Books

Vybarr Cregan-Reid

We are What We Read
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Wed 2 Wednesday, 2 April 2025 See this event
César Merchan-Hamann introduced by Samuel Fanous

Jewish Languages and Book Culture
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Artemis Cooper and Cal Revely-Calder talks to Miles Young

What Makes a Great Non-fiction Book? And Just Why it Matters
New College: MacGregor Matthews Room 12:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event
Sarah Ogilvie

The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Fri 4 Friday, 4 April 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.