Witney News - The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

Saturday 20th to Sunday 28th March 2010

With over 250 events taking place over eight days at Christ Church, Corpus Christi, the Sheldonian Theatre, The Bodleian Library, and other venues, the 2010 festival promises to be one of the best ever. Debates, discussions, talks, readings, literary lunches and dinners, as well as programmes in creative writing and writing children’s books will be conducted by many of the world's finest authors, authorities, educators, and personalities. Drawing on diverse topics from the fields of art, science, music, poetry, current affairs, politics, environmental issues, fashion, history, fiction, sports, religion, philosophy, architecture, and other stimulating disciplines, there is something for everyone at this year's Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.

Following are some of the key authors and topics. More detailed information, as well as an up-to-the-minute schedule of events, may be found on the festival website www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com

Martin Amis – The Pregnant Widow
Anthony Beevor - D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
Martin Bell – A Very British Revolution
Rachel Billington on Writing Fiction
Vernon Bogdanor – From New Jerusalem to New Labour
Melvyn Bragg will speak on A Life in the Arts in an interview by Peter Kemp
Jane Bussman – The Worst Date Ever
Paula Byrne and DJ Taylor discuss Orwell and Waugh
Tracey Chevalier - Remarkable Creatures
Con Coughlin interviewed by Ann Leslie
Dan Cruikshank – The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Water of Sin Shaped the Capital
Laura Cumming – A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits
David Dimbleby – The Seven Ages of Britain
Sebastian Faulks on a new BBC series, the British novel
Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall – The Ministry of Food: Thrifty Wartime Ways to Feed Your Family
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto – The Year Our World Began
Ben Fogle – Race to the Pole
Aminatta Forna – The Memory of Love
Alys Fowler – The Edible Garden: How to Have Your Garden and Eat It
Andrew Graham-Dixon – The Man Who Ate Everything
AC Grayling – Thinking of Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life
Max Hastings – Did You Really Shoot the Television? A Family Fable
Joanne Harris – launches Blueeyedboy
Douglas Hurd and Edward Young speaking on Choose Your Weapons: The British Foreign Secretary: 200 Years of Arguments, Successes and Failures
Will Hutton – Them and Us: Politics, Greed and Inequality – Why We Need a Fair Society
Belle du Jour (Brooke Magnanti) in conversation with India Knight
John Le Carré receives the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence
Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall
Don McCullin – The Finest Photographer of a Generation
Ian McEwan and Craig Raine conduct readings for Arete
Penelope Lively in conversation with Joanne Harris
Brian Moore – Beware of the Dog – Rugby’s Hard Man Reveals All
Jeremy Musson - Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant
Susie Orbach and Caroline Conran discuss ‘Women in the Kitchen’
Mike Perham in conversation with Richard Simmonds
Philip Pullman launches his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundral Christ
Libby Purves – Shadow Child
Ruth Rendell is interviewed by David Grylis
Matthew Rice – Rice's Architectural Primer
John Simpson – Unreliable Sources
Patti Smith – Just Kids
Norman Stone – The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War
DJ Taylor – Ask Alice
Norman Tebbitt and Sophie Grigson discussing 'Do Recipes Change Anything?'
Rose Tremain - Trespass
Joanna Trollope – The Other Family
Ed Vaizey discusses What is the BBC for?
Jenny Uglow – A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Sally Vickers
Shirley Williams – Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams

Plus BBC Four Screenings of Diaries with Richard E. Grant; Disappearing Dads with Andrew Martin; Rude Britannia with writer and series consultant Vic Gatrell

Leading figures from within their field will assemble for an array of topical panel discussions and debates including:

Afghanistan: Why are we There, When will it End? – Bruce Anderson, Patrick Mercer and Colonel Stuart Tootal
African Literature – Brian Chikwava and Chioma Okereke, and chaired by Elleke Boehmer
Because I am a Girl – Joanne Harris, Kathy Lette and Deborah Moggach, chaired by Marie Staunton
Cross Talk: Israel & Palestine, Time to Speak? – Brian Klug and Rabbi Danny Rich, chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
The Econony – What Next? – David Halpern, David Smith and Gillian Tett, chaired by Jean Seaton
Education 2010: Who Picks Up the Pieces? – Phillip Blond, Simon Lee, Andrew Rawnsley, and Peter Snowdon
Education Matters: A Flight from Excellence – Adrian Elliott, Peter Hitchens and Chris Woodhead, chaired by Joanne Harris
Education Matters: Higher Education, Where From Where To? – Bahram Bekhradnia, David Willetts and Shirley Williams, chaired by Malcolm Gillies
Education Matters: Schools and the Social Framework – Jeremy Leggett and Doug Parr, chaired by Janet Balfour
Education Matters: Schools and the Social Framework– John Abbott, Alan Steer and David Yelland, chaired by Claire Fox

