Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro appears at special event

Booking now open for 2015 festival

Booker Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, pictured right, opens the 2015 FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival with a talk on his new novel, The Buried Giant, at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday 12 March. The event is a preview to the main festival, which opens on Saturday 21 March, and many events are now available to book via this website.

Highlights include multi-award-winning Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh, who gives this year’s Chancellor’s Lecture; the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, pictured left, on her new novel; and well-known philosopher A C Grayling on thinking through troubled times.

The world of politics and government is represented by the former Downing Street adviser to Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, who suggests we should hold a dialogue with terrorists. Television and radio personalities Paul Heiney and Anita Anand talk about their new books, and Nobel-prize-winning scientist Eric Kandel discusses the quest to understand the unconscious in art, mind, and brain.

This year’s festival will once again include a full children’s programme on both weekends with Philip Pullman, pictured right, marking the 20th anniversary of publication of His Dark Materials and Liz Pichon talking about her Tom Gates books.

There are more than 60 events available to book at through this website, and many more will be added as times and venues are confirmed over the next few weeks. A walk-in and telephone box office will open in Blackwell’s bookshop next month.

FT Weekend interview with Kazuo Ishiguro.