Hay Festival in Cartagena

Maria Wyke conjures the ways in which the Roman’s life, loves and death have dominated the popular consciousness from the Vatican to Shakespeare, Bonaparte and Mussolini. Chaired by Peter Guttridge.

Paleoclimatology Prof David Beerling, author of Emerald Planet, examines the impact of mankind’s fossil fuel burning on climate change, and maps the action needed to arrest the damage done.

With inimitable brilliance and humour Terry Jones revises the conventional history spun by Richard’s successor, and reassesses the King’s reign.

Mark Leonard overturns our accepted misconceptions about the new superpower, examining the internal intellectual currents and arguments that are reforming society and culture.

Ilya Troyanov considers the extraordinary life of Sir Richard Burton, the first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, discoverer of the source of the Nile, and translator of The Arabian Nights.

The novelist discusses On Chesil Beach and Atonement.

Blair’s fundraiser, Middle East envoy and confidant was cleared of all charges relating to the cash for peerages scandal. He discusses his political career and his memoir A Question of Honour.

Valerie Grove introduces her biography of the irrepressible John Mortimer and Frances Osborne profiles her great-grandmother The Bolter: Idina Sackville—The Woman Who Scandalised 1920s Society and Became White Mischief ’s Infamous Seductress.

Britain’s greatest photo-journalist discusses his career and his body of work collected as In England with Rosie Boycott.

Brain physiologist Susan Greenfield explores human nature, our past, what makes us individual, the connection between the brain and the mind, and what a society of fulfilled individuals might actually mean.