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April 03

Beaty Rubens introduced by Samuel Fanous

Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Sheilagh Ogilvie

Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Mike Berners-Lee and Simon Sharpe Matthew Stadlen

Honest Truths: What we must do to Tackle Climate Change
Pusey House: Chapel 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Nona Fernández talks to Josh Weeks

Memory and Truth: Stories from Chile’s Dark Past
Harris Manchester College: Chapel 10:00am Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Marcus Chown

A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Richard Reid talks to Nick Higham

The African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century
Pusey House: Chapel 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Bruce Boucher Steven Parissien

John Soane’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and His Collection
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Patrick Curry

Art and Enchantment: How Wonder Works
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Motti Golani

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography CANCELLED
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Simon Heffer, Marina Purkiss, Zoe Strimpel and Adele Walton chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Oxford Debate: You Ask the Questions
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Malachy Tallack talks to Matthew Stadlen

That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Santiago Roncagliolo talks to Lucy Popescu

Life and Fear in Latin America
Harris Manchester College: Chapel 12:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Julie Summers

British Vogue: The Biography of an Icon
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Alpa Shah talks to Nick Higham

The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
John Heathershaw and Tom Mayne chaired by Oliver Bullough

Indulging Kleptocracy: British Service Providers, Post-communist Elites, and the Enabling of Corruption
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Ben Macintyre

The Siege
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Iona Heath in conversation with Gavin Francis

John Berger: Ways of Learning
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Robert Seethaler talks to Karen Leeder

The Café with No Name
Bodleian: Convocation House 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Pele Cox

Vincent and the Poets
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Ye Zhaoyan talks to Sarah Franklin

Nanjing 1937: A Love Story CANCELLED
Harris Manchester College: Chapel 2:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Simon Heffer

Scarcely English: An A-Z of Assaults on Our Language
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Ian Collins

Blythe Spirit: The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Feryal Ali-Gauhar and H Y Attia chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Women Writers of Pakistani and Asian Heritage
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Mattias Desmet, Sunetra Gupta and Jolyon Maugham chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate: Covid and Corruption
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Jo Harkin talks to Matthew Stadlen

The Pretender
Harris Manchester College: Chapel 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Andi Oliver talks to Paterson Joseph

Oxford Brookes Chancellor’s Conversation. The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 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
Eugene Rogan and Peter Hill

The Damasus Events and the Prophet of Reason
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Don McCullin talks to Richard Ovenden

The Bodley Lecture and Award of the Bodley Medal: Life and Work SOLD OUT
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Anthony Julius talks to Rebecca Abrams

Abraham: The First Jew
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 See this event
Mai Jia talks to Angus Phillips

China Lecture: China and the Spy Novel
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Thu 3 Thursday, 3 April 2025 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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.