What's On | The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

The Oxford Book of Parodies
"Parody can be the most entertaining form of criticism and one of the most delicate, erudite and allusive. Parodies come in all shapes and sizes. There are broad parodies and subtle parodies, ingenious imitations and knockabout spoofs, scornful lampoons and affectionate pastiches.

All these varieties, and many others, appear in The Oxford Book of Parodies, a delightful new anthology compiled by master anthologist John Gross, who captures a genre that is comical, scornful, witty, and subtle."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Elegance in Science: The Beauty of Simplicity
"The idea of elegance in science is not necessarily a familiar one, but it is an important one. The use of the term is perhaps most clear-cut in mathematics - the elegant proof - and this is where the distinguished scientist Ian Glynn begins his exploration.

The idea of elegance may seem strange in a field of endeavour that prides itself in its objectivity, but only if science is regarded as a dull, dry activity of counting and measuring. It is, of course far more than that, and elegance is a fundamental aspect of the beauty and imagination involved in scientific activity."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Fantastical Truths
Suitabled for Children over 10

In a rare gathering of exceptional talents Malorie Blackman, Frances Hardinge and Philip Pullman discuss what fantasy can tell us about reality. Malorie Blackman's bestselling Noughts and Crosses quartet considers big themes of race, terrorism and social equality, in a hypothetical world. Pullman's hugely inventive epic trilogy His Dark Materials embraces philosophy and religion. And his fellow Oxford graduate, the award-winning novelist Frances Hardinge, writes acclaimed pseudo-historical fantasies, including Gullstruck Island, which reveal much about ourselves. Chaired by Sunday Times children's books reviewer Nicolette Jones
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

Shakespeare Sex and Love
How does Shakespeare's treatment of human sexuality relate to the sexual conversations and language of his times? Pre-eminent Shakespearean critic Stanley Wells draws on historical and anecdotal sources to present an illuminating account of sexual behaviour in Shakespeare's time. He will also talk about the variety of ways in which Shakespeare treated sexuality in his plays and poems as a source of comedy, drama, debate, and passion.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Douglas Hurd, Private Secretary to Edward Heath, and an MP between 1974 and 1997, joined forces with Edward Young when writing Choose Your Weapons. Young, after gaining a First in History at Cambridge, had won a Mellon Scholarship to Yale, where he studied history and International Relations.

Together they will discuss this book, which examines eleven of the most colourful and controversial Foreign Secretaries of the past two centuries. Drawing on his own experience, Hurd discusses how the Foreign Secretaries argued, succeeded and failed, and in the process draws conclusions which are particularly relevant today.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Up and Down Stairs is an absorbing exploration of the inner functioning and rigid hierarchy of the country house.

It offers an intriguing insight into a tradition that has rested near the heart of British identity for more than 500 years.

Although the status of a domestic servant is one that has, through the course of history, accumulated negative connotations, at one time domestic service was the second most common profession in England.

Architectural historian Jeremy Musson illuminates the daily lives of people who helped these vast houses run smoothly
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Sending our Children to War
Is the sacrifice of noble young lives in Iraq and Afghanistan unnecessary and heartless, exacerbated because these wars are difficult explain? Are politicians exploiting our soldiers' courage and do they have the right to send young men and women to war for something they haven't experienced themselves? Why do young men and women go to war, do they know what they are letting themselves in for, is it an extension of movies and war games?

Join writer Sue Elliott, 'The Children who Fought Hitler', Patrick Hennessey ex officer and now author of 'The Junior Officers Writing Club', Allan Mallinson former cavalry officer, defence commentator and author of 'Making of the British Army'.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"Selected by Robin Hanbury-Tenison, described by the Sunday Times as the ""greatest explorer of the last twenty years"", The Oxford Book of Exploration is a comprehensive anthology of the writings of explorers through the ages.

The ultimate in travel writing, these are the words of those who changed the world through their pioneering search for new lands, new peoples and new experiences. Hanbury-Tenison takes us to the four corners of the world and includes explorers such as Dr David Livingstone, Mary Kingsley and Sir Francis Drake."

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Quantum theory is one of science's most thrilling challenging and even mysterious areas. Join our discussion based on Icon Books' series of graphic guides to big ideas which introduce subjects from Capitalism to Chaos, philosophy to Postmodernism.

Speakers will be Manjit Kumar, author of Quantum which was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, Marcus Chown, author of the bestselling Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and Dr Joseph Schwartz (Chair), author of Introducing Einstein.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

For 350 years, our most eminent scientists have sought to unravel nature's great mysteries, discover the laws that govern our Universe and solve the riddle of life on earth. As the discoveries and revelations of each successive century have overtaken the (perceived) certainties of previous generations, we must wonder, how far can we trust in the new certainties of 21st century science?

Two eminent scientists, Richard Dawkins and Steve Jones talk about science, certainty and the Royal Society, with Georgina Ferry, a Science writer, and Roger Highfield, Editor of The New Scientist

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £25 / £15 / £10

The Corpus Politic

A day of political remembrances and observations from Westminster and Washington.

From its Foundation in 1517, Corpus fellows and alumni have helped to record political life both in Britain and, later, in the United States.  To celebrate its new partnership with the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Corpus Christi College has brought together three of its sharpest political observers to share their insights into the real lives of politicians and their world. As the most intimate of the traditional Colleges, what better place to gather private political thoughts and overhear an occasional tale of indiscretion?

The general election is only weeks away but what happens if - as some are predicting - Labour and the Conservatives both wake up next morning to find they've been Hung Drawn and Thwarted - with no party winning outright for the first time in a generation? The BBC’s parliamentary correspondent, Robert Orchard, looks for clues from the last time voters elected a hung parliament, drawing on his recent interviews with key figures who lived through minority governments and cross-party deals and wheeler-dealing in the 1970s and 1990s.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Suitable for children between 7 and 12

Three books were shortlisted this year in Blue Peter's "Book I Couldn't Put Down" category, and all three authors are appearing here in the setting for Hogwarts hall to talk about their shortlisted books - Frank Cottrell Boyce, film-maker, Carnegie-Medal-winning author, father of seven, and author of the laugh-out-loud space adventure Cosmic (with a theme of fatherhood); Ali Sparkes, author of the time-travel story Frozen in Time, which has now been shortlisted for six awards; and Harriet Goodwin, whose debut The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43 is already causing a stir, and who is also - not to spoil a surprise - a professional classical singer. Sonali Shah of CBBC Newsround will chair.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

Diarmaid MacCulloch and Sara Wheeler join forces to discus their respective books, focusing their discussion on cultures and spirituality. Calling on his work A History of Christianity, which presents the development of Christian history, acclaimed historian Diarmaid MacCulloch will show how different ideas about God have persisted or developed over many centuries.  Sara Wheeler, whose book The Magnetic North uncovers the beautiful, brutal reality of the Arctic, meditates on the role of the Arctic in public and private, concluding that the complex and ambiguous Arctic perfectly captures the elegiac melancholy of middle age.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
One of our very finest military historians, Antony Beevor has already demonstrated in his critically acclaimed Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 the merciless cost of war. Hailed by Max Hastings as "as powerful and authoritative an account of the battle for Normandy as we are like to get in this generation, his revelatory history of the D-Day campaign shows just how ferocious and hard-fought this epochal campaign was. At times, Beevor explains, it was as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. His gripping narrative conveys the true horror of war, as experienced by millions of ordinary Britons and Americans.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Couples: The Truth
"How do we separate the myths from the truths? In our world of unrivalled sexual independence is it easier or harder to maintain a relationship? Divorce, gay marriages, cohabiting, remarrying; we have never been better placed to construct the relationships of our choosing. But with this freedom comes the responsibility for making them work in reality, beyond the unrealistic expectations placed on love by popular culture.

Kate Figes draws on history, the research of sociologist and psychologists as well as interviews with more than 120 people about their relationships. The results of her findings are extraordinary and surprisingly encouraging."
 

Running Time: 1 hr

• Sat 20/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Corpus Politic

A day of political remembrances and observations from Westminster and Washington.

From its Foundation in 1517, Corpus fellows and alumni have helped to record political life both in Britain and, later, in the United States.  To celebrate its new partnership with the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Corpus Christi College has brought together three of its sharpest political observers to share their insights into the real lives of politicians and their world. As the most intimate of the traditional Colleges, what better place to gather private political thoughts and overhear an occasional tale of indiscretion?
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

In Our Time: A Companion to the Radio 4 Series
"The Radio series In Our Time began after Melvyn Bragg was sacked from Start the Week, in order to preserve the programme's political integrity, following his appointment to the House of Lords.

James Boyle, controller of Radio 4 at the time, engineered a return to the air for what he called 'a ring-fenced programme' on what was then known as the death slot. The result was In Our Time, an entertaining and fascinating programme attracting a huge audience.

Melvyn Bragg talks about his work on the Radio 4 series and some of the episodes that reflect the diversity of the programmes."
 

Running Time: 1 hr

• Sat 20/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Katherine Mansfield and The Art of Performance
Katherine Mansfield was a musician as well as a writer, a 'performer' of stories at parties who delighted friends with her dramatic impressions and impersonations. Delia da Sousa Correa, editor of the new Katherine Mansfield Studies Journal, and author Kirsty Gunn, (her most recent book is The Boy and the Sea) will discuss Mansfield's awareness of literature as a performance art - describing specific stories by Mansfield that evoke musical performance and including a reading of new work inspired by Mansfield that's been written in a similar 'key'.

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Published to coincide with the bicentenary of Chopin's birth, this completely new edition of Adam Zamoyski's outstanding biography of the great composer, first published in 1979, cuts through the mass of anecdotes and myths that have sprung up around Chopin's life and draws the reader into the private world of this most complicated man.  The result is a biography of authority, perception and wit, which allows Chopin to emerge from the sugary romantic mists in which he has been shrouded.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Tracy Chevalier enjoyed international acclaim for her book Girl with a Pearl Earring which was released as a film in 2003 starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.

 Her latest novel, Remarkable Creatures, is set in the early 19th century and tells how one woman's gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the century. Mary Anning sets the male-dominated scientific world alight, challenging ideas about the world's creation when she uncovers unknown dinosaur fossils. Her friendship with the prickly, intelligent Elizabeth Philpot, who is also fossil-obsessed, strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty and barely suppressed envy providing a revealing portrait of the resilient nature of female friendship.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Literatures from across the Africa are addressing the challenges of the new century with energy and ambition, undeterred by the many difficulties which continue to beset the continent. Writers Chioma Okereke and Caine Prize-winner Brian Chikwava, along with Elleke Boehmer in the chair, will explore the themes and pressures of the new African writing: the demands of writing from exile, the freedoms and pitfalls of on-line publishing, the threats and excitements of globalization and its impact on writers from the continent.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Corpus Politic

A day of political remembrances and observations from Westminster and Washington.

From its Foundation in 1517, Corpus fellows and alumni have helped to record political life both in Britain and, later, in the United States.  To celebrate its new partnership with the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Corpus Christi College has brought together three of its sharpest political observers to share their insights into the real lives of politicians and their world. As the most intimate of the traditional Colleges, what better place to gather private political thoughts and overhear an occasional tale of indiscretion?
 

Running Time: 3hrs

• Sat 20/3 19:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £85

Afghanistan - Why are we There, When will it End?
In 1996 John Reid, then defence secretary, announced that "we would be perfectly happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot". Since operations began in Afghanistan over 250 British service personnel have been killed. The questions remain, why did we invade, did we blunder into an unwinnable war and when and what determines ‘victory? These and other questions will be addressed by Colonel Stuart Tootal, former commander of 3 Para author & of ‘Danger Close’, Patrick Mercer MP former infantry officer and author of ‘To Do & Die’ and political columnist Bruce Anderson.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Throughout the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, English and African traders paid little heed to the consequences of their trafficking. The wounds inflicted by this cruel industry were deep and often unforeseen. But are the scars still showing? Have the racial stereotypes springing from the shadow of that era, and fortified by 19th century social and scientific theory, been appropriately modernised? Do we remain the heirs of a dark, inadequately examined history? Our writers probe a sensitive issue.

Laura Fish, broadcaster and author of Strange Music, discusses with first time novelist Remi Kapo, author of Reap the Forgotten Harvest, an Epic Saga of Slavery and James Walvin, author of numerous books (most recently 'A short History of Slavery') and co-editor of the journal Slavery and Abolition. This panel will be chaired by Mike Wooldridge, BBC world affairs correspondent.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 20/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 From New Jerusalem to New Labour: British Prime Ministers from Attlee to Blair
"From New Jerusalem to New Labour, is written by a stellar collection of contributors including Kenneth Morgan and Philip Ziegler who consider each British post-war Prime Minister and examine how they have dealt with Britain's changing role, domestic and overseas, since the end of World War Two.

Many of the expert authors involved with this publication have known the Prime Ministers about whom they are writing, adding a personal perspective to the work.

Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at Oxford University, as Editor of this collection talks about our post-war Prime Ministers and the impact they left on Britain."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Journey to Ancient Greece
Halo is a brand new epic tale set in Ancient Greece from Zizou Corder (author of the acclaimed Lionboy series). Join Louisa Young for a captivating event that will take its audience on a journey to both historical and mythological Greece. With costume, music and artefacts, Louisa will bring to life some of the most fascinating stories of the Greek Gods as well as the history of the Spartans. Perfect for adventure-loving boys and girls of 10+.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

With her customary acute observation, Joanna Trollope has once again written a topical novel with an utterly compelling contemporary theme in which many common assumptions are thought-provokingly turned on their head. It's the tale of a celebrated musician, wealthy, popular and adored by his partner and their three daughters, who has never given her the one thing that would have made her life perfect - a wedding ring and marriage as he is already married to someone else. When he dies suddenly, who will inherit his legacy?
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 A Village Lost & Found
"In A Village Lost and Found, which is the product of more than 30 years research, Brian May and photographic historian Elena Vidal, present an exhaustive study of the 1850s stereoscopic photographic series Scenes in Our Village by T R Williams.

The Oxfordshire village, whose identity was lost for 150 years, was only recently discovered by Brian May, in 2003.

With over 50 images, along with extensive related material, including many corresponding photographs of the village as it is today, Brian May and Elena Vidal present a fascinating insight into a village lost and found."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Story of English: How the English Language Conquered the World
"Worldwide some 380 million people speak English as a first language, some 600 million speak it as a second language and a staggering one billion people are believed to be learning it.

English is the premier international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment and diplomacy and also on the Internet. It has been one of the official languages of the United Nations since is founding in 1945 and is considered by many to be well on the way to becoming the world’s first universal language.

Philip Gooden, who has a perfect command of his material, tells the story of the English language in all its richness and variety."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear"; "The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment"; "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." Orwell was a staunch proponent of freedom of all kinds, especially of speech and of the press. But - with criticisms of the media flourishing, preachers of hate making headlines, the anonymity of the internet, and journalists complaining about libel laws - how free is free speech, and what should the limits be? Catherine Bennett (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2009), John Kampfner (director, Index on Censorship) and Geoffrey Robertson QC (lawyer, broadcaster and author) discuss the issues.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Human beings are clever. Our cleverness and our ability to design and use tools have led to our increasing domination over the plant on which we live. But virtually every idea we have had – be it to do with farming, living in cities, writing, the uses of fire, transport, weapons, even medicine – has at least at one level made humankind more vulnerable.

As our technology becomes more powerful and widely used, the threat that lies latent in many of our discoveries gives increasing cause for concern. Robert Winston, one of Britain’s best-known scientists, presents his ‘Scientist’s Manifesto’, the principles which he believes could ensure a better and safer relationship between scientist and society. Here he calls on society as a whole to take responsibility to ensure that our scientific knowledge is used widely for the benefit of mankind.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Big thoughts can come in small packages, as philosopher Julian Baggini will explain when he discusses three of his books under the general heading Microphilosophy.

His first book The Pig That Wants to be Eaten presents 100 thought experiments and short scenarios which pose a problem in a vivid and concrete way. Do They Think You’re Stupid? analyses all the different varieties of bad arguments and provides the tools to spot them in the media, from politicians and in everyday life. And in Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover? Julian Baggini applies his philosophical scalpel to famous sayings, proverbs and pieces of homespun wisdom.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Family Event

Andrew Lane, author of a new series of Young Sherlock, in conversation with actor Tim Piggot-Smith (on his day off from Enron), the author of The Baker Street Mysteries, about youngsters who help Holmes with his cases. They will consider the enduring appeal of Sherlock Holmes, and how they have both brought him to a new young audience.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

"Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, international corporations and governments have embraced the idea of a global village: a shrinking, booming world in which everyone benefits. What if that's not the case? Alex Perry, award-winning foreign correspondent, travels from the South China Sea to the highlands of Afghanistan to the Sahara to see first-hand globalization at the sharp end -- and it's not pretty.
 
He visits some of the planet's remotest and most dangerous places to explore the sharp end of globalization and in so doing demonstrates vividly that for every winner in our brave new world, there are hundreds and millions of losers.
 
A journey through the developing world, which reveals with clarity that globalization starts wars."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Commodore Toby Elliott was a submariner during the Cold War but it was in his role as Chief Executive of Combat Stress that he witnessed the devastating psychological effect of warfare. In this wide-ranging and highly entertaining interview with Julie Summers he will talk about his work during his ten years at the helm of the ex-services mental health charity, Combat Stress as well as his life as a submarine commander in the 1970s and 80s, as well as in command of the first RN ship to carry women as part of her crew.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Belle’s Best Bits: A London Call Girl Reveals Her Favourite Adventures
Ever since The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl was published in 2005, journalists and readers alike have tried to discover the identity of Belle de Jour, the young woman who had sex for money and kept a web diary that was read by 15,000 people each day.

Even more fascinating than the speculation was the truth. Bell is Dr Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist who supported herself by working as a call girl while completing her doctoral studies. Belle’s Best Bits provides a voyeuristic glimpse behind the scenes of the high-class sex trade and an insight into the secret life of this extraordinary woman.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

In the build up to the election, all the mainstream parties are keen to make their policies on the family distinct. However, what they all agree on is that parenthood requires a massive adjustment to our lives, emotions, and relationships, and we have to be taught how to deal with that by experts. But can it really be so difficult that parents need constant counselling, parenting classes and policies backed by swathes of academic research, to rear their own children? Are today's parents really so hopeless they need supernannies' assistance to cope? Might the current focus on hapless parents increase their insecurity and diminish parental authority over their own children?

Hear panellists Jennie Bristow: author, Standing up to Supernanny; editor, www.parentswithattitude.com, Dr Val Gillies: Reader, Families & Social Capital Research Group, London South Bank University; author of Marginalised Mothers: Exploring Working Class Experiences of Parenting and Christina Hardyment: author, Dream Babies: Babycare Advice from John Locke to Gina Ford discuss the issues.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Richard Hamblyn's first book, The Invention of Clouds, was shortlisted for the prestigious Samuel Johnson prize. Blending history, science and eye-witness accounts, his dramatic new book Terra explores the relationship between the planet and the humans who inhabit it by looking at four events that changed the world  - the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; the weather-panics of the summer of 1783; the eruption of Krakatau in 1883; and, the Hilo tsunami of 1946.

Hamblyn reminds us of the earth's unimaginable force and describes what happens when that force is unleashed, both in terms of the immediate human consequences and the economic and scientific implications. He also questions why we don't seem fully able to learn from the catastrophes, mistakes and responses of the past to natural disasters.

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

BBC Four Screening: Diaries
Why write a diary? Why read one? BBC Four's Dear Diary sees Richard E Grant, a diarist since childhood, go in search of answers to those questions and discovers the power of the diary. Follow Richard as he uncovers a sinister truth behind playwright Joe Orton’s diaries, meets Erwin James, a prison diarist, to understand the power of writing for a serving offender and talks to Sheila Hancock about Kenneth Williams’ diary, in which she appeared – at times to savage criticism. Introduced by Richard E Grant with Questions and Answers afterward.

Event lasts about 1 hour 30 minutes
 

Running Time: 1:30

• Sun 21/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Throughout many decades of groundbreaking journalism, John Simpson has become not only one of the most recognisable and trusted British personalities, but has transferred his skill to books with multiple best selling success.

In his latest book, Unreliable Sources, he turns his eye to how Great Britain has been transformed by its free press down the years.

He shows how, while the press likes to pretend it’s independent, they have enjoyed the power they have over the events they report and have at times exercised it irresponsibly.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 21/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Nearly fifteen years after it was first made, the rallying cry of "education, education, education" is more pertinent than ever. We have known for some time that the power of education extends far beyond the school walls, but where does teaching stop and parenting begin? How does a child escape the trappings of poverty toward a prosperous future?<p>

Join the first of our series on Education Matters for an informed and passionate debate with Alan Steer, author of Learning Bahaviour: Lessons Learned, the government commissioned report into behavior in schools; John Abbott, president of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, and author of 'Overschooled but Undereducated'; and David Yelland, former Editor of The Sun and author of the forthcoming 'The Truth about Leo'. Chaired by Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas and panelist on BBC 4's Moral Maze.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

‘Having gone truncheons to tasers in a generation, I also have to wonder what purpose the current Police Service has been built for... Once people get over the quasi military kit, we are mostly approachable and pleasant people, it’s just that we dress like Imperial Stormtroopers.’ Policing has undergone a huge transformation over the last 15 years, as suggested by Orwell Prize-winning police blogger ‘Jack Night’, but what do the next few years hold for the Service? Join Ian Blair (former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, author of Policing Controversy), Roger Graef (broadcaster, producer of Thames Valley Police) and Robert Reiner (Professor of Criminology, author) as they discuss the future of policing with Jean Seaton, Director of the Orwell Prize.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Energy Matters: Nuclear, Essential or Unnecessary?
The nuclear industry believes it can answer all three goals of energy policy; namely low cost, minimal associated greenhouse gas emissions and security of supply. Opponents beg to differ, claiming that history suggests costs will be higher than projected, risks associated with radioactive waste too great and nuclear brings its own threats to security. Since there are alternative forms of clean energy, why bother persisting with nuclear? A lively debate chaired by Janet Balfour, chair of the Nuclear Liabilities Fund is guaranteed with speakers Jeremy Leggett, Chair of Solar Century and author of 'Carbon War', Doug Parr, Chief Scientist of Greenpeace
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 Tower Poetry - A Tower Miscellany
Launch of A Tower Miscellany, edited by Peter McDonald, marking 10 years of Tower Poetry. Peter McDonald, poet, will host the event and introduce readings by some of the featured poets. Miscellany poets include Frances Leviston, Stephen Burt, Olivia Cole and Miriam Gamble and the event will feature poets reading their work. Tower Poetry, based at Christ Church, aims to stimulate an enjoyment and critical appreciation of poetry, particularly among young people, and to encourage them to write their own poetry.

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Just Kids
Writer, artist and performer Patti Smith has recorded ten albums and written five books, and her artwork has been exhibited worldwide. In 2005 she received the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest grade awarded by the French Republic to eminent artists and writers who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts throughout the world.

Patti Smith reveals how a chance encounter changed the course of her life. Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, became kindred spirits and together pursed their mutual dreams. Each eventually reached the pinnacle of artistic achievement, even though their vow to care for each other underwent painful trials and separations. Mapplethorpe's unforgettable portrait of Smith for the cover of Horses forever fuses their indelible mark on our culture. Patti Smith’s Just Kids is about friendship in the truest sense, and the artist's calling.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories
The plans are drawn up, the site is chosen and the foundations are dug: a building comes into being with the expectation that it will stay forever. But a building is a capricious thing; it is inhabited and changed, and its existence is a tale of constant and curious transformations. Edward Hollis tells the stories of thirteen buildings to reveal the hidden histories of the Parthenon and the Alhambra, ancient palaces recreated by vainglorious dictators, and exploring the monuments of our own day, from souvenir chunks of the Berlin Wall to the fibre-glass theme parks of Las Vegas.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Sex and Stravinsky
Barbara Trapido’s writing is so sparklingly clear and witty that it can come as a shock to realise how strong an undertow runs beneath the surface.

This time she gives us Sex and Stravinsky, set in 1995, which introduces a mix of people from different spheres. This novel throws up the complexity, cruelty and richness of the global world while, a sequence of personal stories come together like a dance; a masquerade in which things are not always as they seem. From far and wide they are all draw together to Jack’s place – or is he Jacques? Or Giacomo? The answer rests within those final pages.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Law and Disorder in Historical Fiction
Three historical novelists who have a similar approach to history, but work within different eras, come together to discuss their latest books. All three have new books coming out this year and they have all been praised for their meticulous research and story-telling abilities.

MC Scott is the author of the popular Boudica series, has set her latest book Rome the Emperor’s Spy during Emperor Nero’s rule. Giles Kristian, whose debut novel Raven became a Waterstone’s bestseller has just brought out the second Raven Adventure Sons of Thunder. And Ariana Franklin writes historical crime novels which follow the career of Adelia Aguilar, a forensic specialist struggling with her skills in Henry 2nd’s England.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Are we alone in the vastness of the universe?  Is ET out there, but not sending any messages our way? Might we be surrounded by messages we simply don't recognise? Paul Davies, best selling author, physicist and Chair of the Search or Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-detection Task Group, says we should forget about looking to receive messages from ET, and be concentrating instead on all physical and astronomical anomalies as potential signatures of intelligence. In The Eerie Silence, he asks if we have been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time and in the wrong way.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Mon 22/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Art of the Sea: In Words
Majestic, dramatic, and sometimes terrifying, the sea has had an enduring fascination for British writers. From Shakespeare to Coleridge and Tennyson, Stevenson to Conrad, it has inspired some of our most gifted authors. In BBC Four's Art of the Sea: In Words poet and author, Owen Sheers, sets off to discover whether there is anything that unites the great British sea stories. In the company of both seafarers and sea writers, he explores the transformative effect that the sea has had on the human mind.

Event lasts 1 hour 15 minutes.

Running Time: 1:15

• Mon 22/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

New Stories from the Mabinogion
An exciting new series of contemporary novels from leading authors, reworking the medieval myth cycle, the Mabinogion launches with Owen Sheers’s White Ravens and Russell Celyn Jones’s The Ninth Wave. White Ravens is a modern reinvention of one of the best-known tales Branwen, Daughter a Llyr, which is the story of Bbendigeidfran, the giant king of Britain and his sister Branwen.

