What is the best Booker winner? To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the fiction prize, five judges have each selected what they think is the best winner of each decade since 1968. The shortlist result will be announced at Hay on 26 May. Wood, the Literary Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, hosts an all-star panel who will have read the shortlisted books and will pick a Hay winner. Sands won the non-fiction Baillie Gifford Prize for East West Street. Turkish author Shafak’s novels include Honour, The Forty Rules of Love and Three Daughters of Eve.  The Colombian novelist Gabriel Vasquez won the Premio Alfaguara and the IMPAC award for The Sound of Things Falling. His latest novel is The Shape of the Ruins.

Join Dylan Jones, author and award-winning editor of GQ magazine, and Guto Harri, former BBC Chief Political Correspondent, Communications Director for Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and now Communications Director for News UK, in a special Q&A on their career insights, experiences and advice for entering the world of journalism.

For students aged 16–18 years

Melvin Burgess talks to Anthony McGowan about the unusual genesis of The Hit, Melvin’s new book – a tense and violent thriller based on a very interesting premise.

12+ years

Join Julia Donaldson discussing the creation of The Giant Jumperee. Chaired by Children’s Director Julia Eccleshare.

Sub-editors and journos beware…the comedians mock facts and folly in today’s papers. The home team is joined by Daily Mash editor Tim Telling.

Re-examining the differing impacts of WWI on Britain, Ireland and the United States, The Long Shadow throws light on the whole of the last century and demonstrates that the First World War is a conflict from which Britain, more than any other nation, is still recovering.

The Magnum photographer took one of the most powerful photographs of the twentieth century - the “tank man” in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 1989. From his insightful position as a photographer, Franklin explores why we are driven to visually document our experiences and the world around us. He focuses on photography but traces this universal need through art, literature and science. Looking at photojournalism, war photography and work recording our culture, Franklin identifies some of its driving impulses: curiosity, outrage, reform and ritual; the search for evidence, for beauty, for therapy; and the immortalisation of memory. Chaired by Oliver Bullough.

A bold and radical look at a world obsessed with economic growth at the expense of quality of life – and what we can do to change. Environmental author and campaigner Saci Lloyd talks to New Economics Foundation fellow Andrew Simms.

Holly Webb’s popular animal stories may tug the heartstrings but always have a happy ending. An unmissable treat for her fans.

6+ years

One of America’s most powerful and feared gangsters is about to face up to his past… On a rare public appearance in Britain, the cult thriller writer of The Wire, author of Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River discusses his work and his new novel.