From The Sunday Times
February 14, 2010
The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

Featuring a host of alluring names, from Dave Eggers to Martin Amis, the festival will be a hotbed of discussion and debate

British writer Ian McEwan pauses during an interview

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival has never failed to cause a stir, but this year’s exceptional programme, which runs over two weekends from March 20-28 at Christ Church, looks likely to be more dramatic than ever.
On Thursday, March 25, for instance, festival goers can mix with news reporters to hear the announcement of the six shortlisted novels for the “lost” Booker prize of 1970 (when the award passed over nearly a whole year of fiction), then listen to the three judges discuss the merits of each book before voting themselves for their choice of winner.

The next day brings more literary headlines as some of the judges of the prestigious Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award — the panel includes Lynn ­Barber, AS Byatt, Nick Hornby and Hanif Kureishi (right) — discuss the prize (at £25,000, the biggest in the world for a short story) ahead of the announcement of the winner at the festival that evening.

This year’s programme has outstanding events every day. On ­Saturday, March 20, you can listen to Antony Beevor on his bestselling history of D-Day; join Richard Dawkins, Georgina Ferry and Steve Jones as they look back at the 350-year history of the Royal Society; catch Melvyn Bragg’s views (pic left) about his programme In Our Time; or watch Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, talk about some of the objects in his radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects. Sunday sees John Simpson, Robert Winston, Joanna Trollope and Queen guitarist Brian May all taking to the stage, while Catherine Bennett, John Kampfner and Geoffrey Robertson discuss free speech, Dr Brooke Magnanti (aka Belle de Jour) talks for the first time in public about her extraordinary life to India Knight, and actor Richard E Grant answers questions about his BBC4 series on diaries.

On Monday, in one of the festival highlights, Patti Smith will be discussing her memoir of life with Robert Mapplethorpe, while on Tuesday another celebrated American cultural export, Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, will talk about Zeitoun, his book on the New Orleans hurricane disaster.

Wednesday witnesses a host of names, Ruth Rendell, Max Hastings, David Dimbleby, Andrew Rawnsley and Ian Jack among them. Comedian Shappi Khorsandi will give us A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English, and John le Carré,(left), in a rare public appearance, will talk about his life in writing as he accepts the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Thursday is the turn of Shirley Williams, Simon Singh (talking about how British libel law has become a threat to open scientific debate), Orange prize-winner Rose Tremain and Samuel Johnson prize-winner James Shapiro; on Friday it’s Craig Raine, Blake Morrison, John Gray, and Ian McEwan, who discusses his new novel, Solar. The festival ends at the weekend with a blaze of talent, including Martin Amis, the Man Booker-winner Hilary Mantel, Sebastian Faulks, PD James, Joanne Harris, Don McCullin, Ben Goldacre and Philip Pullman, who will unveil his controversial new novel, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.
Full story at The Times.
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival