sign on my account basket help

Introducing Oxfam’s Bookfest

This month Oxfam is celebrating its love of literature with Bookfest – a nationwide book festival from July 4-18 with more than 280 events in Oxfam bookshops and other venues.

Bookfest includes author readings, poetry competitions, special in-store sales, discussions, children’s events, quizzes, auctions and even ghost walks in venues stretching from local Oxfam bookshops to the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

Louis de Bernieres, Vikram Seth, Anne Fine, Kate Atkinson, Mark Haddon, Carol Ann Duffy, Marina Lewycka, Howard Jacobson, Deborah Kay Davies, Terry Waite, Ruth Padel, Andrew Davies, Joanna Trollope and dozens of other writers are turning out to support Oxfam.

Oxfam has been a tremendous supporter of AbeBooks in recent years and 47 Oxfam bookshops are currently selling through the AbeBooks marketplace. We urge booklovers across the UK to check out Bookfest. Oxfam opened its first specialist bookshop in Oxford in 1987 and now has more than 130, although second-hand books can be found in nearly all of its 700 shops. In recent years, collectible books have become an increasingly important part of its business – for instance Oxfam auctioned a rare copy of A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes’ first outing, for £15,500.

Learn more details about Bookfest. Here is a small sample of what’s on offer:

• Mark Haddon who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Michel Faber who penned The Crimson Petal and the White, and Joanna Trollope who wrote The Rector's Wife, will appear at the Oxford Playhouse to launch Bookfest on 3 July.
  
  
• Author Philip Pullman, acclaimed fantasy author of His Dark Materials, will volunteer in the Oxfam Bookshop in Oxford on 4 July.
  
  
• Howard Jacobson, the author of The Act of Love, and journalist Rosie Boycott (A Nice Girl Like Me) will speak at the Oxfam Bookshop on Marylebone High Street in London on 10 July. Three days later, comedian and author Jo Brand will appear at the same shop.
  
  
• Three literary big-hitters - Jonathan Coe who wrote What A Carve Up!, Vikram Seth who penned A Suitable Boy, and Marina Lewycka who is famous for A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - will be at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre on July 7.
  
  
• Kate Atkinson, who wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and Michael Faber (plus crime writer Ian Rankin and No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency creator Alexander McCall Smith via video) will appear at Playfair Library in Edinburgh on July 10.



• Andy Sawyer, librarian of the Science Fiction Foundation Collection at the University of Liverpool Library, will talk about the top 20 best sci-fi books of all time at the Bridge Street shop in Chester on 9 July.
  
  
• Louis de Bernières, of Captain Corelli's Mandolin fame, will speak at the Ipswich Institute on 14 July.
  
  
• William Golding’s daughter, Judy Carver, will speak about her father at the Cotham Hill shop in Bristol on 16 July.

A selection of books offered for sale by Oxfam

 

 

Love classic tales? You won't want to miss these features:

• Timeless Tales of Adventure
• Big on Biggles