The themes of love and justice will be explored at three ‘meet the author’ events as part of a festival organised by Oxford Brookes University.

Love and Justice Month runs from Thursday until Friday, March 13, and includes a host of activities, ranging from a volunteering fair to film screenings, all celebrating human rights, relationships and diversity.

Authors Neil Bartlett, Michael Cordy and Teresa Hayter will all speak about their work and its links to the themes of love and justice.

Mr Cordy said: “Love and Justice Month is a great initiative, because it encourages us all to raise our heads for a moment from the everyday grindstone and consider the values many of us take for granted: relationships, diversity, tolerance and human rights.

“They shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

He will be discussing his novel, The Venus Conspiracy, at the Helena Kennedy student centre, at the Headington Hill campus, on Thursday, February 26, at 5.30pm.

Mr Cordy said of his book: “I began with a thought: what if the most rational human pursuit, science, unlocked the biochemical key to the most powerful human emotion, love?

“In a just world, one might assume its all-conquering power would be used to make the world a better place.

“But what if this most benign force fell into the most malign and unjust hands?”

The series of author events will start with performer, theatre director and Brookes honorary graduate Neil Bartlett, who will talk about his Costa Novel Award-shortlisted work, Skin Lane, on Thursday, February 19, at 5.30pm.

Teresa Hayter, an Oxford writer and activist on migration and anti-racism issues, is heavily involved in the Campaign to Close Campsfield House, the immigration detention centre in Kidlington.

Her book club event, on Thursday, March 5, at the same time and venue as the other talks, will be the only one featuring a non-fiction work, her book Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls.

The book assesses the impact of the increasing severity of border controls and makes the case for their abolition.

All three events are free of charge and open to all.

For more details of all the events and exhibitions being staged as part of the festival, see the university’s website at brookes.ac.uk fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk