Thousands of book fans enjoyed author talks at the Oxford Literary Festival.

The FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival is one of the most prestigious literary festivals in the world, and it ran for its 26th year last week with over 250 speakers from 20 countries.

Ticket sales were back to pre-pandemic levels with 23,000 tickets sold and 35 events completely sold out, including those featuring Yeva Skalietska, Esme Young and Jeremy Bowen. 

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Talks for children ran alongside those for adult readers.

Festival director Sally Dunsmore said: "After all the difficulties of the last few years, pandemic, war and cost of living crisis, it was heartening to see our festival goers support the festival in such great numbers.

"The quality of debate was as good as ever. And we have been delighted to welcome new sponsors including Netflix.

"It is a huge challenge to put on a festival each year, and we cannot do it without the fantastic support of our festival goers, partners and donors."

Oxford Mail:

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The festival closed on Sunday with a talk from multi-million selling author and clinical psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson.

Dr Peterson has attracted controversy in the past with his views on the LGTBQ+ community and identity politics.

The festival will host Simon Schama in the Sheldonian for a one-off event on May 22.

The dates for next year’s Oxford Literary Festival are March 16 to March 24.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF