One for your diary: The Sunday Times Oxford Literary festival
Saturday, March 20 is the date of this year’s Sunday Times Oxford Literary festival. It really is a must-attend event for book lovers with organisers delighted with the quality of the line-up they have assembled. John le Carré will give a lecture within the Sheldonian Theatre, and other big names include Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel and Philip Pullman, who will talk in public for the first time about his controversial forthcoming novel, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
Running until March 28, the nine-day celebration of books and literature is even bigger and better this year, taking place over two complete weekends and featuring hundreds of writers and events.
AS Byatt, the Booker-winning novelist, will accept an honorary fellowship at a dinner on Thursday night, and then appear on Friday as one of the judges when the inaugural winner of The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the biggest prize of its kind in the world, will be announced.
The children’s programme will include everyone from Anthony Horowitz to Meg Rosoff and Geraldine McCaughrean, author of Fantasy Book Review’s Book of the Month The Death-Defying Pepper Roux.
You can also sign up to the third Fiction Creative Writing Course, a five-day all-inclusive residential course from March 20 to 26, with masterclasses by Helen Dunmore, Joanne Harris and Julie Myerson. To find out more, telephone 07540 188564 or email creativewriting@oxfordliteraryfestival.com.
Writers and artists confirmed for this year’s festival are:
- Martin Amis
- Gaynor Arnold
- Antony Beevor
- Malorie Blackman
- Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Melvyn Bragg
- John Burnside
- AS Byatt
- John le Carré
- Zizou Corder (Louisa Young)
- Richard Dawkins
- David Dimbleby
- Antonia Fraser
- Adele Geras
- Ben Goldacre
- John Gray
- Frances Hardinge
- Joanne Harris
- Robert Harris
- Max Hastings
- Victoria Hislop
- Anthony Horowitz
- Will Hutton
- PD  James
- Steve Jones
- Anthony Julius
- Shappi Khorsandi
- Andrew Lane
- Penelope Lively
- Hilary Mantel
- Neil MacGregor
- Anita Mason
- Ian McEwan
- Don McCullin
- Brian Moore
- Blake Morrison
- William Nicholson
- Susie Orbach
- Mal Peet
- Tim Pigott-Smith
- Philip Pullman
- Craig Raine
- Andrew Rawnsley
- Philip Reeve
- Ruth Rendell
- Louise Rennison
- Meg Rosoff
- James Shapiro
- Lionel Shriver
- Ali Sparkes
- Simon Singh
- Patti Smith
- Norman Tebbit
- Rose Tremain
- Joanna Trollope
- Lynne Truss
- Shirley Williams
Tickets are on sale now; to see the festival programme and book online, visit www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com, or telephone 0870 343 1001.
Posted: January 18th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Philip Pullman
Do you have something to add to this post? Please leave a comment
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
