Box Office 0870 343 1001 www.sundaytimes ... - Blackwell's

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A Screening of Arena:
Paul Scofield
Introduced by Anthony Wall
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8pm / Christ Church Cathedral School,
Brewer Street / £7.50
Arena tells the story of the intensely private man who
brought to life some of the world’s greatest dramatic
literature, most notably with his revolutionary
portrayal of King Lear.
Chris Patten 542
What Next
Surviving the 21st Century
8pm / Garden Marquee, Christ Church / £7.50
Globalisation, energy, international crime, Weapons
of Mass Destruction, nuclear proliferation, small
arms proliferation, international drugs trafficking,
climate change, water shortage, migration, epidemic
disease, the fraying of the nation state: the list of
challenges facing our world is itself proliferating
rapidly and no one seems to have much of a grip on
what is going on.
Assimilating vast amounts of information from a
multiplicity of sources and drawing on his experience
at the highest levels of national and international
politics, Chris Patten’s book analyses what we know
in each of these areas and argues how, in each of
them, we could get somewhere we might want to be.
Unlike most literary festivals, which, from
my experience, are too geared to celebrity
chat, Oxford has real intellectual kick. It
brings authors, readers and the general
public together in the most appropriate
setting - Oxford is surely the most catholic
place of learning, where disciplines overlap
and where ‘academe’ is not so much a
concept as an architectural reality. It is
truly a privilege to speak and discuss in
venues such as the Bodleian and the Upper
Library at Christchurch, and I believe this
environment makes the general public feel
more intellectually accepted and included.
Oxford is not so much a festival as a feast,
and the closing dinner epitomises this,
bringing authors, readers, sponsors and
organisers together in a joyful celebration
based on love of literature.
Adam Zamoyski
THURSDAY APRIL 2009
Photograph: Harry Boarden
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