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Wednesday 20 March

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
Dirk van Hulle and Mark Nixon chaired by Michael Caines

Write Cut Rewrite
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Jane Corry and Simon Mason chaired by Triona Adams

From College Quad to Prison Yard: Crime Fiction of Town and Gown
Bodleian: Divinity School 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
Worcester College

Worcester College Library Tour
Worcester College 11:00am Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Bodleian Libraries

Maps Show and Tell
Weston Library: Bahari Room 11:10am Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Arash Azizi

What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Anne Murphy

Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm 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
Peter McCullough

Be Something. Be Somebody: A Sermon by John Donne
Lincoln College: Chapel 12:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Bettina Chua Abdullah

Tasting Other People’s Memories
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 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
Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Chris Impey chaired by Simon Ings

Why Space is for Everyone
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Sharon Blackie

Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life SOLD OUT
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm 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
Adrian Goldsworthy

The Eagle and the Lion: Rome, Persia and an Unwinnable Conflict
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 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
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Claudia de Rham Pedro Ferreira

The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Lauren Beukes and Georgina Moore chaired by Suzi Feay

Family Lives: Bridge and The Garnett Girls
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Bodleian Libraries

Chaucer Here and Now SOLD OUT
Weston Library: Blackwell Hall 2:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Worcester College

Worcester College Library Tour
Worcester College 3:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Caroline Wheeler

Death in the Blood: The Inside Story of the NHS Contaminated Blood Scandal
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Steven Parissien

Building Britannia: A History of Britain in 25 Buildings SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm 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
Peter Stothard Matthew Stadlen

Palatine: An Alternative History of the Caesars
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Nabila Ramdani talks to Barbara Serra

Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Athene Donald

Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Simon McDonald

Beyond Britannia: Reshaping UK Foreign Policy SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Richard Ovenden

Bodleian: a VIP Experience
Bodleian Weston Library: Blackwell Hall 6:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Liz Hyder and Lucy Barker Suzi Feay

Magic, Illusions and Mediums: Two Historical Novels
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 March 2024 See this event
Liam Byrne David Isaac

The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix It
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 7:00pm Wed 20 Wednesday, 20 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.