Russia

Boris Akunin talks to Maya Jaggi

Mysteries of a Russian Exile SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Divinity School 6:00pm Mon 18 Monday, 18 March 2024 See this event
Leo Vardiashvili Maya Jaggi

Memories of Flight: Fictionalising Georgia’s 2008 War with Russia
Pusey House: Chapel 10:00am Thu 21 Thursday, 21 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
Kieran McCarthy

Fabergé: Romance to Revolution
Exeter College: Chapel 4:00pm Fri 22 Friday, 22 March 2024 See this event
Geoffrey Robertson and Robert Service Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Russia: Past and Future SOLD OUT
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 See this event
Serhii Plokhy talks to Francis Dearnley

Chernobyl Roulette: A War Story SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 27 Tuesday, 27 August 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 is intellectual Viagra.

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

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.

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.

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.