Orwell@Oxford 2009
The Orwell Prize is delighted to be organising a whole strand of events at the prestigious Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival this year. An exciting selection of journalists, politicians and writers will be discussing politics from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, we'll be marking the 60th anniversary of 1984 and the 70th of Coming Up for Air (and the Second World War), and - for the first time - Richard Blair, Orwell's son, will be speaking in public.
You can find out more about all our events below, with details of the questions, the panellists and how to book. If you can't make it along, we'll be posting videos of all our events. You can also follow us on Twitter.
Monday 30th March | 4pm | Garden Marquee
Orwell vs Dickens – who is the greater writer?
• Read Orwell's essay on Dickens
In 1939, George Orwell composed a famous essay about Charles Dickens. 'When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page,' wrote Orwell. But in this contest between two of Britain's greatest writers, which face will fit? Both Orwell and Dickens will have two advocates speaking up for them in this debate – and you, the audience, will get to vote on which is the greatest author.
Tuesday 31st March | 4pm | Garden Marquee
1984 and Civil Liberties: ‘Big Brother would scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities’
• BOOK NOW
• Buy 1984
This debate, marking the 60th anniversary of Orwell's 1984, asks how the novel can inform the present debate about civil liberties. In an age of terrorist threats, government databases and social networking, it is increasingly difficult to avoid references to Orwell's classic satire on the totalitarian state and the surveillance society. 'There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.'
Wednesday 1st April | 10am | Blue Boar Marquee
Africa and China Debate
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• Launch debate: Is journalism failing failing states?
Are we witnessing a new scramble for Africa? The 'scramble for Africa' in the late 19th Century saw a race between European powers for territory on the continent, and power and prestige everywhere. China, the rising global power, funds infrastructure projects across Africa. Film director Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics over China's role in Darfur. Chinese businessmen populate karaoke bars from Luanda to Lagos. How are China's actions different from old-fashioned imperialism?
Wednesday 1st April | 4pm | Garden Marquee
Afghanistan Debate
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• Launch debate: Is journalism failing failing states?
What has foreign intervention achieved in Afghanistan? Operation Enduring Freedom was the first front in the 'War on Terror' to be opened following the attacks of September 11th 2001, and sought to remove the Taliban, the repressive regime which had allowed Osama bin Laden to operate in Afghanistan. Seven years later, the fighting continues – has intensified even – and foreign troops still lack an exit strategy. What does Afghanistan's future look like?
Thursday 2nd April | 4pm | Christ Church Cathedral School, Brewer Street
Screening of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984) followed by Q&A with Director, Mike Radford
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• Internet Movie Database
• Buy the DVD
'The year of the movie, the movie of the year.' 60 years after the publication of Orwell's seminal dystopian novel, and 25 years after the release of this award-winning film (and the year itself), director Mike Radford answers questions following a screening of his work. The film's stars include John Hurt as Winston Smith and Richard Burton as O'Brien.
NOTE: THIS FILM HAS A '15' RATING.
Friday 3rd April | 4pm | Garden Marquee
Richard Blair in Conversation with D. J. Taylor
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• Read Richard Blair’s essay at Finlay Publisher
• Read D. J. Taylor on Orwell
Speaking in public for the first time, Richard Blair – George Orwell's son – will be reminiscing about life with his father. Adopted by George and his wife Eileen in 1945 (Eileen dying later that year), Richard was brought up by his father, first in London and then on the Scottish isle of Jura. Richard will be talking to writer D. J. Taylor, Chair of the Orwell Trust and author of Orwell: The Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Award in 2003.
Saturday 4th April | 4pm | Garden Marquee
2009 and 1939 – How do we avoid political crisis after an economic crash?
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• Shortlist Debate: Are political parties bankrupt? Economic emergency and the next election
'I see it all. I see the posters and the food-queues, and the castor oil and the rubber truncheons and the machine-guns squirting out of bedroom windows. Is it going to happen? No knowing. Some days it's impossible to believe it. Some days I say to myself that it's just a scare got up by the newspapers. Some days I know in my bones there's no escaping it.' Orwell's 1939 novel, Coming Up For Air, was written with war looming, a war created in part by political tensions that were the shrapnel of a global economic crash. With a credit crunch and global downturn now upon us, will political crisis follow? Is it going to happen, or is there some way of escaping it?
Sunday 5th April | 4pm | Garden Marquee
What is the big Conservative idea?
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• Shortlist Debate 2009: Are political parties bankrupt?
• Shortlist Debate 2008: Has the Left stopped thinking?
Summer 2008: A double-digit lead in the polls. Victory in the London Mayoral election and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Big wins in the local elections. A Government on the back foot, if not on the ropes. Things may have changed a little since, but the Conservative Party will go into the next General Election with a real chance of forming the Government. So what is it that sets them apart from Labour (and the Lib Dems)? What would they do in power? What, in short, is the big Conservative idea?
Sunday 5th April | 6pm | McKenna Room, Christ Church
Losing Russia?
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British relations with Russia are at their lowest ebb since the Cold War. Alexander Litvinenko and polonium, the British Ambassador and 'Putin Youth', espionage, Georgia, and gas supply have all been recent sources of tension. (At the same time, Russian oligarchs are becoming more visible in British life, from football to Fleet Street.) But to what extent is this deterioration the fault of the West? Is there a new Cold War brewing? And is Russia a threat – or is it threatened?