The Ninth Wave is the retelling of Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed, in which Russell Celyn Jones swaps the magical for the psychological and the courtly for the post-feminist.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

The Swimmer
"Roma Tearne's latest novel The Swimmer is a gripping captivating story about love, loss and what home really means.

It's the tale of 43 year old Ria who struggled to find love until she discovers the swimmer, an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka, who is awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application. Although he is 20 years her junior, their romance is unconventional but deeply moving defying both boundaries and cultures. That is until tragedy occurs."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Carl Gustav Jung was the most enigmatic and controversial of the early depth psychologists, who supplemented Freud's work with crucial questions about religion and the soul. Join our discussion based on one of our most popular titles in Introducing series. The discussion will cover Jung's life and work, his science and scholarship, and his exploration into the psychology of religion, alchemy and astrology, as well as his infamous Red Book.

Speakers will be Maggie Hyde, author of Introducing Jung, Jane Haynes, the author of Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am? The Journal of a Psychotherapist, and Roderick Main PhD (Chair), Director of the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex and author of The Rupture of Time: Synchronicity and Jung's Critique of Modern Western Culture.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Squeeze: Oil Money and Greed in the 21st Century
"Over the last 20 years, oil prices have soared from $7 a barrel to $147 and down to $37. Amid economic boom and bust, speculators, traders, politicians and monarchs have plotted to earn fortunes from oil and prayed for salvation from unpredictable natural and man-made disasters. Overweening vanity and greed absorb those titans whose ambitions are forging the world’s quest for oil.

Tom Bower presents the untold story of the most important quandary of our times: why, if there is plentiful oil in the earth, does mankind face a dire shortage threatening our lives?"
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 Poets in Conversation
"Novelist and award-winning poet Owen Sheers will be in conversation with fellow poet and novelist Jem Poster and reading poems from his two collections The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill.

Owen Sheers is also known for his BBC Four series and accompanying book A Poet's Guide to Britain. A collection of the most powerful and unforgettable poetry written about the landscape of Great Britain. Selected by Owen, it celebrates not only the natural scenery of Britain, but the human investment in the landscape."
 

Running Time: 1 hr

• Tue 23/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Kishwar Desai has written journalism internationally on issues of social injustice and women’s issues. Here she talks to Elleke Boehmer (Professor of World Literature at Oxford University) about her first novel which focuses on the terrible subject of female foeticide and about the role of women in Indian society.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Diaspora, or the scattering of people, is an experience many of us now share. 
Food is about roots and identity as well as pleasure, comfort and  conviviality. To a migrating people it is a link with their past and an old homeland. Three writers, Rosemary Barron, Director of Oxford Gastronomica,  Claudia Roden, expert on Jewish and Middle Eastern cuisines and Nikos  Stavroulakis, historian, and founder of the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in  Chania, Crete, will discuss the power of food to evoke memories of  family, to assuage the pain and nostalgia of exile, and its role in affirming identity and aiding social cohesion within dispersed.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 Into the Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown
"Angela Thirwell's Into the Frame is a vivid account of the public art and private demons of Ford Madox Brown, the finest but lease understood of artists in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and the four central women in his life: his two wives and models and his two secret loves.

Richly illustrated throughout, based on new research and written with verve and sympathy, Angela Thirwell offers readers a rare opportunity to explore the life of a great artist and to enter a fascinating and world of Victorian bohemianism."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"Aminatta Forna was named by Vanity Fair as one of Africa's most promising new writers and her novel Ancestor Stones was selected by the Washington Post as one of the most important books of 2006. Here she talks about her stunning new novel, The Memory of Love - an exploration of obsessive love.

In an African city Elias Cole, a former lecturer, reflects on his past, on his youth in England and his obsession with Saffia, a woman he loved, and his colleague, her husband Julius. When he meets the psychologist Adrian Lockheart, who is new to Africa, a relationship develops between the two men which explores the full extent of Elias's involvement with Saffia and Julius, and exposes unsettling truths which Adrian himself must address."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

RSL First Story
‘Writing,’ says Philip Pullman, ‘can liberate and strengthen young people’s sense of themselves as almost nothing else can.’ First Story, a charity which arranges for acclaimed authors to work as writers-in- residence in challenging state schools, has now launched in three schools in Oxford. At this special event, Philip discusses how creative writing can transform lives with First Story's Katie Waldegrave and writers Kate Clanchy, Helen Cross and William Fiennes, and introduces readings from pupils taking part in the project.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Winning the Ashes: Living the Dream, in fiction and in fact

Suitable for Children over the age of 9

Award-winning author of the ‘definitive’ biography W.G. Grace, Simon Rae now turns to fiction. In Unplayable, his latest cricket book, schoolboy Tom Marlin discovers a mysterious power to bamboozle batsmen of any calibre. This takes him to the very top and a chance to win the Ashes. ‘What better fantasy than this?’ asked Nicholas Lezard in the Guardian.   Charlotte Edwards MBE has lived the dream, and the captain of the all-conquering England Women’s team, and will be talking about her real-life experiences as a leading woman cricketer.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

Is it possible to talk about Israel and Palestine without the conversation collapsing? Can any progress be made unless we can find a way of making each side listen to the thoughts and fears of the other? Even in Britain this subject is becoming impossible to raise. Sound and fury torpedoes all discourse, ending in unresolved emotion and resistance, accusations and counter accusations. This panel is an experiment. Can we, quietly and reasonably, trying to muster empathy, try to break the deadlock and begin a process? Join Brian Klug (A Time to Speak Out and Offence: The Jewish Case).Chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, author and award winning journalist now a columnist with The Independent. Other speakers to be confirmed.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How to Save Our Democracy
Penned by former independent MP Martin Bell, A Very British Revolution uses his insider's perspective to take a long, hard look at the MPs' expenses scandal. Explaining how the crisis arose, he also lays out his prescription for healing the deep wounds inflicted by the scandal. As Martin puts it: "The revolution will not be complete until all the rogues in the House are gone and public confidence in the MPs remaining is restored."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

 Tower Poetry - Snow Water
Michael Longley has published eight collections of poetry including Gorse Fires which won the Whitbread Prize and The Weather in Japan which won the Hawthornden Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His most recent collection Snow Water won the Librex Montale Prize. His Collected Poems was published in 2006. In 2001 he received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. This event will be a delight for all poetry lovers.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Beautiful for Ever
"Helen Rapport has unearthed the extraordinary story of Madame Rachel of Bond Street, the Victorian cosmetician, con artist and blackmailer, who changed her fortunes by appealing to the desire of society women to enhance their looks with forbidden cosmetics.

Her campaign of blackmail began once she arrived in London and acquired premises in Bond Street, to which veiled ladies arrived in close carriages. It was her address book, which enabled her to blackmail her clients who paid dearly for their vanity."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Suitable for children over 13 years

Playwright, screenwriter and novelist William Nicholson, whose credits include Shadowlands, Gladiator and The Wind Singer trilogy, has now written Rich and Mad, the story, for young adults, of a teenage love affair. He discusses what he sees as the "pornification of teenage sex" with consultant child and adult psychotherapist Gerry Byrne.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is the world's biggest and most lucrative prize for a single short story, with £25,000 going to the winner. Ahead of the announcement of the winning entry at the festival on Friday, March 26, the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is offering festival goers the chance, on three successive evenings (March 23, 24 and 25), to judge for themselves the shortlisted entries. Come and enjoy a glass of wine in a relaxed atmosphere as two of the six stories get their first reading in public.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £15

Gin, with its fragrant and colourful history, has made a long journey to become Britain’s favourite spirit aperitif. Take a break from the Festival’s literary treats and join John Harris, Steward of Christ Church, who leads this tasting of five different gins, all of which may surprise you with their difference, diversity and restorative qualities!

Event lasts from 6pm to 7.30pm
 

Running Time: 1:30

• Tue 23/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £15

Beware of the Dog: Rugby's Hard Man Reveals All

Brian Moore, or 'Pitbull' as he came to be known during nearly a decade at the heart of the England rugby team's pack, established himself as one of the game's original hard men. Yet, for all his bullishness on and off the pitch, there is a more unconventional, complicated side. A solicitor by trade, Moore's love of fine wine and preference for reading Shakespeare in the dressing room before games, mark him out as anything but the stereotypical rugby player. Introduced by David Walsh, chief sports correspondent of the Sunday Times, hear Moore talk with astounding frankness about the shocking events, both personal and professional, that have gone towards shaping him over the years.

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists & the Great War
"David Boyd Haycock tells the story of Dora Carrington, Mark Gertler, Paul Nash, Christopher Nevinson and Stanley Spencer, who were five of the most important British artists of the twentieth century.

From diverse backgrounds they met at the Slade School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture in London between 1908 and 1910, in what their teacher Henry Tonks later described as the school's last crisis of brilliance. They loved, taught and fought, formed gangs and created or joined new movements, slept with their models and prostitutes until finally their tempestuous lifestyles descended into obsession, murder and suicide."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Tue 23/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Man Who Ate Everything
Join Andrew Graham-Dixon for his affectionate BBC Four portrait of the late and indisputably great Alan Davidson, one of the world's most influential writers and thinkers on food, together with an exploration of Davidson’s magnum opus, The Oxford Companion to Food. This programme forms part of a forthcoming BBC Four season on food. With contributions from many of Davidson's friends and collaborators, such as Paul Levy and Raymond Blanc, the film charts a journey through Davidson's life and work that takes Andrew from Davidson's roots in England to his exotic flowering as a student of arcane fish cuisine on the banks of the great Mekong River in Laos…

Event lasts 1hr 15mins
 

Running Time: 1:15

• Tue 23/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the 17th Century Mediterranean
"Pirates of Barbary is an extraordinary record of the European renegades and Islamic sea-rovers who terrorised the Mediterranean and beyond throughout the 17th Century.

Drawing on an incredible wealth of material including from furious royal proclamations to the private letters of pirates and their victims, Adrian Tinniswood paints a kaleidoscopic image of a wild and exotic people, place and time.

Many of the extraordinary stories he reveals are of quite ordinary men from Britain and Europe who turned their backs on their homelands in pursuit of wealth and infamy on the high seas."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

John Lister Kaye
For the last 30 years John Lister-Kaye, one of Britain's best-known nature writers, has taken the same circular walk from his home deep in a Scottish glen up to a small hill loch. Each day brings a new observation or an unexpected encounter - a fragile spider's web, an osprey struggling to lift a trout from the water or a Woodcock exquisitely camouflaged on her nest - and every day, on his return home he records his thoughts in a journal.

At The Water's Edge, is a collection of these wonderful wildlife encounters.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Acclaimed crime writer Ruth Rendell will discuss with David Grylls the latest edition of the Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, for which she has supplied the introduction. How important has Holmes been in the history of detective fiction? What differences does she see between Conan Doyle's great detective and her own sleuth, Chief Inspector Wexford? Would she ever kill off her own creation?

This event is jointly sponsored by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education and Kellogg College, Oxford.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox: it sits atop some of the richest oil deposits in he world, and yet the country's rolling disaffection produced sixteen of the nineteen  9/11 hijackers. It is a modern state driven by contemporary technology, and yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back to match those of the Prophet Muhammed which date back more than 1,000 years

In this fascinating book, veteran British journalist and best selling author Robert Lacey gives us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. "Compelling ... I know of no book that captures so convincingly the intimate connection between the kingdom and the rise of al-Qaeda and its jihadist ideology." The Economist
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Natural Navigator
"Tristan Gooley has spent years practising and teaching natural navigation as a way of enriching journeys and reconnecting with the world. His book The Natural Navigator, blends natural science, myth, folklore and the history of travel to introduce his readers to the ancient art of finding their way using nature's own signposts.

He tells us how the Ancient Greeks used the stars to chart their course and why some trees grow in a particular shape that can help us find our way. He even explains how natural signs can be used to navigate in the heart of the city and how you can discover north by simply looking into a puddle."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Tower Poetry - The Best Young Poets
Join the judges Stephen Romer, Michael Schmidt & Peter McDonald as they present the prizes to the winners of the 10th Tower Poetry competition. This event will also include the first performance of 'Villanelle' by Sophie Stephenson-Wright (2009 runner-up) set to music by Jonathan Pitkin. Established following a bequest to Christ Church, by the late Christopher Tower, Tower Poetry aims to stimulate an enjoyment and critical appreciation of poetry, particularly among young people, and to encourage them to write their own poetry.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Did You Really Shoot the Television?
"Award winning foreign correspondent Max Hastings is the son of broadcaster and adventurer Macdonald Hastings and the famous columnist and editor of Harper's Bazaar Anne Scott-James. One of his grandfathers was a literary editor while the other wrote plays and an enchanting memoir of his own Victorian childhood. His great-uncle was an African hunter who wrote poetry and became one of Max's heroes.

Max Hastings tells us about this remarkable cast of forebears, 'a tribe of eccentrics' as he himself characterises them, with guest appearances by a host of celebrities from Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad to John Betjeman and Osbert Lancaster.

'All families are dysfunctional', his mother asserted impenitently to Max, but his family managed to be more dysfunctional than most."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is the true-life account of an unlikely friendship that develops between Bee, a part-time radio producer living in north London, and May, a hard-talking, chain-smoking Iraqi university lecturer living in Baghdad.

