This year’s Oxford Literary Festival has been postponed. But that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the brilliant PUP authors who were due to discuss their books at the Festival. Below is a list, in chronological order of scheduled appearance. If you’re keen to read more, do note that Blackwell’s, the online Festival bookseller, can ship orders globally and offers free shipping within the United Kingdom.
Hermione Lee – ‘The Princeton Conversation’: Lives of Houses
Alexandra Harris, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Roy Foster, and Hermione Lee. Dame Hermione Lee chairs a group of writers who celebrate the homes of literary figures, artists, composers & politicians of the past. Read an excerpt from The Lives of Houses in The Toronto Star.
Sonia Contera – Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology
Nanotech pioneer Professor Sonia Contera explains the nanotechnologies that are allowing scientists to manipulate the building blocks of life. Listen to an interview with Sonia Contera on Intelligence Squared.
David Hand – Dark Data: How What You Don’t Know Matters
Mathematician and statistician Professor David Hand says the information world is full of data we are missing, and this can lead us to the wrong conclusions and mistaken actions. Read an interview with David Hand on PUP Ideas.
Marion Turner – Chaucer: A European Life
English literature expert Professor Marion Turner tells the story of how a wine merchant’s son became one of the most celebrated English poets and reveals him as a great European writer and thinker. Listen to an interview with Marion Turner on Start the Week.
Fawaz Gerges – Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East
World-leading authority on the Middle East Professor Fawaz Gerges explains how the Middle East has been shaped by the conflict between political Islamists and secular-leaning nationalists. Read a review of Making the Arab World in The Times.
Carl Frey – The Technology Trap: Capital, Labour, and Power in the Age of Automation
Economist Carl Frey looks at the history of technological progress and explains how it has always radically shifted the distribution of economic and social power between members of society. Listen to an interview with Carl Frey on BBC News’ Business Daily.
Clare Carlisle – Uncovering the Real George Eliot
Philosopher Clare Carlisle and novelist Kathy O’Shaughnessy discuss what they have learned about the real George Eliot through their respective work editing a new version of Eliot’s translation of Spinoza’s Ethics and writing a novel based on the author’s life. Listen to an interview with Clare Carlisle on Start the Week.
Jim Al-Khalili – The World According to Physics
Theoretical physicist, author and television presenter Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Financial Times editor Clive Cookson about what modern physics tells us about the universe and the nature of reality and why it matters to everyone. Listen to an interview with Jim Al-Khalili on PUP Ideas.
Errol Fuller – Elephant
Writer, painter and world authority on animal extinction Errol Fuller celebrates the elephant and warns that these magnificent animals are in urgent need of protection. Read an interview with Errol Fuller in Psychology Today.
John Took – Dante
Leading Dante expert Professor John Took says the best guide to the life of Italy’s greatest writer is the poet himself. Read a review of Dante in Times Higher Education.
Hugo Mercier – Not Born Yesterday
Cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier explains the science behind how we decide who to trust and what we believe and argues that we are pretty good at making these decisions. Read a review of Not Born Yesterday in New Scientist.
Philipp Ther – Migration and Europe: The Story of Today and our Yesterdays
Historians Professor Philipp Ther and Professor Peter Gatrell discuss the impact of waves of migration that have crossed Europe over the centuries and that continue to dominate the continent’s history in the modern era. Read an interview with Phillip Ther in the Times Higher Education.
Martin Sandbu – The Economics of Belonging
Economics correspondent Martin Sandbu says populism is a direct result of decades of mismanagement and we need to step back from polarised debate over current challenges and seek out the economic policies that could address widening inequality. Read Martin Sandbu’s latest commentary for the Financial Times.