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.

READ MORE: Doctor Who star is coming to Oxford University

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.

Chris Packham (Image: Jonathan Brady/PA)

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 (Image: PA)

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. 

Simon Schama (Image: FT/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons)

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.