Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Nick Thomas-Symonds talks to David Isaac

Attlee: A Life in Politics SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Jonathan Jones

Earthly Delights: A History of the Renaissance
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Peter K Andersson

Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Man
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Tom Conti, Jeremy Robson, Lynne Hjelmgaard and Keren Abse Tony Curtis

Dannie Abse: A Centenary Celebration
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 6:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Sophia Jansson Matthew Stadlen

Tove Jansson and the Moomins: A Celebration of Imagination and Writing SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 23 Saturday, 23 March 2024 See this event
Fernanda Eberstadt talks to George Prochnik

Bite your Friends
Exeter College: Chapel 12:00pm Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 See this event
William Hague interviewed by Dinah Rose

President of Magdalen Lecture: A Political Life
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.