Energy Matters: Climate Change: As Dangerous as Al-Qaeda? – Stuart Clark, Benny Peiser and Gabrielle Walker, chaired by Tony White
Energy Matters: Land for Food or Energy? – Mike Lant, George Monbiot, Ronald Oxburgh, and James Smith
Energy Matters: Living for the Future – Bernice Lee, Simon Reddy and Walt Patterson, chaired by Tony White
Energy Matters: Nuclear, Essential or Unnecessary? – Jeremy Leggett and Doug Parr, chaired by Janet Balfour
The Future of Burma - Tin Htar Swe and Maung Zarni
The Future of Policing – Ian Blair, Roger Graef and Robert Reiner, chaired by Jean Seaton
How Do We Stop Torture – Again? – Clare Algar and Ian Cobain, chaired by Jean Seaton
How Free Should Speech Be? – Catherine Bennett, John Kampfner and Geoffrey Robertson
How Has Slavery Influenced Britain – Laura Fish, Remi Kapo and James Walvin, and chaired by Mike Wooldridge
How Intelligent are our Intelligence Services? – Christopher Andrew, Miranda Carter and David Omand, chaired by Jean Seaton
Media, The Power Behind Politics? – Gordon Raynor, Jon Sopel, chaired by Vernon Bogdanor
The Rise and Rise of British Food – Charles Campion, Mark Hix, Tom Parker-Bowles, and Donald Sloan
Royal Society of Literature and First Story – Philip Pullman, Kate Clanchy, Helen Cross, William Fiennes, and Katie Waldegrave
Science, Certainty and the Royal Society: Looking Back and to the Future – Richard Dawkins, Georgina Ferry and Steve Jones, and chaired by Roger Highfield
Sending Our Children to War – Sue Elliott, Patrick Hennessey and Allan Mallinson
Standing Up to Supernanny: Parents in the Spotlight – Jennie Bristow, Val Gilles, Christina Hardyment, and Jennifer Howze
Talk About Men! – Kathy Lette and Stephanie Calman, chaired by Paul Blezzard

At the St Hilda's College Writers’'Day the focus is on women, and an extraordinary array of talent and topics includes:
Behind Every Successful Man… with journalist and radio presenter Christine Finn who is an expert on Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, and J B Priestley's wife Jacquetta Hawkes, in conversation about the role of wives and mothers in history and fiction with Gaynor Arnold, whose acclaimed novel Girl in a Blue Dress is loosely based on the life of Charles Dickens' wife.
Philip Larkin called Barbara Pym 'the most underrated novelist of the century' and here P D James will speak about Pym's life and work.
St Hilda's graduates Sarah Baxter, editor of the Sunday Times magazine; Bettany Hughes, radio and television broadcaster; and Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC Human Rights correspondent, discuss the opportunities and hurdles for Women in the Media.
And in History and the Family in Fiction, best-selling author Victoria Hislop talks with former Booker shortlistee Anita Mason and multi-talented writer Adèle Geras.

The newly relaunched Children's Programme, organised by Nicolette Jones, Children’s Books Editor at The Sunday Times, is set to draw 'ohhhs and ahhhs' with its star-studded cast of 48 participants and 22 events designed for 3 to 18 year olds.

In Fantastical Truths, Malorie Blackman, Frances Hardinge and Philip Pullman discuss what fantasy can tell us about reality. The Blue Peter Book I Couldn’t Put Down Award's shortlist of Frank Cottrell Boyce, Ali Sparkes and Harriet Goodwin will each discuss their books. Louise Rennison, Queen of Teen, will talk about her new book Withering Tights. William Nicholson's Rich and Mad is the story of a teenage love affair and he discusses what he calls 'the pornification of teenage sex' with a consultant psychiatrist. Best-selling author Anthony Horowitz talks about writing for television and for young people. Cressida Cowell and her new book How To Train Your Dragon, appears on the eve of its Dreamworks film premiere. The Great Books By Great Writers event features Geraldine McCaughrean and The Death-Defying Pepper Roux along with Philip Reeve's A Web of Air. Simon Rae's cricketing book Unplayable premieres in conversation with Charlotte Edwards, captain of England's award-winning women's cricket team and record-breaking teenage sailor Mike Perham will discuss his epic journey.
Other authors include Zizou Corder, aka Louisa Young; actor Tim Piggott-Smith and Andrew Lane with stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes, chaired by author, broadcaster, journalist and Independent on Sunday literary editor John Walsh, team captain of Radio 4's The Write Stuff. Christopher Lloyd on the story of life on Earth; exciting new illustrators Katie Cleminson and Louise Yates; Jeany Spark and Edmund Newell, Sub-Dean of Christ Church on The Spirituality of Fairy Tales; Fiona Bird on Haute Cuisine for Small People; Kristina Stephenson with Sir Charlie Stinkysocks; and award-winning teen fiction writers, Meg Rosoff and Mal Peet; plus Chris Riddell, Axel Scheffler and Catherine Rayner on picture books for children and adults alike; plus Steve Cole, author of Astrosaurs, will do his hilarious show for children; eminent historian Antony Beevor will talk about writing and history in an event aimed at sixth-formers and John and Caitlin Matthews will run an inspiring storytelling workshop.

And for aspiring children's book writers there is BOOKCAMP: HOW TO GET A CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHED, a three-hour master-class on how to get ahead in the business.