Online Festival

Political sketch writer John Crace returns to Hay Festival with his blisteringly hilarious tour through the whirlwind of post-Brexit Britain, from the ousting of Boris to the dawn of a new era… sort of. Another month, another prime minister – how many have we been through now? Despite all the nonsense that has spewed forth from Westminster over the past two years, Crace’s brilliantly lacerating political sketches have provided some desperately needed relief. In Depraved New World: Please Hold, the Government will be With You Shortly, he takes in everything from Partygate, BoJo’s farewell, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous reign to the psychodrama of the Tory leadership contest(s), the return of Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman’s hokey pokey and whatever lies ahead.

Journalism is the pursuit of the truth, and that’s what Tom Burgis and Carole Cadwalladr have spent their careers working towards. But what happens when people don’t want the truth to get out? Burgis and Cadwalladr talk to writer Oliver Bullough about the society-changing work they have done, and how strategic lawsuits against public participation (known as SLAPPS) are increasingly being used to tie up journalists’ time and funds to stop their work.

For three years, Burgis followed a lead that produced his new book Cuckooland: Where the Rich Own the Truth. He hunted down oligarchs and traced vast sums of money flowing between multinational corporations, ex-Soviet dictators and the West’s ruling élites. Guardian writer Cadwalladr exposed Cambridge Analytica’s role in mass-harvesting data to influence elections in the UK and US. Bullough is author of Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals.

Troy has fallen. After ten years of war, the Greeks make their way back to their own lands – but what homes now await them? Hay Festival President Stephen Fry is well known for his retellings of Greek myths – Mythos, Heroes and Troy are all bestsellers. Join him as he now directs his gaze to Odysseus, Agamemnon, Helen and Aeneas on their return from the Trojan War. The award-winning comedian, actor, presenter and director gives a pre-publication preview of the subjects of his next book.

American novelist James Baldwin is often called one of the best writers of the 20th century, and his writing, from essays to fiction to critiques, is still popular. But why is Baldwin still so well-read? And what makes his work – much of it rooted in his own experiences as a gay Black man who grew up in poverty in New York’s Harlem – so relevant still, to so many people? Our panel of experts take a look at Baldwin’s life and work, and address why his voice still resonates.

Mendez’s debut novel Rainbow Milk was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Polari Prize, among others. Irenosen Okojie’s novel Butterfly Fish and her short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. David Olusoga is a historian and the author of Black and British: A Forgotten History. Colm Tóibín’s most recent novel is The Magician, and he is the current Laureate for Irish Fiction. They talk to Creative Producer Heather Marks.

It’s election year in both the UK and the US, which means politicians trying to win our vote, endless scandals and arguments, and a search for the people and parties we think are going to work for us. Join the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr, US historian Sarah Churchwell and television journalist Matt Frei for a round table discussion with journalist Matthew D’Ancona. They look at the contenders on both sides of the Atlantic, the challenges facing the new governments and what the implications of the elections are at home and abroad.

Colm Tóibín reunites us with the heroine of his 2009 novel, Brooklyn, in his sequel Long Island. We find Eilis Lacey 20 years on, in the 1970s, living with her husband, Tony Fiorello, and children on Long Island, rather too close to her Fiorello in-laws. A shocking piece of news propels Eilis back to Ireland, to a world she thought she had long left behind and to ways of living, and loving, she thought she had lost. Tóibín is the current Laureate for Irish Fiction. His previous novels include The Master, The Testament of Mary and House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker multiple times, and has won both the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. He talks to Hay Festival President Stephen Fry.