The Oxford Literary Festival, which starts on Saturday, has a stellar line-up of more than 500 speakers from 20 countries. The highlights include Philip Pullman, Alan Bennett, Amitav Ghosh and Judith Kerr, and we have hand-picked five intriguing events

Simon Schama, Lunch with the FT
* Bodleian: Divinity School
* Saturday, March 21, 12.30pm
* Tickets: £65, with lunch

Join the editor of FT Weekend, Caroline Daniel, and historian and broadcaster Simon Schama for lunch in the magnificent surroundings of the Bodleian Library’s 15th century Divinity School.

Proceedings start with a Prosecco reception at 12.30pm, followed by a two-course lunch with wine at 1pm and a talk and conversation over coffee at 2.15pm.

After lunch, Schama will talk about his life and work as a historian and broadcaster, which has seen him write and present some of the best-known documentaries seen on the BBC in recent years.

Schama, professor of history and art history at Columbia University, New York, and an FT contributing editor, is particularly known for the 15-episode A History of Britain, commissioned by the BBC to mark the Millennium.

He also presented the acclaimed five-part series The Story of the Jews for BBC Two and his writing includes a three-volume A History of Britain and Simon Schama’s Power of Art.

Caroline Lucas MP
* Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre
* Sunday, March 22, 10am
* Tickets: £12

The UK’s first Green MP tells about life as an outsider in the Houses of Parliament, exposing its absurdities, inefficiencies and baffling customs.

As the only Green and as a woman, Lucas says she found herself fighting for change in a club bound by tradition and self-interest when she was elected to represent Brighton and Hove in 2010.

In No Honourable Friends: Parlia-ment and the Fight for Change, she describes what it is like to defend the interests of constituents, to challenge the establishment and to balance the demands of work and family.

Lucas joined the Green Party in 1986 and her first electoral success was in Oxford, where she held a seat on the county council between 1993 and 1997.

She became an MEP for the South East in 1999 and the Green Party’s first leader in 2008, but stepped down in 2012 to concentrate on parliamentary duties.

Bill Oddie Unplucked
* Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre
* Wednesday, March 25, 12 noon

Author, actor, comedian and one of Britain’s best-known birdwatchers, Bill Oddie gives a humorous take on some of his experiences birdwatching.

Bill Oddie Unplucked is a collection of writings on birds, birdwatching and wildlife seen on his travels. Subjects range from a less than satisfactory press trip to the Galapagos Islands in the 1980s to encounters with orcas in Argentina and an invisible Indian tiger.

Oddie has been a household name for decades, including his time as one of the Goodies and on the BBC’s Spring-watch. He is a bestselling writer.

Cressida Cowell on How To Train Your Dragon
* Sheldonian Theatre
* Saturday, March 21, noon
* Age 8+

Join the author and illustrator of the book series and movie franchise How To Train Your Dragon to ask about growing up on an island she thought was inhabited by dragons, learn Dragonese and hear how characters move from book to big screen.

Cowell will join Nicolette Jones to talk about creating books and about ones by other writers, including best friend Lauren Child. She will read the first chapter of her next book, which not even her editor has seen, and get a sneak view of its cover. Former Archbishop of Canterbury envoy and Lebanon hostage Terry Waite talks about his fiction debut. His comic novel is of a retired shopworker and admiral on a maiden cruise.

Oxford Literary Festival
March 21 to March 29
Visit oxfordliteraryfestival.org