Biography

Gerri Kimber Michael Caines

Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 3 12:00pm Sat 21 Saturday, 21 March 2026 See this event
Andrew Lownie

Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 2 12:00pm Sun 22 Sunday, 22 March 2026 See this event
Andrew Jamieson talks to Rosalind Porter

On the Couch: Twenty Extraordinary Personalities, from Picasso to Putin
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 22 Sunday, 22 March 2026 See this event
Jenny Uglow

A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Mon 23 Monday, 23 March 2026 See this event
Nicola Moorby

Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Mon 23 Monday, 23 March 2026 See this event
Paula Byrne

Six Weeks by the Sea: The Summer Jane Austen Fell in Love
Pusey House: Ursell Room 12:00pm Mon 23 Monday, 23 March 2026 See this event
Fiona Sampson

Becoming George: The Invention of George Sand
Pusey House: Ursell Room 4:00pm Mon 23 Monday, 23 March 2026 See this event
Franny Moyle

Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun: The Extraordinary Entwined Lives of Two 18-Century Painters
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Clare Jackson and Carol Chillington Rutter

History Makers: James VI and I and Henry Wotton
Pusey House: Chapel 12:00pm Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Clare Mulley

Agent ZO: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Fighter Elzbieta Zawacka
Bodleian: Convocation House 2:00pm Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Harriet Cullen talks to Simon Heffer

Lady Pamela Berry: Passion, Politics and Power
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Graham Tomlin

Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made The Modern World
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Federico Varese and Nick Harkaway

Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Lola Lafon

When You Listen to This Song: On Memory, Loss, and Writing
Pusey House: Ursell Room 2:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Carol Atack

Plato: A Civic Life
Bodleian: Convocation House 2:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Adam Sisman

The Indefatigable Asa Briggs
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Thu 26 Thursday, 26 March 2026 See this event
Ramie Targoff

Shakespeare’s Sisters: Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Thu 26 Thursday, 26 March 2026 See this event
Anne Sebba talks to Louisa Treger

The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Thu 26 Thursday, 26 March 2026 See this event
Georgette Bennett

Half-Jew – Full Life: from Nazi Persecution to American Glamour
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Thu 26 Thursday, 26 March 2026 See this event
Iain Pears

Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent
Pusey House: Ursell Room 10:00am Fri 27 Friday, 27 March 2026 See this event
Sarah Williams

When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the Radical Pursuit of Justice for Women
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Fri 27 Friday, 27 March 2026 See this event
Alan Johnson

Harold Wilson: Twentieth-Century Man
Pusey House: Chapel 2:00pm Fri 27 Friday, 27 March 2026 See this event
Nick Higham

Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Richard Holmes talks to Suzi Feay

The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 1 2:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Carla Kaplan and Mimi Pond

The Enduring Fascination of the Mitford Sisters
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 2 2:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Michael Collins and Christopher Lamb

American Hope: Leo XIV Builder of Bridges
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 3 4:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Melanie McDonagh

Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark. Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Mark Vernon

Awake: William Blake and the Power of the Imagination
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 3 12:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2026 See this event
Amanda Rubin

The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2026 See this event
Ruth Larsen

Mistress: A History of Women and their Country Houses
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2026 See this event
Jonathan Freedland

The Traitors Circle: The Rebels Against the Nazis and the Spy Who Betrayed Them
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 3 2:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2026 See this event

Festival information:

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 is intellectual Viagra.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.