March 25

Christina Hardyment

Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Fictional Landscapes
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Richard Susskind and Charlotte Blease

Future Vision: Can AI Improve our Lives and Wellbeing?
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
John Blair

Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World
Bodleian: Convocation House 10:00am Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Michael Symmons Roberts talks to Jane Shaw

Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong
Pusey House: Ursell Room 10:00am Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Hannah Bourne-Taylor

Nature Needs You: The Fight to Save Our Swifts
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Margaret Heffernan and Steven D’Souza

Unlocking Your Potential: Harnessing Uncertainty and your Darker Side
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Jeremy Hunt in conversation with David Starkey

David Starkey Talks: Can Britain Be Great Again?
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Tim Bouverie

Allies at War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler
Pusey House: Chapel 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Martin Shaw

Liturgies of the Wild: Myths that Make Us
Pusey House: Ursell Room 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Simukai Chigudu

Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire
Bodleian: Convocation House 12:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 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
Jana Bakunina and Joe Luc Barnes

Russia Today: What do its People Really Think
Pusey House: Chapel 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
Justine Picardie

Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 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
Jack Hartnell and Ruben Verwaal

Medical Image and Mythology: The Wound Man and Blood, Sweat and Tears
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Alastair Lack

Literary Oxford with Alastair Lack
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Luke Kemp

Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
John Banville talks to Suzi Feay

Venetian Vespers
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Matt Cook and Rebecca Jennings

A Queer Scrapbook: Britain and Ireland Since 1945
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Antony Beevor

Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Sally Gimson

Off the Rails: The Inside Story of HS2
Pusey House: Ursell Room 4:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Steven Parissien

Another Round: A Post-War History of Britain in 12 Strong Drinks
Department for Continuing Education: Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Sailesh Rao talks to Bill Tara

A Guide to Planet B
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Joanna Miller and Harriet Evans

Conversation and Books over a Glass of Wine
Pusey House: Ursell Room 6:00pm Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Natasha Walter and Harriet Wistrich talks to

Feminism for a World on Fire
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 2 10:00am Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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 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.

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.