Chris Evans’ children’s writing competition, 500 Words, is to return for a second year. Announced on his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on 30 January, young listeners need to compose an original work of fiction of 500 words or less to win Chris Evans' height in books, plus 500 books for their school library. Winning stories will be read out by celebrities during a live show from the Hay Festival on Friday 1 June.
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Year 10 pupils from a Breconshire high school received a powerful lesson in literature recently thanks to Hay Festival.
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For more than twenty years Hay Festival has brought writers, thinkers, musicians, film-makers and scientists together around the world to cross cultural and genre barriers and foster the exchange of ideas. Hay sets literature within a wider cultural and social context and creates high-definition live festivals and internationally resonant media impact. In Bill Clinton's famous phrase it is ‘the Woodstock of the mind’.
Hay Festival is rooted in the Welsh book town of Hay-on-Wye. In 2009 we were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade. There are now Hay Festivals in India, Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico and Spain as well as at home in Wales.
A heady mix of great speakers and insightful audiences make the Hay Festival such a joy.
One of the best festivals in the world
In my mind it's replaced Christmas
One of the finest, most thought-provoking literary gatherings I’ve ever attended