China

Fuchsia Dunlop

Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Chris Patten in conversation with Tom Fletcher

Chancellor’s Lecture. From China to the Middle East and Ukraine: A World in Turmoil
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Fuchsia Dunlop

Institute of Hospitality Dinner and Award for Excellence in Culinary Literature
New College: Hall 6:30pm Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
Lu Min interviewed by Angus Phillips

China Lecture: Dinner for Six
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Martin Thorley

All that Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Michael Wood talks to

Felicity Bryan Tribute Conversation. In the Footsteps of Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Jessica Rawson interviewed by Neil MacGregor

Life and Afterlife in Ancient China
Pusey House: Chapel 6:00pm Sat 23 Saturday, 23 March 2024 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 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 festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

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 Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.