Behind the scenes

Eighteen years ago two enterprising women started the Oxford Literary Festival. There were readings from local poetry groups, story-telling events in schools, talks by nationally-known local authors and a brilliant evening in a marquee with poetry from Bernard O’Donoghue and Tom Paulin and a riot of Irish music.

Probably not financially, but locally and culturally it was a huge success. The next year it was bigger, and again the next year. Christ Church offered a base, the Sunday Times became a sponsor. Audiences arrived from further afield and filled hotels, the programme got fatter and contained bigger names as well as readings from refugee writing groups and poetry workshops that included rap.

Onwards, upwards. The organisers got busier and busier: so busy that they didn’t have time to answer emails from small local publishers. The promised year of focus on African writing was overtaken by something grander by the time the programme appeared. There were literary food and drink events sponsored by high-end food and drink companies.

Then there was some sort of coup. One director disappeared, the amateur and community events vanished from the programme and many volunteer stewards, a lot of whom were retired teachers, unvolunteered.

This weekend the Festival has descended on Oxford again. It’s now sponsored by the Financial Times and HSBC, the Savoy Hotel in London, the Government of Gibraltar and all the upmarket hotels in Oxfordshire. The welcome in the programme says it is one of the ‘big four’ literary festivals in Britain.

I was one of those unanswered emailers. The thought of emailing now about anything small or local is laughable. But hey, at least if you look purposeful and keep to the walkways you can get into Christ Church quad and peer through arches.