An Evening with the Dean: Discs for my desert island

The Very Revd Dr Mark Oakley will be in conversation with Michelle Lovric exploring his essential music choices and other necessary luxuries when swept away to a desert island.

The Very Rev'd Dr Mark Oakley is Dean of Southwark. Formerly Dean of St John's College, Cambridge, and Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, he is an author of several books on poetry and theology. He was awarded the international Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing for his book "The Splash of Words: Believing in Poetry", and the Lanfranc Award by the Archbishop of Canterbury for education and scholarship. He has worked at the Actors' Church in Covent Garden as Rector and has a strong interest in theatre. He is also Patron Tell Mama, monitoring Islamophobic hate crime and Ambassador for Stop Hate UK. In 2025 he was appointed Whitelands Professorial Fellow in Christian Theology and Contemporary Issues by Roehampton University.

Michelle Lovric is a novelist and poet whose work explores Venice, art, faith and the history of medicine. Her novels include The Book of Human Skin (a TV Book Club pick) and The Remedy(longlisted for the Women’s Prize). For children, she has published six novels
set in Venice and Southwark. She co-authored the bestselling memoir MySister Milly about Milly Dowler. She wrote a play about the 2017 terror attack on London Bridge. This was performed in the Cathedral on the first anniversary. Her new adult novel, The Puffin, will be published in 2026. She is currently writing a children’s book set in Southwark Cathedral in 1905. A Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Michelle has lived for the last 25 years between Clink Street on Bankside and Cannaregio in Venice. She is active in community and environmental causes in both places and is vice chair of the River Residents Group.

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