| Festival Contact Details: Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival Kim-lin Hooper Operations Manager Christ Church Oxford OX1 1DP 01865 276152 Email Us |
| Festival Directors: Sally Dunsmore Angela Prysor-Jones |
| The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is a non-profit making company limited by guarantee |
| Oxford Literary Festival Charitable
Trust Registered Office: 301 Woodstock Road Oxford OX2 7NY Company Number: 5435063 Charity Registration Number: 1109268 |
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| Walking Tours | ||
 Bodleian
LibrarySpecial Extended Tours £12 (no concessions) . meet 15 minutes before the tour starts in the Divinity School, Bodleian Library (entrance on Catte Street, through the Great Gate) |
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| Visit one of the oldest libraries in Europe. A special extended tour includes the medieval Divinity School, the 17th-century Convocation House, the Chancellor's Court and reading rooms, including the medieval Duke Humfrey's Library and Radcliffe Camera, the first rotunda library to be built in Britain. Explore the hidden underground tunnels and passages leading to the book stacks. Extended tours include some steep stairs. Each tour lasts 90 minutes. The dates, times and numbers of tours are: Monday, 31 March Tuesday, 1 April Wednesday, 2 April Thursday, 3 April Friday, 4 April Saturday, 5 April Anyone booking one of the above guided tours will be offered 10%
discount on all gifts and cards on presentation of their tour badge
in the Bodleian Gift Shop on the day of the tour. Places on these special tours can only be booked by telephoning 01865 277224. |
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| Blackwell Oxford Literary Festival | ||
| Walking Tours | ||
Twice Daily |
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| This is a fascinating hour’s walk around Oxford and its University with our local Tour Guide of many years' experience. See the sights and learn about events which have taken place in our exciting, literary and beautiful city – home to many famous writers both past and present. Experience the places; feel the vibes! This walking tour begins at the festival bookshop in Christ Church and finishes in the awe-inspiring Norrington Room at Blackwell Book Shop on Broad Street. Tickets: £7.00 (£6.00 conc) Tickets are now available from Blackwell Book Shop on Broad Street - tel (01865) 333 606 or Sign up for the tour outside the Literary Festival Marquee in Christ Church Meadows. |
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| Keats’s ‘Eyelashes’: An Oxford Waterways Walk | ||
| With Mark Davies | ||
| Tuesday 1 April (191), Wednesday 2 April (192),
Thursday 3 April (193) Friday 4 April (194) Saturday 5 April (195)
Sunday 6 April (196) 10.00 am (2 hours 15 mins) £15.00 meet at the entrance to Meadow Buildings, Christ Church |
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| A two-mile circular tour of the Thames, its backwaters and the Oxford Canal in the footsteps of novelists, diarists, poets and travellers. From Chaucer’s Miller to Pullman’s gyptians, the enduring importance of Oxford’s waterways is explained by local historian, author and publisher, Mark Davies. The route is generally flat, but with some steps. Limited to 20 Complimentary drink at Aziz Pandesia, Folly Bridge at the end of the walk. |
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| Literary Oxford | ||
| With Alastair Lack | ||
| Tuesday 1April (197) Thursday 3 April (198) and
Saturday 5 April (199), 2.00 pm (2 hours) £15 Meet at the entrance to Magdalen College, High Street. |
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| Explore Oxford Colleges in the footsteps of famous writers and poets. Start at Magdalen, home to Edward Gibbon, Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman and C.S. Lewis, and walk through University College and Queen's, ending up at Merton, the college of Max Beerbohm and TS Eliot. On the way, enjoy readings from the poetry and prose of writers who have lived in and written about the city and the University, including Shelley, V.S.Naipaul and Louis MacNeice. Places limited to 20. |
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| Political Oxford | ||
| With Alastair Lack | ||
| Wednesday 2April (200), Friday 4 April (201),
and Sunday 6 April (202), 2.00 pm (2 hours) £16.00 Meet at the entrance to Christ Church, Meadow Buildings. |
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| Oxford has always been an important political centre and the
University can count among its alumni 24 British prime ministers
and the heads of state of many other nations, including Bill Clinton.
The tour starts at Christ Church, which has educated 13 prime ministers
since the eighteenth century. It proceeds to the University buildings
of the Bodleian and the Sheldonian and thence to Balliol College.
Here, politicians such as Asquith and Macmillan first learnt their
air of 'effortless superiority'. Balliol has continued to produce
eminent public figures, not least Edward Heath, Roy Jenkins and
the current Chancellor of the University, Chris Patten. Places limited
to 20. |
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| Lyra’s Oxford: Gyptian Walk | ||
| With Mark Davies | ||
| Thursday 3 April (203), Saturday 5 April (204)
2.00 pm (2 hours) £15.00 Meet outside Tourist Information Office, Broad Street. |
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| A walk of less than two miles based on Oxford author Philip Pullman’s
Northern Lights (filmed as Golden Compass) and Lyra’s Oxford.
The route will pass through the literary-rich Victorian suburb of
Jericho and finish at Oxford Castle. The leader will be local historian,
author and publisher, Mark Davies, an Oxford ‘gyptian’
himself. The route is generally flat, but with some steps. Limited
to 20. Suitable for ages 16+
Complimentary drink at Café 1071, Oxford Castle, at the end of the walk. |
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| Literary Oxford and the First World War | ||
| With Tom Boulter | ||
| Friday 4 April, 2.00 pm (2 hours) (205) £15 Meet under Tom Tower |
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| Few English cities can have been as profoundly affected by the events of 1914-1918 as Oxford, a fact which is poignantly reinforced by numerous memorials through the city. This walk will explore First World War Oxford through those writers who were here, including Siegfried Sassoon, Vera Brittain, WN Hodgson and others. We will go via Christ Church, the Town Hall, Balliol Chapel, Wellington Square and Somerville College, to end at the Oxford War Memorial on St Giles. Places limited to 20. | ||