When a simple email brings them together, they discover a friendship that overcomes all their differences of culture, religion and age.

In 2007, when May discovers she is on an assassination list because of her job at the university, and two of her colleagues are murdered, Bee helps May apply for refugee status and plan her escape to the UK, in which the book became a vital part.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Science: A Four Thousand Year History
This is a truly global history, looking not just at the more familiar story of science in Europe, but also at the contributions of China and the Islamic empire, so offering a tale that starts at the very beginning and comes right up to the 21st century. Patricia Fara takes us from ancient Babylon to genetics and particle physics, showing the world of science as part of the cut and thrust of war, politics, business and personal ambition throughout the centuries.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Poets in Conversation

"Award winning novelist and poet John Burnside will be in conversation with fellow poet and novelist Jam Poster and reading poems from his latest collection The Hunt in The Forest.

In these poems of hunting and predation, he explores our most deep-rooted and primeval pursuits: romantic love, memory, selfhood, grief and the recollection of he dead.

His poems take us on a journey out of the light and into darkness, where we may just as easily lose ourselves as find what we are looking for."

 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Ten years on from David Blunkett's announced plans for academy schooling funded largely by private business, we begin the second of our Education Matters series by asking whether excellence in achievement has truly disappeared forever from British schooling. Are pupils aiming only to pass exams? Should children leave school with skills or knowledge? Or is everything on the up and up? Chaired by author Joanne Harris, these issues will be discusssed in a lively debate by Chris Woodhead, former Chief Inspector of Schools and author of A Desolation of Learning; Adrian Elliott, TES columnist and author of State Schools Since the 1950s: The Good News; and outspoken author and columnist Peter Hitchens.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

When war broke out in 1939, the government created the Ministry of Food to help families make the most of wartime rations.

Today, in the face of rising food prices, an obesity epidemic and ever increasing food miles, The Ministry of Food shows how modern families can survive the credit crunch with a bit of wartime wisdom and ingenuity.

Written by best-selling author Jane Fearnley-Wittingsall, this book is an invaluable handbook which accompanies a major new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Relative Strangers is the untold story of wartime evacuation. Julie is looking at what happened to the children evacuated in wartime Britain when they came home. Using documentary evidence compiled after the war and recent interviews she reveals a rich picture of how the children who returned from the country, from America and from all over the Commonwealth fared in the aftermath. She will talk about the surprises encountered along the way and some of the pitfalls of oral history.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Energy Matters: Land for Food or Energy?
Concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and security of supply has encouraged governments to introduce legislation to support biofuels to replace gasoline and diesel fuels. The agricultural industry has accordingly switched production for food to transport fuels. Does this make sense in world where famine still exists and whose population is approaching 7bn? Rosie Hails, Chair of the National Capital Initiative Steering Group and aection Head at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Ronald Oxburgh, previously chief scientist to MOD and Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and George Monbiot, writer and investigative journalist, will debate this important topic.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Betrayal
"A gripping and deeply moving portrait of life in post-war Soviet Russia, The Betrayal involves the reader in an epic struggle of ordinary people who strive to survive during a time of violence and terror. Set in Leningrad during 1952, a city recovering from war, where Andrea, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are forging a life together, it brings together colourful characters living in a land ruled by whispers and watchfulness.

This stirring book is a sequel to Helen Dunmore’s best selling novel The Siege, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and a Costa Book Award."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Seven Ages of Britain
"The Seven Ages of Britain is a unique exploration of British History by David Dimbleby, which was televised on BBC 1 and BBC 2.

His book which accompanied the series brings together leading experts who vividly capture each period of history, beginning with the mysterious Pictish carvings and Roman mosaics that reveal the legacy of Britain's many invaders.

As David Dimbleby guides us through the seven ages of Britain, he journeys from the riches of the Middle Ages, to the innovation of the Restoration, the exotica of the British Empire and finally to the twentieth century modernism."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

How to Write A Bestseller
What truly makes a bestseller? What do agents and publishers look for when they sign a new author? What are the differences between a fiction and a non-fiction bestseller?

Chaired by Barry Turner, editor of The Writer’s Handbook, the definitive guide to getting your book published, these questions and more will be discussed in a lively debate between Clive Bloom, author of Bestsellers, novelist Nick Harkaway, Sci-fi fiction author George Mann, Peggy Vance, Publisher at Dorling Kindersley and Michael Alcock, Literary agent at Johnson & Alcock.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Thinking of Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life
The essays in AC Grayling’s Thinking of Answers are responses to questions set by editors and readers. If, for example, beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality? Are human rights political and can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection?

As in his previous books of popular philosophy, rather than presenting a set of categorical answers, AC Grayling offers suggestions for how to think about every aspect of a question and arrive at one’s own conclusions.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Twitter YouTube Blogs - Has the Citizen Journalist Taken Over?
From China and Iran to a London demonstration, the power of on the spot mobile phone photos and web messages has changed forever the way we gather and receive news. But is this always positive? Can we trust news from the new breed of citizen journalists? How does this affect the more traditional reporting from experienced journalists? Social media expert Marc Wright publisher of simply-communicate.com, the knowledge site for communication debates the issue with journalist Gaby Hinsliff, former Observer political editor who blogs regularly on a range of issues from politics to work life balance.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

What sort of "faith schools" are acceptable, if any?
"Do faith schools help build communities, or divide them? Do they educate, or indoctrinate? Do they raise principled moral citizens, or dangerous moral sheep? Should a school that discriminates against staff and pupils on the basis of faith receive state funding?

Peter Stanford is a former editor of the Catholic Herald, and an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. His biographies have included Lord Longford, C Day-Lewis, Bronwen Astor and the Devil. His latest book, The Extra Mile: The Twenty First Century Pilgrim, is published in March. Peter had two children at faith schools and is a foundation governor of one.

Stephen Law is a philosopher and the author of a book on faith schools called ""The War For Children's Minds"". Stephen will argue that the state funding of faith schools should be abolished, and that every child at every school should be reminded regularly that religious belief is something each one of them is free to accept or reject. Indeed, Stephen is not convinced faith schools should be permitted at all."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

With a General Election imminent, it’s a good time to consider what the future might hold for the UK. How different will its destiny be, depending on the result of the election? Will we experience as much change in the next half-century as we have in the last 50 years? And will there even be a ‘Great Britain’ in the near, let alone distant, future? Our distinguished panel will share their thoughts on past, present and times to come.

With Ian Jack (journalist, author of The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain) and Peter Kellner (journalist, president of YouGov)
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The End of the Party is packed with more astonishing revelations as Andrew Rawnsley takes up the New Labour story from the day of its second election victory in 2001.

There are riveting inside accounts of all the key events from 9/11 to the Iraq War to the financial crisis and the parliamentary expenses scandal; and entertaining portraits of the main players as Andrew Rawnsley takes you through the triumphs and tribulations of New Labour. He also highlights the astonishing feuds and reconciliations between Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is the world's biggest and most lucrative prize for a single short story, with £25,000 going to the winner. Ahead of the announcement of the winning entry at the festival on Friday, March 26, the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is offering festival goers the chance, on three successive evenings (March 23, 24 and 25), to judge for themselves the shortlisted entries. Come and enjoy a glass of wine in a relaxed atmosphere as two of the six stories get their first reading in public.
 

Running Time: 1HR

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £15

Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) is a key figure in English Modernism, both as a painter and a writer. He was one of the first abstract painters in Europe, and is considered by some to be the 20th century equivalent of William Blake. The most fascinating personality of our time – T S Eliot, 1920.

The largest exhibition ever held of his visual and literary work is currently on show in Madrid at the Juan March Foundation until 16 May. Paul Edwards, Professor of English and History of Art at Bath Spa University, is the author of Wyndham Lewis: Painter and Writer and was guest curator for the exhibition. He will be giving an illustrated talk on the exhibition, and will explain why Wyndham Lewis remains largely neglected in his own country. He will be assisted by Yolanda Morató who translated Lewis’s works into Spanish.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

John Le Carré is one of the world's foremost novelists, a writer whose work transcends the narrow boundaries of genre to address vital issues about the individual, and about the world. In this rare public platform appearance, le Carre will give a talk about his work, and will receive from the Sunday Times literary editor Andrew Holgate the prestigious Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, past recipients of which have included Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Anthony Burgess and Tom Stoppard.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 19:30 Book Tickets     Prices:  £50 / £25 / £15 / £12

Sum - Forty Tales from the Afterlives
"What happens to us when we die? And what does that tell us about being human? In the afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence. Or you may find the afterlife contains only those people whom you remember.

In this collection of imagined tales, neuroscientist David Eagleman kicks over traditional notions and offers a dazzling lens through which to see ourselves here and now. His stories are rooted in science, romance and awe of our mysterious existence.

'SUM is terrific. It's such a good idea that I was grinding my teeth all the way through wishing I'd thought of it first. The inventiveness, the clarity and wit of the prose, the calm air of moral understanding that pervades the whole thing, add up to something completely original.' Philip Pullman"
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Waking Up in Toytown

"Waking Up in Toytown, is award-winning poet John Burnside's new memoir and sequel to his celebrated account of a troubled childhood in A Lie About My Father.

After a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness he runs away to the suburbs to live what he hopes will be a normal life. The suburbs, though, are not quite as normal as he imagined and he relapses into chaos. Here he talks about his quest for peace and mental security as the ghosts and terrors closed in and the illusion of Surbiton fell apart.

Unflinchingly honest, this is the story of one man's search for sanity - but it is also, in its own way the true story of an impossible, unmanageable love."

 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

A Beginner's Guide to Acting English
"In 1979 three-year-old Shappi Khorsandi and her family left Tehran for London. Without a word of English between them, they found themselves thrust into an incomprehensible culture. If adapting to Britain wasn't enough, it soon became clear that due to her journalist father's criticism of the new Iranian regime, the Ayatollah's henchmen were in pursuit.

Now she is a popular stand up comic who performs all over the world. The Guardian described her as ""Britain's best young female comic by any yardstick"".

Don't miss her brilliantly funny talk as she recreates one family's baptism into 1980s England. With her touching portrait of a lost homeland and a witty dissection of Englishness, she reveals what it was like growing up an outsider."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Is this the end of the party for New Labour, has David Cameron set the Conservatives on full recovery from their disastrous electoral defeat in 1997, and are conventional politics at a crossroads? Who will pick up the pieces of catastrophic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the parliamentary expenses scandal and manage the fall-out from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? Hear our panel of leading writers: Andrew Rawnsley, chief political commentator for the Observer, regular broadcaster, and author of The End of the Party; Peter Snowdon, historian, journalist, and author of Back from the Brink; Simon Lee, leading expert on New Labour and author of Boom or Bus: The Politics and Legacy of Gordon Brown; and Phillip Blond, political thinker and author of the soon-to-be-published Red Tory: How Left & Right Have Broken Britain.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Wed 24/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

BBC Four Screening: Disappearing Dads
The world of literature reserves a special fate for fathers: they are either missing or marginalised, or regarded as an embarrassment. In a new programme coming soon to BBC Four, novelist and father Andrew Martin, takes us on a journey through three centuries of literary fatherhood from Jane Austen to Nick Hornby, while also looking at how real-life relationships between writers and their fathers have influenced fiction and non-fiction alike. Introduced by Andrew Martin with Questions and Answers from the audience.

Event lasts 1 hour 15 minutes
 

Running Time: 1:15

• Wed 24/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Hear the Lost Voices from the Titanic
The story of the Titanic continues to fascinate us across the years. Now Nick Barratt, genealogist and historian, explores the hidden past of this famous ship from its construction through to its maiden voyage in April 1912 which ended tragically when it struck an iceberg. Nick looks at the lives of the passengers from the first class aristocrats to those in steerage with stories from the crewmembers giving a very different perspective of the voyage. His book, "Lost Voices from the Titanic", ends by looking at the impact on the survivors and what became of them.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Places in Turkey: A Pocket Grand Tour
 "Turkey for the tourist is a daunting, yet infinitely rewarding proposition providing you know how to choose between the many places that it offers the visitor.

Francis Russell has been travelling in Turkey for more than 20 years. His deep understanding of Turkey's history and culture and his keen eye for detail, make him the most delightfully erudite of travelling companions. The eighty-three recommendations in his pocket grand tour provide a fascinating and comprehensive itinerary that will enhance the traveller's experience of this fascinating country."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

George Eliot: Novelist, Lover, Wife
Mary Ann Evans was born in 1819 and died in 1880 as George Eliot, one of the most famous authors of her generation, who is now celebrated as one of the greatest novelists in history.<p> In this revealing biography, Brenda Maddox explores the woman behind the books: a troubled child, an ambitious young career woman and an almost-wife.

