Record-breaking Year for Oxford Literary Festival

Record advance ticket sales mark the opening of Oxford Literary Festival, which opens next week in what already looks like being a record-breaking year for ticket sales.

Among those featuring on the opening days of the festival are Nobel Prize-winning novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, who talks about his new novel, Theft, and receives the honorary fellowship of Oxford Literary Festival.

Award-winning actress of stage and screen Miriam Margolyes, pictured left, is the biggest draw on the opening Saturday, when she will speak about her support for animal welfare.

Saturday also features an appearance by the world-class Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, and a conversation between two of the UK's leading crime and mystery writers, Jonathan Coe and Val McDermid, pictured right.

Sunday sees appearances by farmer and author James Rebanks on travelling to the edge of the Arctic to spend a season with an ageing duck farmer and by international lawyer and writer Philippe Sands on his investigations into the post-war life of SS officer Walther Rauff and his connections to Pinochet.

Highlights of the early days of the festival also include historian Bettany Hughes, pictured right, on the seven wonders of the world, Timothy Garton Ash talking to Chris Patten about his desire for more and better freedom of expression, and historian and broadcaster Diarmaid MacCulloch on the 3,000-year story of Christians encountering sex, gender and family.

See the full Sheldonian programme.

Topping the bill on the children's programme over the weekend are How to Train your Dragon creator Cressida Cowell and entertainer and Pointless presenter Alexander Armstrong, pictured left, on his well-received first children's novel, Evenfall.

See the full children's programme.

What's on each day at the festival

• Saturday 29 March. Speakers include Rupert Shortt and Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the eclipse of Christianity; former assistant chief of defence staff John Kiszely on the unsung soldier at Churchill's side; and a debate on food and farming featuring musician and farmer Andy Cato, Dragons Den businesswoman Deborah Meaden and television presenter and farm owner Kate Humble, pictured right.
• Sunday 30 March. Speakers include former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho reading some of his poems; a panel to debate immigration and the 2024 riots; and author and BBC broadcaster Dr Kate Kennedy on a musical celebration of her new book on the cello.
• Monday 31 March. Speakers include computer scientist Nigel Shadbolt on ethics and artificial intelligence; writers Hermione Lee and Alexandra Harris on the art of non-fiction; and ornithologist Tim Birkhead on The Great Auk.
• Tuesday 1 April. Speakers include biographer A N Wilson on Goethe; winner of this year's Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize Sue Prideaux, pictured right, on her biography of Paul Gauguin; and cultural historian Peter Conrad on Dickens.

Tickets are on sale online at oxfordliteraryfestival.org, or by telephoning the box office at: 0333 666 3366. There will be no festival box office on site this year, but festival-goers can purchase tickets on the door if places remain. Card payments only. 

Tickets have been selling at record levels this year so early booking is advised in order to avoid disappointment.

Publication and Photography courtesy - Oxford Literary Festival