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Politics

Gavin Esler and Grace Blakeley Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Is the British Political System Lost? SOLD OUT
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Peter Taylor

Operation Chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Chris Bryant interviewed by David Isaac

Provost of Worcester College Lecture: A Westminster Life and a Writing Life
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Paul Bew interviewed by Ian McBride

Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics: Judging Dillon and Parnell
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Grace Blakeley, Liam Fox, Hardeep Matharu and Peter Oborne chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Oxford Debate: You Ask The Questions
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 17 Sunday, 17 March 2024 See this event
Pedro Serrano, Justin Schlosberg and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. Fog Of War: Who Can We Trust, And Why, When Conflicts Arise?
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Justin Schlosberg, Gary Francione and Marina Purkiss Tilda Storey Law

Oxford Debate. Free Speech, Woke, and Cancel Culture SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm 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
John Bowers talks to Jonathan Phillips

Downward Spiral: Collapsing Public Standards and How to Restore Them
Exeter College: Chapel 10:00am Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
David Keen

Shame: The Politics and Power of an Emotion
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
Ruben Andersson and David Keen

Wreckonomics: Why It’s time to End the War on Everything
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 19 Tuesday, 19 March 2024 See this event
Polly Morland and Penelope Campling chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. NHS: Why Can’t We See a Doctor?
Exeter College: Chapel 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
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
Anthony Seldon interviewed by Simon McDonald

Johnson at 10
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm 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
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
Stephen King

We Need to Talk About Inflation: Six Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Peter Apps talks to Matthew Stadlen

Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
Will Hutton talks to Ian Goldin

This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain
Sheldonian Theatre 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
Ian Goldin and Hein de Haas chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: How Does Migration Really Work?
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Larisa Brown and Jamal Barak chaired by Nick Higham

The Gardener of Lashkar Gah: The Afghans who Risked Everything to Fight the Taliban
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sat 23 Saturday, 23 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:

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.

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.

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 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 night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

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 Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.