Oxford News
Oxford Literary Festival jampacked with star-studded names
The festival started at the weekend and concludes on Sunday.
Mr Packham will speak to Philip Lymbery in a talk at the Sheldonian Theatre on Saturday at 2pm.
The naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker is best known for his environmental and animal welfare activism.
His television credits include Springwatch and Earth for the BBC and Is it Time to Break the Law? for Channel 4.
He runs independent campaigns aimed at nature recovery and ending animal cruelty. Mr Packham is also an advocate for neurodiversity with a special focus on autism.
His books include Chris Packham’s Birdwatching Guide: From Beginner to Birder and Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir.
Mr Eccleston who was the ninth doctor in 2005, will be in conversation with Oxford Brookes University Chancellor Paterson Joseph, on Sunday, at 4pm, at the Sheldonian Theatre.
Manchester-born Mr Eccleston brought the Time Lord back to TV screens with the popular ninth series welcomed by science fiction fans.
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Starring alongside Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, the duo became two of the UK’s most famous faces.
Mr Eccleston’s big breakthrough came in the role of left-wing activist Nicky Hutchinson in the award-winning 1990s BBC drama Our Friends in the North.
His film work includes the title role in Jude, based on the Thomas Hardy novel, and roles in 24 Hour Party People and 28 Days Later.
Other highlights include talks featuring wildlife presenter historian Sir Simon Schama, Paddington and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, poet Pam Ayres, and children’s author Michael Rosen.
Mr Lymbery is chief executive of Compassion in World Farming and author of Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future and Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were.
Poet Pam Ayres, who started out in Stanford in the Vale, near Wantage, spoke on Sunday at the Sheldonian about her latest book, Doggedly Onward: A Life in Poems.
Doggedly Onward traces Ayres’s life from the 1970s to the current decade through poems.
The popular poet said the poems trace the course of her life from the young woman juggling boyfriends to the wife adrift amid the joy and terror of motherhood, and the adoring granny.
They chronicle her fascination with dogs, wildlife and travel and her mistakes, regrets and ageing.
Pam Ayres began her broadcasting career at BBC Radio Oxford in the 1970s and first appeared on our TV screens in 1975.
Since then, she has been making the nation laugh with her poetry.
Her bestselling poetry books include The Works, Surgically Enhanced, You Made Me Late Again! and The Last Hedgehog. She has also published an autobiography, The Necessary Aptitude.
On Monday at the Sheldonian, acclaimed historian Sir Simon Schama gave a talk entitled The History of Antisemitism: A Warning for Today.
Sir Simon looked at the origins of antisemitism and its threat to communities around the world.
He explored how the memory of the death of six million Jews in wartime Europe is fading and how antisemitism has grown since the events of October 7, 2023.
Sir Simon is university professor of art history and history at Columbia University.
His award-winning books include Citizens, A History of Britain, The Power of Art, and The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words (1000 BCE – 1492).
He has written and presented more than 50 films for the BBC, including works on Tolstoy, the story of the Jews, and as co-presenter of the landmark series on the history of world art, Civilisations.
This event was the first of an annual lecture on antisemitism to be hosted by the festival.
This year there was no central marquee – the main festival hub is located inside Blackwell Hall at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Broad Street, opposite the Sheldonian Theatre – the main festival venue. The festival ‘green room’ is being hosted by Exeter College.
This year’s festival is being backed by The Telegraph.
For more information visit the festival website.
On Wednesday, September 2, it was the Concours judging and private viewings to dominate the agenda for the day.
Twelve Concours classes were held across almost a century of motoring, including The Golden Age of Motoring, 100 Years of Carrrozzeria Touring, La Dolce Vita, 60 Years of the Lamborghini Miura and Passione Ferrari.
Two new classes also made their debut for 2026, Rare Breeds of the Digital Age and Hypercar Heaven, which recognise the growing importance of contemporary performance cars within the international collector market.
Judging will take place across Wednesday and Thursday, with the show field bringing together a 70-strong collection of classics, supercars and hypercars from around the world.
Some of the cars include Aa Maserati 8C 3000, Alfa Romeo Sprint Berlinetta, a one-off Maserati 3500GT Spyder Prototipo by Vignale, a very early Porsche 356 Split Window Coupé, Aston Martin DB3S, Lamborghini Miura P400S, Bizzarrini 5300GT, Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 Cabriolet, Bugatti EB110 Prototype, Aston Martin Valiant Prototype and the extraordinary Bugatti Bolide, one of just 40 produced worldwide.
Helen Pike has decided to step down as Master of Magdalen College School at the end of the 2026/27 academic year, the school in east Oxford announced in March.
