Simon-heffer
Simon Heffer
Grace-blakeley
Grace Blakeley
Marina purkiss
Marina Purkiss
Zoe-strimpel
Zoe Strimpel
Yasmin alibhai-brown-0595flat
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Oxford Debate: You Ask the Questions

Simon Heffer, Grace Blakeley, Marina Purkiss and Zoe Strimpel chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Thursday, 3 April 2025

12:00pm

I hour 15 minutes

Sheldonian Theatre

£8 - £20

Join our panel of leading political and media figures, Professor Simon Heffer, Grace Blakeley, Marina Purkiss and Zoe Strimpel, for lively debate on topics of the day, chaired by Yasmin Alibhai Brown. Ticketholders are invited to email questions before the event, and Yasmin will pick a representative range for audience members to ask.

Heffer is a journalist and historian. He is a professor of modern British history at the University of Buckingham. He works for The Daily Telegraph and has a weekly column in The Sunday Telegraph. His most recent book, Scarcely English, An A-Z Of Assaults on Our Language, details the modern horrors of bad English.

Blakeley is a journalist at Tribune Magazine and author. She is former economics commentator for the New Statesman and a former research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Blakeley recently published her third book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom.

Purkiss is a political commentator and campaigner. She features on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show, Good Morning Britain, This Morning, LBC, BBC radio, Sky News and Piers Morgan’s Uncensored, and has her own ‘politically charged (but fun)’ podcast, The Trawl.

Strimpel is an author, historian and journalist who specialises in gender, relationships and sexuality. She has published three books, her most recent being Seeking Love in Modern Britain: Gender, Dating and the Rise of ‘the Single’. She writes regularly for both The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph.

The panel is chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a journalist and author who has written extensively on issues of diversity and social justice. Her books include In Defence of Political Correctness, Refusing the Veil and Exotic England: The Making of a Curious Nation.

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Cultural Relations Platform Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Pusey House Founded 1884 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Cultural Relations Platform Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Pusey House Founded 1884 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine