Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley, Lionel Shriver, Rev Richard Coles and Val McDermid, among speakers at champion of free speech Oxford Literary Festival

The Oxford Literary Festival and Freedom of Speech literary festival - an incredible cultural event - kicks off on Saturday.

Renowned for its talks by a host of distinguished voices from around the globe framed by the heritage and dynamism of a world class university, the Festival has also become known as a champion of free speech and is currently the only festival in the UK to have a freedom of speech statement.

Visitors can meet and listen to authors and experts from dozens of countries discussing every imaginable subject from literature, history, biography, politics, science, technology, medicine and economics, to philosophy, poetry, ethics, religion, the environment, travel and culinary traditions.

Hosted at beautiful historic university and college venues across Oxford city centre, director Sally Dunsmore has created a line-up of over 350 events to nurture intellectual curiosity, a platform where the big ideas of the day are freely debated in an intellectual, congenial atmosphere that values both evidence and excellence. The 2025 programme runs from March 29 to April 6.

Supported for a second year by their media sponsor The Telegraph, leading journalists such as Simon Heffer, John Kampfner and Zoe Strimpel will be making appearances to interview speakers or sit on panel discussions.

Speakers include Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dr Iain McGilchrist, Robert D Kaplan, Miriam Margolyes, Dame Joanna Lumley, Dr Sailesh Rao, Dr David Starkey, Prof Philippe Sands, Prof Simon Armitage, Lionel Shriver, Lord Tony Sewell, Dame Harriet Walter, Wendy Cope, Rev Richard Coles, Val McDermid, Alexander McCall Smith, Cressida Cowell and Alexander Armstrong.

Highlights include Understanding Our World – Compassion in World Farming is once again partnering with the festival to bring Miriam Margolyes to deliver the Peter Roberts Lecture, ex-Groove Armada turned farmer, Andy Cato and Kate Humble to discuss why we need more compassion in farming.

Spanish and Latin American Literature and Culture – From Spain comes one of the most famous chef’s in the world, Ferran Adrià, the celebrated poet Luis Garcia Montero and the noted philosopher Dr Jordi Pigem. Latin American speakers to be announced.

Perspectives – Dr David Starkey will deliver a lecture on how we live our lives in the 21st century. This is a new strand for the festival.

Faith – Christianity, Judaism and Islam are represented across a variety of talks by speakers such as Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, who will speak about the history of sex and Christianity, Rachal Shabi on The Truth About Anti-Semitism and Dr Saqib Iqbal Qureshi on Being Muslim Today.

Poetry and Fiction – A life-time celebration of Wendy Cope’s work and Simon Armitage talks about his new collection of poems, Blossomise. Lionel Shriver talks about her new book, Mania,and the Rev Richard Coles about Murder at the Monastery.

The festival is also launching a new annual series called Festival Debuts where an established writer champions a debut novelist, in this case Roisin Dunnett will be championed by Francis Spufford and Nussaibah Younis will be championed by Jonathan Coe.

History – Professor Ronald Hutton speaks about his new book, Oliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief, Ben Macintyre will speak about his latest title, The Siege, and Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie on Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutionsfrom the Black Death to Covid. Biography – Cellist and BBC Radio 3 presenter, Kate Kennedy gives a talk and a cello recital based on her book, A Journey Through Silence, and Nadim Zahawi talks about A Boy From Baghdad.

Environment and Nature – Tom Heap explores how to give people and nature the space to thrive and Tony Juniper discusses how a fairer world will save the planet.

Science and Medicine – Dr Iain McGilchrist joins the festival to speak on his latest book, The Matter of Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. Emilie Caspar, Laurence Rees and Leor Zmigrod discuss the science behind mass murder and the radical mind.

Technology – Dr David Gann talks to Jim Mellon about the future of fusion.

Gender – Helen Joyce is interviewed by Julie Bindel, who will also talk in a separate event about her book Lesbians. Professor Matt Cook is Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexuality at the University of Oxford and will be speaking with Alison Oram about the story of Queer British History outside of London.

The Oxford Debates – include Professor Nigel Biggar and Professor Matt Goodwin debating the issue of Wokism and Free Speech in Universities and beyond and Lord Tony Sewell and Zoe Strimpel exploring opinions on immigration in the wake of the 2024 riots. Voices of Europe – European writers including Antoine Laurain, Robert Seethaler, John Kampfer, Xavier Le Clerc and Jan Brokken will speak about their books, lives and work.

US Strand – crossing the Atlantic to speak about the new books are Dr Shannon Monaghan (To Die with Such Men: Frontline Stories from Ukraine’s International Legion), Marietje Schaake (The Tech Group: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley) and Professor Thomas Levenson (How Humans Discovered Germs, uncovered infectious diseases and deluded themselves we had conquered them).

Vegan Dinners – for the second year, both the opening and closing dinners will be vegan with menus overseen by Marlene Watson-Tara.

Lectures – Professor Robert D Kaplan will give The American Lecture on his book, Wasteland:A world in Permanent Crisis, Paterson Joseph will interview a distinguished figure launching the annual Oxford Brookes Chancellor’s Lecture and James Rebanks will give the President of Magdalen Lecture.

British photojournalist Sir Don McCullin is to be awarded the Bodleian Libraries’ highest accolade, the Bodley Medal, for his outstanding contribution to the field of photography.

Festival director Sally Dunsmore says: “The rise of the literary festival across the UK has been a fantastic phenomenon offering the perfect platform for the pursuit of knowledge,the search for truth and to understand our lives in a complex and confusing world.

“You’ll find all of this and more at the Oxford Literary Festival – its exceptional discussions and presentations offer a rich programme of authentic voices on many different subjects, reflecting the festival’s commitment to freedom of expression and thought, excellence and the pursuit of truth. Values we are proud to stand by.

“The festival is extremely grateful to The Telegraph – our Media Partner, for their tremendous support for, and promotion of – our 2025 programme. And for their endorsement of free speech, and of diversity of opinions.

“This is the fourth year that the European Union Embassy has generously hosted our launch reception, and we much appreciate the hospitality of His Excellence Ambassador Pedro Serrano and his colleagues.

“Chris Evans, editor at The Telegraph said: “We are proud to be the official media partner of the Oxford Literary Festival again for 2025. Our journalists will also be hosting several of the events within the brilliant programme of globally renowned writers and independent thinkers and our flagship daily podcast, The Daily T, will also be broadcasting from the festival.”

Visit https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/ for programme and booking details.