Travel

Petroc Trelawny

Trelawny’s Cornwall: A Journey through Western Lands
Pusey House: Chapel 4:00pm Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
Tamsin Mather

Adventures in Volcanoland
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 29 Saturday, 29 March 2025 See this event
Philip Marsden

Under A Metal Sky: A Journey Through Rocks
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 April 2025 See this event
Gavin Francis

The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Georgina Howard

In the Footsteps of Smugglers: My Life on a Basque Mountain
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 5 Saturday, 5 April 2025 See this event
Jan Brokken

Baltic Souls: Remarkable Life Stories from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 6 Sunday, 6 April 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.