Intertwining her novels and her life story, Brenda Maddox sheds new light on one of English literature's most significant, complex and courageous figures.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Angels: A History
What are Angels? Where were they first encountered? Can we distinguish angels from gods, fairies, ghosts and aliens? And why do they remain so popular? In this introduction to the history of angels, David Albert Jones outlines the more prominent stories and speculations about angles in Judaism, Islam, Christianity and post-Christian spiritualities. He reflects the way angels are portrayed in art and films and asks why they remain so powerful in modern culture, because whether or not we believe that they exist in their own right, angles can still illuminate our thoughts.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Few things so readily spark a lively debate as the use and perceived misuse of English. But are we too protective of our language? Too prescriptive even? Does English need defending? Susie Dent, author of How to Talk like a Local and the resident dictionary expert and adjudicator on Channel 4’s long-running game show Countdown, Henry Hitchings, author of The Secret Life of Words (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award) and Stephen Harrison, Professor of Latin Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford will debate. Julie Summers, who has been known to coin the odd new word, will chair
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England
In Trials of the Diaspora, Anthony Julius traces anti-Semitism’s disturbing history in England, from the bloody medieval persecutions and the invention of the ‘Blood Libel’, through the centuries of exclusion, the gradual rehabilitation after Cromwell, and the not-quite complete integration of the twentieth-century. He exposes the pernicious literary strand that extends from medieval balladeers through Shakespeare and Dickens, to Eliot and beyond. He also dissects the alarming new political Anti-Zionism – part secular, part religious.

In addition he tells his own story, revealing the everyday experience of today’s Anglo-Jewish community.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Shirley Williams was born to politics. As well as being influenced by her mother, Vera Brittain, her father George Caitlin, a leading political scientist, encouraged his daughter to have high ambition for herself – including daring to climb the bookshelves in his library – hence the title for her autobiography.

Although the role of women in our society has changed out of all recognition, it has changed least in the House of Commons. Shirley Williams describes those changes and the resistances to them through the magnifying glass of her own life, a life that coincides with our turbulent post-war history.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Architecture of Hope - Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres
"Since the mid 1990's an exciting building project has been underway, new cancer caring centres that offer a fresh approach in architecture and health.

Named after Maggie Keswich and co-founded with her husband, writer and landscape designer Charles Jencks, theses centres aim to be at all the major British hospitals that treat cancer.

Six have already been completed and a further six are in the pipeline. Complementary to the large hospital and National Health Service, they present a face that is welcoming, risk-taking, aesthetic and spiritual. Here Charles Jencks and Edwin Heathcote, architecture correspondent for the Financial Times talk about Architecture of Hope."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Tower Poetry - Getting the Best out of Poetry
Trevor Millum, ex Head of English and Director of NATE, (National Association for the Teaching of English) writer and creator of the Poetry Place website, shows teachers, parents - indeed anyone with an interest in words - how to encourage the more able (and motivate the more reluctant) student to enjoy the reading and writing of poetry.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Michael Steen’s The Lives and Times of the Great Composers has become the definitive work on the key names in classical music. Now it has been revised and updated as a mass-market edition, it brings this authoritative and hugely engaging musical history to a much wider audience.

Covering 350 years of European musical history, Michael Steen sketches his canonic figures with Dickensian flair, providing a work that is also a literary achievement in its own right.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Tracing Your Personal Heritage
The success of programmes like Who Do you Think You Are and Hidden House Histories shows that many of us are fascinated by our past history and heritage. Dr Nick Barratt has been interested in history since an early age, becoming our best-known genealogist through TV programmes and his books. His latest: Tracing Your Personal Heritage focuses on associated lines of historical research to family history, such as house history and sources for local history. It's intended to be a beginner's guide to these topics as well as showing you how to put flesh on the bones of your family tree.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks Since1900
"Dominic Bradbury's leads us through some of the most important and influential architect-designed houses from around the world. With seminal works from such icons as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, as well as modern-day greats including Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhass and Herzog and de Meuron, he presents a stunning array of buildings of the past century's architectural masterpieces.

Dominic Bradbury's illustrated talk brings to life these extraordinary homes, and offers an intimate glimpse into how these very special buildings are or were lived in."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Rule of Law
The Rule of Law is a phrase much used but little examined.

The idea of the rule of law as the foundation of modern states and civilisations has recently become even more talismanic than that of democracy, but what does it actually consist of?

Britain’s former senior law lord, and one of the world’s most acute legal minds, examines what the idea actually means.

A fascinating talk for anyone interested in politics, society and the state of our world.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded Modern Poetry in Translation in 1966 they had two principal ambitions: to publish poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world, and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. As current co-editor of the periodical, and as an eminent poet and translator in his own right, David Constantine is particularly well placed to discuss, with examples, the complexities and pleasures of poetic translation.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

The Lost Man Booker
In 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became – as it is today – a prize for the best novel of the year of publication. As a result a wealth of fiction published for much of 1970 fell through the net. The Lost Man Booker is a one-off prize to honour the books which missed out on the opportunity to win the Booker Prize in 1970. Join the judges - the ITN newsreader Katie Derham, poet and novelist Tobias Hill and journalist and critic Rachel Cooke - for the exclusive shortlist announcement, and a discussion on each of the six books, before casting your vote for the winner via the Man Booker Prize website.

Introduced by Peter Kemp, Sunday Times Fiction Editor.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art
Frances Spalding gives us an exuberant biography of John Piper, one of the best-loved and capacious English artists, and his wife the librettist Myfanwy Piper, friend and collaborator with Benjamin Britten. Together they were at the heart of art, architecture, opera and the reshaping the perception of 'Englishness' in the mid-20th century. She presents the first comprehensive account of the life and work of John Piper and of the shared journey made by John and Myfanwy who early on settled down in a small hamlet on the edge of the Chilterns, whence they proceeded to produce work which placed them centre stage in the cultural landscape of the twentieth century.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Writing Fiction
For years, novelist Rachel Billington has been writing fiction with warmth, substance and memorable characters that appeal to a literate female readership.

Her latest book Lies and Loyalties, is an emotional, gritty family drama which explores the power of frustrated love and intense sibling rivalry and deals with powerful contemporary issues. Her next novel The Missing Boy, which comes out in May, centres around a 13 year-old boy who doesn’t feel ready to grow up and is filled with an inexplicable urge to run away from his home so that he can become a different person.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Thirties: An Intimate History
"Juliet Gardiner, author of the acclaimed Wartime Britain and The Children's War, brings to life the 1930s and provides a fresh perspective on that restless, uncertain, ambitious decade.
Using newspapers, magazines, memoirs, letters and diaries, she explores Britain's influence in the world and political and social crises, and captures the essence of a people part-mesmerised by 'modernism', the cult of fitness and fresh air, the obsession with speed and the celebration of elegance, glamour and sensation."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Simon Singh is the science author responsible for a string of best-sellers that include Big Bang, Fermat’s Last Theorem and The Code Book. In his latest book, Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial, Singh subjects a number of alternative medicines to critical scrutiny, investigating what works and what doesn’t. Singh is currently being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for suggesting, in a Guardian article, that it “happily promotes bogus treatments” for some ailments. This has become a landmark legal case, of huge importance to the scientific community, many of whom (e.g. Richard Dawkins) believe British libel law has now become a threat to open scientific debate. Singh will be discussing the significance of this ongoing legal case, now being widely reported in the media.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

In fifty years university attendance has risen almost tenfold. But precisely what are the consequences of such a radical shift? Have standards dropped, are we providing "mickey mouse" degrees and where are tuition fees going? Are students increasingly being downgraded to customers, and is the big-business model really the shape of British universities to come?

Join David Willetts, MP for Havant with Shadow Cabinet responsibility for education, Shirley Williams, former secretary of state for education and one of the "gang of four" who founded the SDP, and Bahram Bekhradnia Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) think tank, for a dramatic close to our Education Matters series set in the university that started them all. Chaired by Malcolm Gillies, Vice-Chancellor of London Metropolitan University.

Running Time: 1:00

• Thu 25/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is the world's biggest and most lucrative prize for a single short story, with £25,000 going to the winner. Ahead of the announcement of the winning entry at the festival on Friday, March 26, the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is offering festival goers the chance, on three successive evenings (March 23, 24 and 25), to judge for themselves the shortlisted entries. Come and enjoy a glass of wine in a relaxed atmosphere as two of the six stories get their first reading in public.
 

Running Time: 1HR

• Thu 25/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £15

Screenwriter and best-selling novelist Anthony Horowitz will be in conversation with Paul Blezard about his writing for television and for young people. He will offer behind-the-scenes insights into the acclaimed five-part ITV mini-series, Collision, and into his writing for the wartime detective series Foyle's War. Celebrated for his books about teenage superspy Alex Rider, the first of which, Stormbreaker, was filmed starring Alex Pettifer, Horowitz will reveal, for instance, why he is proudest of his Power of Five series of novels, and why he names his villains after his schoolteachers.

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 19:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10 / £8 / £6

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
For two hundred years after Shakespeare's death, no one thought to argue that somebody else had written his plays.

Since then dozens of rival candidates - including Sir Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford - have been proposed as their true author.

Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro (whose bestselling book 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare won the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize) unravels the mystery of when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays. His fascinating search for the source of this controversy retraces a path strewn with fabricated documents, false claimants, concealed identity, bald-faced deception and a failure to grasp what could not be imagined.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Only a few seconds of video footage of George Orwell is known to exist – walking across a field while at Eton – so writer and director Chris Durlacher had to start from scratch with this dramatised biography. Starring Chris Langham as George Orwell, this critically-acclaimed and Emmy-winning film was shown in 2003, the centenary of Orwell’s birth. Chris will be talking and taking questions about the documentary afterwards.
 

Running Time: 1:00

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Con Coughlin's Khomeini's Ghost is the definitive account of how an impoverished young student from a remote area of southern Iran came to be the leader of the world-changing Iranian revolution of 1979. It includes first-hand accounts from his own former students of his early years as a teacher and young radical, and whose radical Islamic philosophy now lies at the heart of a modern-day conflict between Iran and the West..

Con Coughlin, executive foreign editor of the Daily Telegraphy, reveals how the security challenges now facing the new Obama administration can be traced back to Khomeini's revolution, whether it is the current crisis in Gaza or the development of Iran's nuclear programme.

Here he talks to renowned foreign correspondent Ann Leslie, who has been recognised as one of the 40 most influential journalists of our time.
 

Running Time: 1:00

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Energy Matters: Living for the Future
Humans crave comfort (warm homes), illumination (so we can read books!), food (for nourishment and pleasure), entertainment (for fun!) and transportation. How will these be provided in the future? Will we have to redesign our cities to cope with limited energy supplies and population growth, or will our present practices be adequate? This fascinating subject chaired by Tony White who has worked extensively in the energy sector, a founder of Climate Change Capital, currently director of Ytilitu Limited, will be discussed by experts Bernice Lee, leader of Chatham House EEDP, Simon Reddy, Secretary of the C40 city mayors and Walt Patterson, self confessed 'troublemaker' and author of 'Keeping the Lights on; Towards Sustainable Electricity'
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Sixties. A Decade in Fashion
The creatively quirky and youthful clothing designs of Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin, along with their trailblazing boutique off Carnaby Street, snagged them a place in the now legendary history of the 1960's and early 1970's fashion. These two feisty, bolshy girls with their 'can-do' attitude found themselves at the epicentre of the 60's scene. David Bailey was photographing their designs; Cathy MacGowan was wearing them on Ready Steady Go!

Marion and Sally talk to Iain R Webb about the designs that made them famous during one of the most captivating decades of the 20th century.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The baby boom of 1945-65 produced the biggest, richest generation that Britain has ever known. Today, at the peak of their power and wealth, baby boomers run our country. By sheer demographic weight they have fashioned the world around them to serve their interests. The Pinch is a landmark account of intergenerational relations in Britain, placing the principle of fairness between the generations at the heart of the political agenda. Here David Willetts appeals to older generations who have done so well out of the post-war world to protect the interests of the generations coming after them. David Willetts has been MP for Havant since 1992 and has served in the Shadow Cabinet for over a decade with particular responsibility for education, work and pensions.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Thu 25/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Mad About the Dog
We have all seen a bedraggled, cat or dog looking pitifully at us, when were are on holiday, and wondered for a moment if it would be possible to affect a rescue.

For Belinda Harley, there was no escape – once Goofy, a ragamuffin of a dog entered her life while she was on holiday on the Greek Island of Paxos, she knew she had to help him.

Before she knew it, she was moving heaven and earth to save him from his fate and was introducing him to high life in London. In return Goofy taught her a lesson in love.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Novel Mysteries
Have you ever wondered if Heathcliff was a murderer? Can Jane Eyre be happy? And who betrayed Elizabeth Bennet? Then you share the questing mind of John Sutherland, emeritus professor, author and columnist. Casting his eye over some classic fiction texts, he hunts down apparent inconsistencies and oversights in a series of books about 19th century literature. Here he shares some of these puzzles in our session which may stimulate you to turn detective when reading your next book. And why did Robinson Crusoe find only one single footprint in the sand?
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Trotsky: A Biography
Revolutionary icon, cosmopolitan, theorist, leader, writer, lover, philosopher, enemy, Jew, husband and hunted victim, Leon Trotsky led a brilliant life in extraordinary times. He was not just an immensely colourful and complex character who played a pivotal role in the creation of the USSR, but a man who has recently been overlooked in comparison to fellow Soviet leaders.

