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March 30

Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course: Places and Spaces: Writing Location in Fiction
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 9:30am Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Lionel Shriver talks to Suzi Feay

Mania: What if Calling Someone Stupid was Illegal SOLD OUT
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 10:00am Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Alexander Armstrong talks to Ben O’Donnell

Evenfall: The Golden Linnet
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy talk to Adam Alexander

Soil to Table: The Land Gardeners
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to Mary Hockaday

Theft and Honorary Fellowship
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Janne Haaland Matlary and Rob Johnson

NATO and the Russian War in Ukraine SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Ekow Eshun talks to Suzi Feay

The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Joseph Coelho

Goodnight, Starry Night: Bedtime Poems Inspired by Works of Art
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Emilie A. Caspar, Laurence Rees and Leor Zmigrod chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Just Obeying Orders: The Science Behind Mass Murder and the Radical Mind
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Marc Millon talks to Paul Bloomfield

Italy in a Wineglass: The Taste of Italy with Tasting
Exeter College: Hall 12:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Simon Jenkins

A Short History of British Architecture: From Stonehenge to the Shard SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Philippe Sands talks to Richard Ovenden

38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in London and a Nazi in Patagonia
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Alastair Lack

Oxford Poets with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Justin Schlosberg, Tony Sewell and Zoe Strimpel chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debates: Immigration and the 2024 Riots
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Christine Dwyer Hickey and Molly Aitken chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Irish Voices: Our London Lives and Bright I Burn
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Guy Leschziner

Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Sonia Purnell

Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Seduction, Intrigue and Power
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Wolfgang Münchau talks to Paul Simons

Kaput: The End of the German Miracle
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Antoine Laurain talks to Suzi Feay

French Windows
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Kate Kennedy, Cara Berridge and Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound
Trinity College, Levene Building: Auditorium 4:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
Susan Barker talks to Lauren Owen

Old Soul
Exeter College: Chapel 4:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event
James Rebanks talks to Dinah Rose

President of Magdalen Lecture: The Place of Tides
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Sun 30 Sunday, 30 March 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.