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March 31

Jasbinder Bilan

Nush and the Stolen Emerald
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Alexandra Harris and Hermione Lee

Writing Lives, Shaping Books
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Jane Shaw

Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
John S Tregoning

Live Forever? A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Simon Park

Wreckers: Disaster in the Age of Discovery
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Clare Chambers talks to Andrew Billen

Shy Creatures
Pusey House: Chapel 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Couldn’t Put it Down: How Writers Keep Readers Reading
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Barnaby Rogerson

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Philip Hoare

William Blake & The Sea Monsters of Love
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Daisy Dunn talks to Susannah Jowitt

The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It SOLD OUT
Bodleian: Convocation House 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Andrew Blick

Could it Happen Here: The Day a Prime Minister Refuses to Resign
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Dani Robertson

All Through the Night: How Dark Skies Can Save Our World
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Nigel Shadbolt

As if Human: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Susana Monsó

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Roisin Dunnett and Francis Spufford chaired by Suzi Feay

Festival Debuts. Raising New Voices: A Line You Have Traced
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Sumit Paul-Choudhury talks to Matthew Stadlen

The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 2:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Martin Gayford

How Painting Happens (and Why it Matters) SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Tim Birkhead

The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Peter Lamont

Radical Thinking: How to see the Bigger Picture – with Magic
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Chloe Dalton talks to Jane Shaw

Raising Hare: The Heart-warming True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 4:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
James Crossland

Fighting Bolsheviks, Fooling Nazis and Making History: the Extraordinary Life of Robert Bruce Lockhart
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Sinclair McKay

Saint Petersburg: Sacrifice and Redemption in the City That Defied Hitler
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Vernon Bogdanor talks to Andrew Blick

Making the Weather: Six Politicians Who Changed Modern Britain SOLD OUT
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Timothy Garton Ash talks to Chris Patten

Lord Patten Free Speech Conversation: Freedom of Expression is our Lifeblood
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event
Diana Janney talks to Suzi Feay

A Man of Understanding
Trinity College: Garden Room Levine Building 6:00pm Mon 31 Monday, 31 March 2025 See this event

Festival information:

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

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.

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 Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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 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 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.