Drawing on hitherto unexamined archives and his deep understanding of Russian history, Robert Service offers a fresh portrait of the man, his times and his legacy.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Why does the Islamic world bear the West such a grudge? In this hugely authoritative history, Eugene Rogan, who teaches the modern history of the Middle East at Oxford university, takes us from the Ottoman conquests in the 16th century, via the era of European imperialism and the superpower rivalries of the cold war, to the present age of unipolar American power in his attempts to understand the historical roots of the modern Arab world. His book is remarkable both for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. "Strikingly vivid and authoritative . . . [Rogan] is a master of Arab sources" - Max Hastings, Sunday Times.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

JohnCurran (author of Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks) will be in conversation with Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard.  They will be discussing the life of Agatha Christie, in light of the recent discoveries of both her notebooks and the taped recordings of her voice.  They will be taking questions from the audience and discussing the impact of Agatha Christie on crime fiction.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

A Diamond in the Desert: Behind the Scenes in the World's Richest City
Arabia in the 1960's was still a land of desert, nomadic tribes, falcons and gazelles. And Abu Dhabi, perched on the Gulf Coast was a poor fishing community. Barely forty years on it has become the richest city on earth, with major stakes in Western economies. If the extraordinarily ambitious vision for the capital of the United Arab Emirates succeeds in creating the greatest cultural complex of the 21st Century (including the new Guggenheim and Louvre of the Gulf) and a cultural bridge between Islam and the West, its future impact will be global.

Jo Tatchell, who has spent many years in the Middle East shows Abu Dhabi past and present through the eyes of its people as well as her own.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The International Children's charity Plan UK asked seven well-known authors to visit seven countries to tell the human story behind the reports and statistics about the world's poorest girls. The result is an extraordinary collection of writings about prejudice, abuse and neglect, but also about courage, resilience and changing attitudes.

Joanne Harris visited Togo, Kathy Lette visited the slums of Brazil and Deborah Moggach went to Ghana. Here they join Marie Staunton CEO of Plan UK to tell us about the girls they met, of their lives, struggles and hopes."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

On the Spartacus Road: A Spectacular Journey through Ancient Italy
"Former editor of The Times, Peter Stothard, retraces the journey taken by Spartacus and his army of rebels. In the final century of the first Roman Republic an army of slaves brought a peculiar terror to the people of Italy. Its leaders were gladiators. The Spartacus Road is the route along which this rebel army outfought the Roman legions between 73 and 71BC, bringing both fears and hopes that have never wholly left the modern mind.

Peter Stothard's book, which was once a journalist's notebook, is a classicist's celebration, a survivor's record of a near fatal cancer and the history of a unique and brutal war."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Last Weekend
Set over a long summer weekend in Suffolk, Blake Morrison’s new novel opens with a surprise telephone call from an old university friend inviting Ian and his wife Em for a few days by the sea. Their hosts, Ollie and Daisy are a golden couple, whose glamour and happiness drive Ian to distraction, such that dangerous tensions quickly emerge. Beneath congenial yet charged conversation, the history of their relationship is uncovered. When Ian and Ollie resurrect an old almost forgotten bet made 20 years before, each day becomes a series of challenges for higher and higher stakes.

The Last Weekend is a haunting tale of friendship, jealousy, sexual passion and revenge.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Rise and Rise of British Food
Are we are witnessing a renaissance of British food? Writers now celebrate the quality and diversity of British cuisine, and many chefs are proud to include local produce on their menus. What is driving this new found confidence? Donald Sloan, Chair of Oxford Gastronomica, will be joined in discussion by Charles Campion, broadcaster and journalist with the Independent and London Evening Standard; Tom Parker Bowles, broadcaster and food writer; and Mark Hix, acclaimed British chef and food writer with The Independent.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Does Science Reveal The Mind of God? Polkinghorne vs Papineau

After a distinguished career, John Polkinghorne retired as a Professor of Physics to study for Church of England Ministry, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. He is the author of several books arguing that science is not in conflict with religion. Polkinghorne suggests that God is the answer to the question of "why is there something rather than nothing?" and that "theism explains more than a reductionist atheism can ever address." David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London, one of the country's foremost philosophers and atheists, and the author of the excellent philosophy primer, Philosophy: Essential Tools For Critical Thought. Debate chaired by Stephen Law (Provost, Centre for Inquiry UK).
 

Running Time: 1 hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Valley of the Shadow: Encounters with Mortality

What moves brave people to write about their journey through a life threatening illness? John Sutherland, academic and author, poses this question to three people who chose to share that journey. Novelist Lia Mills kept a diary through her oral cancer treatment: "In Your Face" is a life changing book for me" according to Anne Enright. Hasso von Bredow - totally paralysed following a stroke - could only communicate through blinking his eyes. His wife Catherine explains why she published "In the Blink of an Eye" after his death. John D. Edwards chose another medium -painting - to help him through dark times, described in "How Cancer Saved My Life."

 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Poets in Conversation
Robin Robertson’s fourth collection is, if anything, an even more intense, moving bleakly lyrical, and at times shocking book than Swithering, winner of the Forward prize. These poems were written with the authority of the classical myth, yet sound utterly contemporary.

Alongside fine translations from Neruda and Montale and dynamic (and at times horrific) retellings of stories from Ovid, the poems in The Wrecking Light pitch the power and wonder of nature against the frailty and failure of the human.

Robin Robertson, one of the most arresting and powerful poets at work today, will be in conversation with fellow poet and novelist Jem Poster.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual
Best known as the author of the classic Darkness at Noon, Koestler was one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals, involved in and commenting on almost every political movement of the twentieth century.

Michael Scammel gives a full account of Koestler’s turbulent private life: his drug use, manic depression, the frenetic womanizing that doomed his three marriages and let to an accusation of rape, and his startling suicide pact with his wife in 1983. He also gives a full account of the author’s voluminous writings, making the case that the autobiographies and essays are fit to stand besides Darkness at Noon, as works of lasting literary value.

Award winning writer Michael Scammell is a vice-president of International PEN, and has written regularly for the New York Times Book Review. He teaches non-fiction writing and translation in the School of the Arts at Columbia.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

For most of the 20th century, London's culinary landscape was generally regarded as bleak.  Today, this complex and fascinating city boasts an abundance of world-class restaurants and speciality food markets.  Anne Dolamore, founder of Grub Street Publishing and Chair of Sustain, will be joined by Rosie Boycott, pioneering journalist, former Editor of The Independent, and London Food Tsar and Carolyn Steel, architect, academic, and author of Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives, to explore the role of food in building the character and culture of London.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Moses Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles is a passionate story of 20th-century Africa, written with the vision of one who left his native Uganda in 1990 to pursue his dream and become a writer. Isegawa's hard-won observations form the basis for a quite remarkable novel.

At the centre of this unforgettable tale is Mugezi, a young man who manages to make it through the hellish reign of Idi Amin and who experiences first hand the difficult aspects of Ugandan society. He withstands his distant father's oppression, his mother's cruelty in the name of Catholic zeal, endures the ravages of war, rape, poverty and AIDS, and yet is still able to keep a hopeful outlook on life.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Jane Whorwood, an unhappy wife of an Oxfordshire squire, was one of Charles I's closest confidantes.  When the court moved to Oxford in 1642, at the start of the Civil War, she helped the royalist cause by spying for the king and smuggling a great deal of gold to help pay for his army.  When Charles was imprisoned by the Parliamentarians, she set up correspondence networks and organised several escape attempts.

Most Civil War biographies focusing on the men involved, rather than the women. John Fox changes this by describing the life of a fascinating woman who played an important role in the English Civil War.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Picture This: The Illustrator as Author
The golden age of book illustration of the early twentieth century may be over but illustration and the book form have found a different relationship. Illustration survives through the book cover but the most interesting development is the graphic novel. Professor of Illustration at the Royal College of Art and graphic artist, Andrzrej Klimowski, whose work includes poster design, book illustration and graphic novels, looks at great names of the past and traces the development of contemporary illustration related to literature. The illustrator is now becoming an author. Experiments with the visually articulated narrative have the ambition of the literary novel, challenging the reader while introducing a rich and imaginative visual world.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital
"Drawing extensively on contemporary memoirs, court cases and the evidence of art and architecture, architectural historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank explains how Georgian London was shaped by the sex industry.

His approach is ambitiously wide-ranging, and examines both the smart new streets that sprang up in Marylebone and the squalid alleys around Charring Cross.

He also discusses the impact of prostitution on artists such as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds, as he argues that prostitution shaped 18th century London and helped determine its future development."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

In the midst of the current financial crisis, John Gray, author and Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, revisits his brilliant polemic against the forces of global capitalism and deregulation. Written more than ten years ago, False Dawn is a remarkably prescient book, sharply criticising the greed and unsustainable economic practices that have proved to be the seeds of a worldwide recession.

John Gray now considers how the economic landscape has shifted in a decade and asks the crucial question: where do we go from here?
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is the world's biggest and most lucrative prize for a single short story, with £25,000 going to the winner. Here, ahead of the announcement of the winning entry at the festival this evening, judges from this year's award - who include Lynn Barber, AS Byatt, Lord Evans, Nick Hornby and Hanif Kureishi - discuss with the prize's founder Cathy Galvin what makes a good short story, the challenges of judging the award, and the individual qualities of this year's six shortlisted entries.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"As part of a series of events marking the 75th anniversary of Orwell's debut novel, Burmese Days, the Orwell Prize is delighted to screen Burma VJ. This Oscar-shortlisted documentary by Anders Østergaard looks at the video-journalists risking their freedom - and lives - to document the reality of life inside Burma, and the protests of September 2007.

The film lasts for 85 minutes.
 

Running Time: 1:25

• Fri 26/3 17:30 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

Ian McEwan and Craig Raine are two of the most prominent and accomplished literary figures in Britain. In this rare and special event, arranged by Arete literary magazine, of which Raine is the founder and editor, the two read from and discuss their new novels - Solar, McEwan's outstanding comedy about a Nobel-winning physicist and compulsive womaniser juggling his work on climate change with his disastrous private life; and Raine's forthcoming debut The Divine Comedy, a gripping meditation on sex and death and Gold and the myriad ways in which the human body plays dirty tricks on us.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The British Security Services have dealt with a variety of threats to national security during their century of existence: Germany between the wars, the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, and Islamist terrorism since 9/11. But with intelligence once again under the spotlight with another inquiry into the Iraq War, how can we be sure that we are getting the right sort of intelligence, and how has intelligence gathering evolved over the decades, as threats change and technologies advance? Christopher Andrew (historian, author of The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5), Miranda Carter (author, winner of the Orwell Prize 2002 for Anthony Blunt: His Lives) and David Omand (former UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, former member of the Joint Intelligence Committee) talk about intelligence in the 21st Century. Chaired by Jean Seaton, Director of the Orwell Prize.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

David Harsent, Jon Stallworthy and Tim Kendall will debate 'Poetry and War', in an event chaired by Francine Stock.

 Winner of the 2005 Forward Poetry Prize with Legion, David Harsent's poetry includes versions of the work of Bosnian poet Goran Simic, notably Sprinting from the Graveyard (1997), written during the siege of Sarajevo.  Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford, Jon Stallworthy's works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice and most recently Survivors' Songs. Tim Kendall is Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter, and author of a collection of poems, a war-poetry blog, and several books on modern war poetry.

  Francine Stock presents Radio 4's The Film Programme and is currently writing her third novel.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Bottles outnumber books at this festival event, a tutored journey through Scotland’s unique whisky heritage. From gentle floral and honeyed notes to heather, peat smoke, and the salt sea’s tang: the diversity and appeal of Scotch Malt Whisky continues to grow. Tasting participants will enjoy samples from some less well-known distilleries as well as famous brands. The session will include an example of a unique cask-strength dram

Event lasts from 6pm to 7.30pm
 

Running Time: 1:30

• Fri 26/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £15

Sue Shephard's riveting new biography of Constance Spry, the influential floral artist, has been published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her death.<p>

Constance Spry is best known as the author of that bible of middle-class housewives throughout the land, The Constance Spry Cookery Book, but who was she, and what else did she have to offer? Her story, which Sue Shephard tells so superbly, is that of a profoundly unconventional woman who went from a poverty-stricken childhood to the height of London society. Along the way, she escaped a violent marriage, had a lengthy affair with a cross- dressing lesbian artist and built a hugely successful business as a society florist.
 

Running Time: 1:00

• Fri 26/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"As part of a series of events marking the 75th anniversary of Orwell's debut novel, Burmese Days, the Orwell Prize is delighted to screen Orphans of Burma's Cyclone. First shown on TV as part of Channel 4's Dispatches strand, the film - which follows eight Burmese orphans in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis - won a prestigious Rory Peck Award. Siobhan Sinnerton (executive producer, Dispatches: Orphans of Burma's Cyclone) and Evan Williams (director/producer, Dispatches: Orphans of Burma's Cyclone), who produced the film, will talk and take questions afterwards.

The film lasts for 60 minutes followed by Q&A.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 19:30 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Race to the Pole
In Race to the Pole, double-Olympic Gold medallist James Cracknell and TV presenter Ben Fogle have written a bracingly honest and gripping account of their dramatic attempt earlier this year to reach the South Pole. Battling, in the first race since Scott's ill-fated race against Amundsen in 1911, against five other teams (including a teak-tough Norwegian team comprised of soldiers trained in Arctic warfare), the two must brave hidden crevasses, frostbite and temperatures as low as minus 45 degrees Celsius in their bid to win the race.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Them and Us: Politics, Greed and Inequality - Why We Need a Fair Society
The suddenness and depth of the recession has raised questions about the workability of capitalism not seen since the 1930s. One of the constraints on recovery is the growing belief that if the old model didn't work there is no new one on offer.