MCS is one of the top performing schools in the country, ranking in the top 20 independent secondary schools in The Sunday Times Parent Power Schools Guide 2026.
READ MORE: UK private school headteacher to leave after 11 years
The new academic year will start next week, with Ms Pike preparing for one more year in charge before she hands over to her successor, who will take over in September 2027.
The first female Master at MCS, Ms Pike guided the board of governors to one of the most significant decisions in the school’s history, to become fully co-educational from 2027.
While there has been a co-educational sixth form at the school for 15 years, the school last month announced it will become fully co-educational over the coming decade.
Ms Pike said earlier: “I love MCS, and it is a perennial privilege to lead this remarkable school.
“Being Master of MCS is a brilliant job, and I am declaring my intention early in order to give MCS the very best opportunity to find the right Master for September 2027. I shall continue to do all in my power to further the fortunes of this wonderful school until then.
“I look forward to a new phase in my own professional life, one that builds on all that I have enjoyed and achieved in my career during the past 30 years.
“Having encouraged many cohorts of pupils to take sensible risks and to do something creative and different when the time feels right, I am doing just that.”
During Ms Pike’s tenure, MCS has been recognised as a Top 20 Independent School and South East School of the Year by the Sunday Times and won Independent School of the Year for Social Mobility.
Thanking her in his letter to the school community, chair of governors, Bob Price, said earlier this year: “Helen is an outstanding leader and will go with our sincere gratitude and warm thanks for her exceptional headship.
“She will leave the school in excellent shape for her successor.”
Recruitment for a replacement for Ms Pike is now under way.
Last month, Ms Pike congratulated pupils on their “outstanding success” in this year’s A-Level exams, after more than a quarter of pupils (43) achieved three A*s or more and 25 secured all A*s.
In total, 39 pupils from the 2026 cohort are heading to Oxbridge, while 22 have secured places to study medicine.
As part of the school’s expansion plans, MCS is preparing to build a new Science, Library and Partnerships building.
A spokeswoman said the new building will offer an exciting opportunity to reimagine the senior school site as staff look ahead to full co-education.
She added earlier: “With a vision to create a sector-leading science building in the centre of Oxford, the development will enable us to support an ambitious and forward-looking science curriculum, expanding to the emerging and rapidly advancing areas of robotics, AI and Big Data.”
Holding banners which read ‘For f**k’s sake, just stop oil’, the demonstrators took to the road in Parliament Square at noon today (Wednesday, September 2).
This was as Andy Burnham faced his first Prime Minister’s Questions, and many of the protestors glued themselves to the road.
The group demanded that the UK government stop approving all further oil and gas developments, and sign a Fossil Fuel Treaty to stop oil and gas extraction.
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Just Stop Oil say that the police are expected to arrest all those blocking the road, and that one lane has been left free of glued-on action takers to permit access for emergency vehicles.
Andy Burnham is due to make a decision on whether to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Reverend James Crote, a Baptist Minister and grandfather from Chesterton near Bicester, said: “Today is my grandson’s first birthday. I have to take action for the sake of his future.
The 69-year-old added: “The government has been dilly-dallying about whether to say yes or no to the Rosebank oil field but, if we want a future for our children, there is no choice – it has to say ‘no’.
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“I am here as a Christian Minister because the Church has to speak out and demand that the government stops approving further oil and gas developments now. It’s time for us all to say ‘For God’s sake, Just Stop Oil’.”
Data from the Met Office indicates that 2026 was the hottest summer in UK recorded history, beating 2025, which was the previous hottest summer on record.
2026 was also one of the driest summers on record, delivering record-low food harvests.
Climbing temperatures have triggered wildfires across the country, and national fire chiefs said the wildfire risk facing the UK is “like nothing we have seen before”.
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Taking action, grandmother Victoria Ann Lynch-Staunton from Leamington Spa, said: “What is happening is beyond a tragedy.”
The 71-year-old added: “I beg everyone to join Just Stop Oil or governments will continue to prioritise endless growth and corporate profit over billions of lives – yours and your children.
“Wake up and smell the coffin. It is the responsibility of all of us to act now!”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said today: “We are all Just Stop Oil.
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“Every single person who fears deadly wildfires, devastating droughts, and spiralling food shortages is Just Stop Oil.
“The first duty of government is to keep the public safe – but by greenlighting oil and gas drilling, they endanger our survival while corporates and billionaires laugh their way to the bank.
“Every one of us feels alone and powerless in the face of this insanity, but we know there is massive political and public support for our demand.
“So we’re inviting everyone to join us at an online call on 3rd October 2026 – because it’s when we work together that we are powerful and win.”
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