Brian-mcgilloway
Brian McGilloway

Walking the Tightrope: Creating Fiction in Troubled Times

Brian McGilloway talks to Jane Casey

Saturday, 29 March 2025

2:00pm

1 hour

Weston Lecture Theatre

£8 - £15

Crime novelist Brian McGilloway talks about his writing career and his upcoming novel, The One You Least Suspect.

In his new novel, barmaid Katie often hears things she shouldn’t working in the pub owned by the notorious O’Reilly brothers. When approached by two detectives looking for information, she faces an impossible dilemma. The only way to keep her family safe is to become an informant but that is a dangerous game with men like the O’Reillys.

McGilloway is the New York Times bestselling author of 13 crime novels, including the Ben Devlin and the Lucy Black mystery series. His last novel, The Empty Room, was a Sunday Times bestseller while his previous, The Last Crossing, was highly commended in the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021. Here he talks to Jane Casey, winner of Irish Crime Novel of the Year for A Stranger in the Family, and author of The Killing Kind, which was was adapted for television and broadcast around the world.

Part of the festival’s crime fiction programme.

University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK 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 Spain Arts and Culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation

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 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 Spain Arts and Culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Embassy of Peru Embassy of Peru Embassy of Chile in the UK Embassy of Chile Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Institut Ramon Llull Promoting Catalan culture and language worldwide Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Symington Wines of the Douro Valley HM Government of Gibraltar Sotheby’s 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 Gravita 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 Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize 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 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 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 Science Oxford Windrush Group The Oxford Times Italian Cultural Institute BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine Africa programme American programme