Executive vice-chair of The Work Foundation and a former editor of The Observer, Will Hutton sets out to provide a new model and argues that reconstructing a bust financial system is not just a technical question. It cannot be done without a wholescale revision of the wider system and the values on which it is based. His arguments address the mood of the moment and aim to set the current affairs agenda for 2010 and beyond.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

From Page to Screen
Well-loved books are the most challenging to transform to the screen. How to adapt while keeping the essence of the book? Some disappoint while others enhance the original. Award winning screenwriter Heidi Thomas tells how she approached classics such as Madame Bovary and Ballet Shoes. The popularity of her acclaimed adaptation of the heart warming "Cranford" brings it to our TV screens as a Christmas special. "It was both exhilarating and terrifying," explains Heidi. "I had to create new material but time and again went back to the original where the genius of this project lies."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Flying Carpet to Baghdad: One Woman's Fight for Two Orphans of War
"Sent to Iraq by the Sunday Times to cover the war, the last thing prize-winning war correspondent Hala Jaber expected was to find herself trying to save two little girls who had lost everything.

Being a Lebanese Muslim, as well as the employee of a London paper, Hala is in the privileged position of being able to straddle two different worlds and explain one to the other.

Her beautifully written and deeply moving account of three-year-old Zahar and baby Hawra, the only survivors of a missile strike in Baghdad, offers a fresh insight into the Iraq war and its terrible human cost."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Fri 26/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

BBC Four Screening: Rude Britannia with writer and series consultant Vic Gatrell
Despite the national stereotype, the British are not and never have been a polite people. Some of our greatest writers and artists have mixed high art with a good measure of filth and red-blooded rudeness. BBC Four comes over all vulgar as it unpicks three centuries of rude and satirical writing in Rude Britannia. Join series consultant and author of the acclaimed City of Laughter Vic Gatrell as we explore the 18th century birth of modern satire in an era when philosophy was the cheerful bedfellow of sexual excess, where poetry might easily give way to flatulence, and political ideas descend into bawdy laughter.

Event lasts 1hr 15mins
 

Running Time: 1:15

• Fri 26/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

What on Earth Evolved? 100 Species that Changed the World
"Join Christopher Lloyd as he takes you on an unprecedented journey through the story of life on Earth. Using a high degree of participation (including props, live experiments, and an interactive quiz) he navigates life on earth as you have never have experienced it before!

Christopher Lloyd shows how the rival systems of Natural Selection and Artificial Selection have brought the planet, life and people to the brink of a major catastrophe for life on Earth. He even demonstrates the natural self-correcting system of evolution using a model railway set.

Along the way he traces 50 of the most successful species to have evolved before humans and 50 species that have thrived as a result of humans. How can humans and nature live together in a way that allows them both to prosper?

Packed with interaction, entertainment and information, this workshop is ideal for all ages from 8 to 100!"

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

WORKSHOP: Writing Diaries, Memoirs and Personal Stories
"""You ought to write a book!"" If your friends often say this to you and you wonder how to go about it, this workshop is for you. How do you organise the chaotic material of your own life into stories worth writing and worth reading? What is the most effective way to tell your story? During this workshop participants are encouraged to write short pieces based on personal experience. It will also look at how to approach a publisher. Lia Mills is the Dublin-based author of two novels and a memoir, In Your Face, which tells the story of diagnosis and treatment of mouth cancer. An experienced facilitator of creative writing workshops, Lia also writes short stories and literary non-fiction.

Please book early as places are limited to 12

Event lasts from 10am-12.30pm
 

Running Time: 2:30

• Sat 27/3 10:00 SOLD OUT     Prices:  £20

Behind Every Successful Man ......
Journalist and radio presenter Christine Finn is an expert on Barack Obama's mother, and on J B Priestley's wife, the archaeologist, style icon and broadcaster Jacquetta Hawkes (and, with Priestley, one of the co-founders of CND). Finn discusses wives and mothers in history and fiction with Gaynor Arnold, author of the enthusiastically reviewed and Booker- and Orange Prize-longlisted Girl in a Blue Dress, a novel whose heroine is loosely based on Charles Dickens's wife. Chaired by Nicolette Jones, Chair of the St Hilda’s Media Network.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Children Love Picturebooks
Suitable for children between 3 to 6 years old

Join two of the most exciting new illustrators in this interactive event aimed at 3-6s with Katie Cleminson, winner of the Early Years Book Award for Box of Tricks, about a startling present and a friendly polar bear, and Oxford graduate Louise Yates, author/illustrator of A Small Surprise, in which a small rabbit applies to join the circus, and of Dog Loves Books. Louise and Katie will read their stories, tell you why they both like drawing animals so much and about the magic that goes in to making a beautiful picture book. With craft activities to involve all ages.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

The devastating struggle to the death between the Carthaginians and the Romans was one of the defining dramas of the Ancient World. In an epic series of land and sea battles both sides came close to victory before the Carthaginians finally buckled and their capital city, history and culture were almost utterly erased.
 
Drawing on a wealth of new archaeological research, Cambridge University lecturer Richard Miles  makes Carthage vivid as it has never been before and brilliantly brings to life this lost empire.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Suitable for children between 7 and 12 years

On the eve of the animated film (premiering Sunday 28 March by Dreamworks, creators of Shrek) of her book How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell introduces its hero, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, a very small Viking with a very big name. She will talk about the inspiration for her exciting stories, draw and answer questions. Vikings, dragons, laughter and lots of adventure - what could be better?
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

The Finest Photographer of a Generation
"During the 18 years that he worked for the Sunday Times, Don McCullin covered every major conflict in his adult life until the Falklands war. Focusing on his career over the decades he discusses his book Shaped by War (accompanied by a major exhibition at The Imperial War Museum North), revealing a life shaped by conflict.

Don McCullin's reputation as the greatest photographer of his generation has in recent years been replaced with an image of McCullin as the great traveller. Here he also talks about his evocative photographs which record his explorations of the fringes of the Roman Empire that appear in his second book Southern Frontiers."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

St Hilda's College hosts a weekend conference each September for readers of Barbara Pym, who entered the college in 1931 and went on to be named by both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil as "the most underrated novelist of the century". The celebrated crime novelist P D James will be speaking about Barbara Pym and her work. P D James is an Honorary Life Member of the Barbara Pym Literary Society based at St Hilda's, and also an Honorary Fellow of the College.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Suitable for children between 6 and 11 years

 Don't miss this hilarious event which will make kids, parents and grandparents laugh out of their seats. Steve Cole will tell you all about his bestselling books, including the dino-tastic Astrosaurs, the udderly moo-vellous cows in C.I.A. and his new book Z-Rex. Expect heaps of energy and aching sides. A must-see.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

Tower Poetry - Rain and Yellow Studio
Don Paterson teaches at the University of St Andrews and is poetry editor for Picador Macmillan. His most recent poetry collection, Rain was the winner of the 2009 Forward Poetry Prize. Stephen Romer is a lecturer at the University of Tours in France and will be Visiting Fellow at All Souls in Trinity Term 2010. A translator and an anthologist of modern French poetry his latest collection is Yellow Studio (2008), shortlisted for the 2008 T. S. Eliot Prize.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £7

BOOKCAMP: How to get a Children's Book Published
A three-hour masterclass on how to get ahead in the children’s book business presented by Leah Thaxton, Senior Publisher at Egmont (publishers of Enid Blyton, Michael Morpurgo and Andy Stanton), and Julia Churchill of the Greenhouse Literary Agency (whose Blue Peter-shortlisted author Harriet Goodwin is also appearing at this Festival). This event will look at how the children’s book business works and prevailing trends, and analyse what makes a submission stand out for an agent and what publishers want to see. Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and questions, chaired by Catherine Clarke, children's books agent at the Felicity Bryan Literary Agency (whose clients include David Almond, Sally Gardner, Meg Rosoff).
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £25

Bad Science
Ben Goldacre is the award winning writer, broadcaster, and medical doctor who writes the weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian. Goldacre is widely known for his scathing, satirical attacks on medical quacks, health scares, mumbo-jumbo and pseudo-science, and his book Bad Science has become a best-seller. His approach is passionate, charming, funny and merciless. While investigating television nutritionist Gillian McKeith's membership of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants, Goldacre bought a "certified professional membership" on behalf of his deceased cat, Henrietta, from the same institution for $60.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Grimm Tales: The Spirituality of Fairy Tales
Jeany Spark (Wallender, BBC1) reads Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s interpretations of Cinderella, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, with songs by the award-winning partnership of Philip Ridley and composer Nick Bicât (including the soundtrack of Ridley’s film Passion of Darkly Noon) and reflections on the religious symbolism of the stories by Edmund Newell, Sub-Dean of Christ Church.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

"Writer and broadcaster Libby Purves' latest novel centres around the death of a child and the bleak landscape a couple are forced to travel to cope with their loss. The reticent progress of their mourning is abruptly broken when a strange ranting woman turns up on their doorstop. Her arrival sparks off a shocking discovery about their lost son's life and friends.

At the heart of the discovery is a miracle that slowly, gradually and surprisingly builds a future and brings a new family together."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Haute Cuisine for Small People: Wolsey's Kitchen
Suitable for children between 5 and 9 years

Mediaeval Kitchen Cookery session with Masterchef finalist, mother of six and cookery columnist Fiona Bird, author of Kid's Kitchen: 40 fun recipes to make and share (praised by Prue Leith, Delia Smith, Raymond Blanc). Come and see her prepare and cook food in Christ Church's medieval kitchen, showing how to have fun experimenting and eat healthily. And taste the food too! Book early, only 40 places available.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 15:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  Adult £10, Child £6

Great Books by Great Writers
Suitable for children over 9

Philip Reeve has earned himself a passionate following for his epic and extraordinary Mortal Engines quartet, a fantasy series of such breathtaking imagination and ambition it is one of the finest products of children´s literature of the last decade. He has also won the Carnegie Medal for Here Lies Arthur, a new take on Arthurian legends, that reveals how myths can be made out of ignoble lives. His latest book is A Web of Air, the second of two ingenious and gripping prequels to the Mortal Engines books. His fellow Carnegie Laureate, the multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed Geraldine McCaughrean, is also one of the most skilled children's writers of her generation. Known for her bestselling Peter Pan sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, she writes books of astonishing variety, each a masterpiece in its different way. Her latest, the clever and comic The Death-Defying Pepper Roux, is about a boy who evades the doom forecast for him by escaping into other people´s lives, from shipboard to newspaper office. This meeting of great minds is chaired by the dynamic Jonathan Douglas, who, as well as being a fan of both Reeve and McCaughrean, is Director of the National Literacy Trust.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

Women in the Media
St Hilda's graduates Sarah Baxter, editor of the Sunday Times magazine, and former Washington correspondent and News Review editor; historian, author (Helen of Troy) and radio and television broadcaster Bettany Hughes; and BBC Human Rights correspondent and former ITN reporter Sue Lloyd-Roberts consider the opportunities and hurdles for women making careers in the press and in television. Chaired by critic, broadcaster and journalist Nicolette Jones.

Visit Bettany Hughes' website: http://www.bettanyhughes.co.uk
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Set in the long hot summer of 1970, as a group of friends live and love round a Tuscan pool, Martin Amis's new novel draws, intriguingly, on his own life as it explores the changing mores of the sexual revolution, the altered roles of men and women, and the damage it all left in its wake. The author of Money, The Rachel Papers and Experience, Amis has never shied away from controversy; part comedy of manners, part highly charged social satire, The Pregnant Widow is both thought-provoking and dramatic.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £25 / £15 / £10

Do Recipes Change Anything?
Norman Tebbit discovered that customers at his local butcher shop shunned game, though it was less expensive, healthier, and tasted better than the "rubber-boned. tasteless chicken" they bought in supermarkets. The game birds had also led a better life than even any organic, free-range chicken bred for the table, and were thus the more ethical choice. The butcher suggested this was because his customers didn't know how to deal with game -- so Norman Tebbit wrote and distributed game recipes, and the shop found that they did help increase sales of pheasants. Sophie Grigson, of whom Norman Tebbit says "I am a fervent admirer," challenges him -- do recipes ever change anything?

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Energy Matters: Climate Change; as Dangerous as Al-Qaeda
Does Climate Change really matter? There are those who believe that human ingenuity should not be underestimated and that we could adapt to a changing climate, as we have done in the past. Others take a more pessimistic view and counter that whilst groups of hunter-gatherers might have coped, it is unrealistic that a population edging towards 7bn could be able to negotiate a world encountering dramatically changing weather and associated food production capacity. Some believe that mankind's greenhouse can emissions have no discernable effect on the weather. All sides of the argument will be covered by Gabrielle Walker, broadcaster and co writer of 'Hot Topic', Stuart Clark, astronomy journalist and author of 'Sun Kings' and Benny Peiser, Director of the Global Warming Foundation.  Chaired by Tony White who has worked extensively in the energy sector, a founder of Climate Change Capital and currently director of Ytilitu Limited.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Bestselling author Victoria Hislop (The Island, The Return), whose novels embrace historical events in Greece and during the Spanish Civil War, Anita Mason, former Booker shortlistee (for The Illusionist), whose latest novel The Right Hand of the Sun is set in the Aztec empire, and Adèle Geras (A Hidden Life), whose enthusiastically received work for both adults and children has ranged from Ancient Greece to the Second World War, discuss their use of the past, both personal and historical, in their fiction. Chaired by Nicolette Jones.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Orange Prize winning novelist Lionel Shriver launches her new novel at this year’s Festival. So Much For That is a deeply affecting novel with heart; an unflinching portrayal of illness and its devastating effect on a marriage and family, told with Lionel Shriver’s trademark originality, intelligence and acute perception of the human condition.

