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.
Uma Ali Sheikh has been named and shamed by the government in a new list published by the government department.
Information is published by the agency when a person or business has made at least one deliberate default on more than £25,000, according to HMRC.
The list is updated every three months before the information is removed after a year.
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Uma Ali Sheikh was investigated by HMRC and charged a penalty for either deliberate errors in his tax returns or a deliberate failure to notify a liability to tax.
The 50-year-old is listed as being a landlord based at Apt 4604, The Torch Tower, Al Sharta Street, Dubai Marina in Dubai.
HMRC says that between April 6, 2014 and April 5, 2019, he did not pay £261,252 worth of tax.
He subsequently paid a penalty worth £137,333.77.
His nationality is listed on Companies House as being British, meaning he is an expat.
Thames Valley Police had been investigating a report that a man committed indecent exposure at around 3pm on August 29 in Headington.
The incident happened in Cox’s Aly near the junction of Gladstone Road.
The offender was last seen walking towards Gladstone Road and is described by police as white, slim and around 5ft 10ins tall.
He had a baggy royal blue tracksuit on – with white stripes running up the sides – and has fair hair, police said in an earlier appeal.
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Police had issued an appeal at the time of the offence looking for witnesses or people with information.
However, seven months later, not enough evidence has been provided to find the culprit.
A police spokeswoman said on Monday morning (March 30): “This case has been filed, pending further information coming to light.”
Indecent exposure, a sexual offence, can see a punishment of up to six months in prison or a fine imposed by the court.
Offenders can also be put on the sex offenders register list, but in most cases this is if the victim is under 18 years of age.
Depending on its seriousness, cases can go to trial in crown court.
Police constable Edward O’Reilly previously said: “If anyone has any further information and witnessed this incident, we would also ask them to get in touch.
“If you have information, please call 101 quoting the reference 43250442508 or you can provide information on the online reporting pages.”
Food, beer and flower stalls attracted lots of shoppers to the Market Place on Saturday.
The local excellence market is held about six times a year, running alongside the regular Monday market.
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Among traders selling to shoppers were Abingdon Distillery, food and drink supplier Barbury Hill from Steventon, Natural Bread Company in Oxford, and Authentic Desi Food from Oxford.
The town council said in a statement: “Local excellence is a market at which local food producers, craft workers and retailers sell their goods in Abingdon Market Place.
“The market gives Abingdon shoppers the chance to sample foods, beers and crafts from Oxfordshire and nearby.
“The market starts at 9am and finishes at 2pm, sometimes later.
“Held on occasional Saturdays through the year, it is very popular with people who are at work all week and miss out on our weekly markets on Monday, or the local farmers’ market on the third Friday in the month.”
Rachel, who works at Abingdon Distillery, said it was a big year for the company as it looks forward to its Single Malt Oxfordshire Whisky going on sale in the autumn.
The next local excellent market is expected to take place on Saturday, May 30.
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