The telling of this story drives right to the heart of human relationships as illness brings two central characters closer together, such that in the end the hero Shepherd Knacker observes that maybe you never really know someone until they’re dying. 

 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 18:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Same Man, a recent book by American writer, David Lebedoff, made the case that George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh had a lot more in common than simply being born in the same year, 1903. Despite the different paths that their lives and writing would take, Lebedoff argued, they both rebelled against the modern world and foresaw the materially rich but morally poor future. Two leading biographers - one of Orwell (D.J. Taylor, who wrote Geroge Orwell: The Life), one of Waugh (Paula Byrne, who wrote Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead) - consider the two writers and their work.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

1492: The Year Our World Began
The world would end in 1492 - so the prophets, soothsayers and stargazers said. They were right. Ours Began. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto traces key elements of the modern world back to that single, fateful year: the way power and wealth are distributed around the globe and the way major religions and civilisations divide the world.

Described by the Sunday Times as one of the best historians in the world, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto will take you on a journey around the globe of the time, in the company of real-life travellers, drawing together the threads that began to bind the planet and the moment when some of the most striking features of today's world began.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The Worst Date Ever: War Crimes, Hollywood Heartthrobs and Other Abominations
"Sick of British reality TV, scriptwriter Jane Bussmann moved to Hollywood to write for the movies. But she ended up interviewing Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Co. Jane was trapped in the Golden Age of Stupid. Then she saw a photograph of a man in Vanity Fair. John Prendergast's day job was ending war. He was also extremely attractive. Jane 'may have inferred she was a Foreign Correspondent', because suddenly she was in Washington, New York and finally equatorial Africa on a lying, cheating, stealing search for love.

But when Jane arrived in Uganda John had left. Alone in a war-torn country, appalled by 20,000 child abductions, Jane knew she must investigate the war crime of the century - to make John fancy her. With a maverick heroine, an idealist hero, comic disasters and moving tragedy, this is storytelling at its best."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sat 27/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Sebastian Faulks' Series on the British Novel
In 2010 the BBC will be celebrating the brilliance of the British novel with a major four part documentary series written and presented by novelist Sebastian Faulks (The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong, Charlotte Gray, Engleby). The BBC Two series will look at the history of the novel through its characters - each episode focusing on a different archetype and looking at how they have developed over the centuries: Heroes, Lovers, Snobs and Villains.

Journeying around the country, with the occasional foray abroad, Sebastian will use his unique personal knowledge of characterisation to get under the skin of some familiar and not so familiar characters in British literature. From Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe to Martin Amis’ John Self; Jane Austen’s Darcy to Alan Hollinghurst’s Nick Guest; Samuel Richardson’s Lovelace to Zoe Heller’s Barbara Covett and from Jane Austen’s Emma to Monica Ali’s Chanu; Sebastian will put them all on the psychiatrist’s couch.

Event lasts about 1 hour 15 minutes
 

Running Time: 1:15

• Sat 27/3 20:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals
Since the 1970's scientists have been showing a growing interest in animal's emotions and minds. Marshalling evidence from a wealth of studies from around the world, Jonathan Balcombe has built a new picture of the inner lives of animals that has little concordance with the struggle-or-perish simplicity of so many nature programmes in the popular media. He believes animals have developed their own attributes and intelligences that make them fully worthy of our deepest concern and consideration.

With optimistic vision, he challenges humankind to discard our arcane way of relating to the rest of sentient life.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Do You Think You’re Clever? The Oxbridge Questions
What is the population of Croydon? What happens if I drop an ant? What percentage of the world’s water is contained in a cow? If you can answer these questions then you could be an ideal candidate for Oxford or Cambridge.

Every year thousands of Oxbridge hopefuls have to answer similarly bizarre and complex questions to stand a chance of earning a place at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. John Farndon has complied one of the most thought-provoking quiz books from the very questions posed in Oxbridge questions in recent years. He will be joined by radio presenter Libby Purves, who is a graduate from St Anne’s College, Oxford. 

 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

WORKSHOP: Writing your Family Story
"How can you transform your family research material into a fascinating and readable story? In this practical hands on workshop, Julie Wheelwright, programme director of the MA in creative writing (non fiction) at City University and award winning writer, will work with a small group to help them construct their own family stories by giving practical advice with illustrations from her own books. If you want to write just for your family members or get published, this get started session will appeal both to those who have already gathered material or are just thinking about beginning.

Please book early as places are limited to 18

Event lasts from 10am-2pm
 

Running Time: 4hrs

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £20

Let Our Fame Be Great: Struggle and Survival in the Caucasus
"The Caucasus Mountains form Russian's southern border and run from the Crimea to the Caspian Sea - a region familiar to us today for the struggle in Chechnya and the 2008 summer of war between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia.

Oliver Bullough recounts the struggle and survival of peoples who have been mostly forgotten for 200 years. Leading us through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Turkey and the Middle East, where he lived and travelled extensively, he tracks down the nations dispersed by the brutal wars Russia fought to add the Caucasus mountains to its empire. And finally, journeying through the North Caucasus he tells the stories of the land and its peoples.

Oliver Bullough talks to celebrated historian Norman Stone."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Sing Something Stinky
Suitable for children between 3 to 7 years old

Author and illustrator Kristina Stephenson takes you on a really big adventure in the company of her hero Sir Charlie Stinkysocks, with interactive musical storytelling, hilarious songs and activities.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

Blueeyedboy
Award-winning novelist Joanne Harris will be launching her latest novel, Blueeyedboy, at the festival, which means visitors attending the event will be the first to encounter this gripping psychological thriller.

Blueeyedboy is a dark and intricately plotted tale of a poisonously dysfunctional family, a blind child prodigy and a serial murderer who is not what he seems. Told through posts on a web journal called badguysrock, this is a thriller that makes creative use of all the multiple personalities, disguise and mind games that are offered by paying life on the Internet.

Joanne Harris is the author of the Whitbread-shortlisted Chocolat, made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp, and seven other best-selling novels.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 10:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

The last few years have been difficult ones for the BBC, with controversies ranging from Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s infamous radio prank to accusations of bias in news coverage, and from the role of BBC Worldwide (the Beeb’s commercial arm) to the Gaza appeal. But fundamentally, why does the BBC exist, and are its traditional aims still relevant in the 21st Century? These are particularly relevant questions given the forthcoming election. With Ed Vaizey (Shadow Minster for Culture, Conservative). Other speakers to be confirmed.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Suitable for Children over 12

What does it mean to write for Young Adults? Carnegie-Medal winners Meg Rosoff (whose latest acclaimed novel is The Bride's Farewell) and Mal Peet (winner of this year's Guardian Children's Fiction award for Exposure) chip away at the limits of teenage fiction, and avoid its comfort zones. The novels they write find enthusiastic readers of all ages. They discuss edginess and the risks they take, not so much with subject matter as with style and emotional complexity.
 

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £6

The commonly told story of poet Emily Dickinson - who published ten poems in her lifetime, but left behind 1,789 - is that of a pathetic recluse, disappointed in love, who shrank from publication.
 
Lyndall Gordon, author of lives of Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Bronte and Virginia Woolf, argues that Emily Dickinson was very much in control of her life and her poetry, and was a volcanic character who demonstrated unashamed physical response to an older man and was challenged only by her brother's mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd. When Todd made her all-conquering entrance, Emily Dickinson had both met her match and, with horrible irony, her first editor. Here Lyndall Gordon presents a new interpretation of one of the greatest poets of all time.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits
In this lavishly illustrated book, art critic Laura Cumming investigates the drama of the self-portrait, from Durer, Rembrant and Velazquez to Munch, Picasso, and artists of the present day and considers why self-portraits look as they do.

Drawing on art, literature, history, philosophy and biography to examine the creative process in an entirely different way, she asks what these pictures reveal about the artist's innermost sense of self. In so doing she offers a riveting insight into the intimate truths and elaborate fictions of self-portraiture and the lives of those who practise it.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Ask Alice
DJ Taylor aims for the big time with this epic novel which ranges from the Kakota badlands to the drawing rooms of Mayfair, and from Norfolk back lanes to the casting couches of the Edwardian theatre. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Ask Alice is a remarkable novel that confirms D J Taylor is a novelist of scope, imagination and great writing. It’s the story of a young woman coming to terms with an unsatisfactory marriage, a country house party that ends in tragedy, and sensational murder trial.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Canongate's celebrated The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way.

In The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman - the award-winning author of His Dark Materials - offers a spellbinding retelling of the life of Jesus, possibly the most influential story ever told.

Pullman's radical new take on the myths and mysteries of the gospels, and of the church that has shaped the course of the last two millennia, asks the reader questions that will continue to reverberate long after the final page is turned. For, above all, this is a book about how stories become stories.

Pullman has said that his new book is part novel, part history and part fairy tale. Today he discusses it for the first time.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 12:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £35 / £25 / £15 / £10

The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War
"Those who survived the Second World War stared out onto a devastated morally ruined world. Much of Europe and Asia had been so ravaged that it was unclear whether any form of normal life could ever be established again - coups, collapsing empires and civil wars, continued to reshape country after country long after the fighting was mean to have ended.

Everywhere the 'Atlantic' world (the USA, Britain and a handful of allies) was on the defensive and its enemies on the move - as the USSR and its proxies crushed dissent and humiliated the United States on both military and cultural grounds.

Norman Stone's brings to life the terrible fates and choices of so many individuals during the Cold War. While focussing on Europe, he also shows how the Cold War affected countries as diverse as China, Chile and Turkey."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

As the then Head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) David Kessler took on the tobacco industry, and introduced sweeping reforms. Now he's turning the spotlight onto the food industry in order to help us regain control of our eating habits. In the End of Overeating, Kessler uncovers the truth behind our food addiction, and reveals that our brains have been hijacked by the food industry with multi-national corporations not concerned with our health but making us want more even when not hungry. Introduced by John Krebs Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, the first Chairman of the UK Food Standards Agency (2000 - 2005) and among many other roles currently sitting on the UK Climate Change Committee.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Hilary Mantel, winner of Man Booker Prize 2009 for her novel Wolf Hall, is considered a truly great English novelist who has the ability to explore the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. She is also praised for her extraordinary story telling skills.

Wolf Hall, which is based on Henry VIII's advisor Thomas Cromwell and his rise to prominence in the Tudor Court, is seen as a modern novel which just happens to be set in the 16th Century. It introduces the reader to a vast array of characters as it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, smouldering with great passion and suffering with courage.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 14:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £25 / £15 / £10

Science of The Weird
An introduction to the science of the weird - from psychic powers to fire walking. Prof Richard Wiseman has gained an international reputation for research into quirky areas of psychology, including deception, humour, luck and the paranormal. He is also a trained magician, providing wonderfully entertaining and interactive events that help audiences sharpen their thinking and observational skills and spot more easily when someone may be trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Prof Wiseman is author of The Luck Factor - a best selling book exploring the lives and minds of lucky people.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Macmillan Picture Book Parade
Family Event

Picture books can be a joy for adults and children alike. Three Macmillan authors, Chris Riddell (The Emperor of Absurdia), also known as a political cartoonist, Axel Scheffler (illustrator of The Gruffalo), and this year's Greenaway Medal winner Catherine Rayner (for Harris Finds His Feet), one of The Big Picture's Ten Best New Illustrators, discuss the process of making picture books and why they matter. Chaired by Sunday Times children's books reviewer Nicolette Jones.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £5

Against the Flow: One Man's Journey Across Eastern Europe
Twenty years ago, Tom Fort drove his little red car to Eastern Europe when it was then still a faraway place, just emerging from its half-century of waking nightmare.

Much has changed since then, and in recent years more than a million Poles have settled in Britain. As the tide of people began to leave Eastern Europe and settle in the UK, Tom Fort began to wonder what had happened to the friends he made all those years ago and what had changed since his first trip, so he made the journey again travelling against the flow of the steady human stream to explore once familiar places.
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10

Family Event

Robin Knox-Johnston said it could be suicidal. The head of the Royal Yachting Association told him not to go. Mike Perham ignored them and in August 2009, at the age of just 17 years, 5 months and 11 days, became the youngest person to have sailed solo around the world. 'Sailing the Dream' tells the story of that amazing voyage, a nine month odyssey that would be beyond the capabilities of sailors twice his age. Hear Mike's staggering journey in conversation with Richard Simmonds who has witnessed more medals being won by Britain than any other BBC commentator at the last three Olympic Games, such is the success of British Olympic Sailing. He has reported on many of the world's major sailing and adventure stories including climbing on board with Ellen MacArthur and she completed her record breaking solo lap of the planet."
 

Running Time: 1hr

• Sun 28/3 16:00 Book Tickets     Prices:  £10