In this lecture, sumptuously illustrated with images of William Morris’ work collected at the V&A, Parry provides new insight into the embroideries, printed and woven textiles, carpets and tapestries produced by Morris & Co.

In the spring of 1553 three ships sailed north-east from London into uncharted waters. The scale of their ambition was breathtaking. Drawing on the latest navigational science and the new spirit of enterprise and discovery sweeping the Tudor capital, they sought a northern passage to Asia and its riches. When their ships became separated in a storm, each ship had to fend for itself. Their fates were sharply divided. One returned to England, to recount extraordinary tales of the imperial court of Tsar Ivan The Terrible. The tragic, mysterious story of the other two ships has to be pieced together through the surviving captain’s log book, after he and his crew became lost and trapped by the advancing Arctic winter.

A groundbreaking exploration of contemporary poetry in Wales through the potential of collaboration across our two languages. Six poets have worked with one another to create original poetic works. They’ve been touring these pieces in rolling pairs around Wales, drawing in poets in each location, and inviting them to create their own collaborations. Their tour culminates here in Hay with a showcase performance and Q&A.

This year’s keynote science lecture is given by the Director General of CERN on the last 12 months that has seen the laboratory receiving accolades around the world for the ‘discovery of the year’, with some pundits even renaming the American national holiday Higgsdependence Day, in honour of the particle whose identification was announced to the world on 4 July 2012. Followed by a discussion with physicists Frank Close and Tara Shears.

Karen Armstrong, former Roman Catholic nun and one of our foremost scholars of religion, speaks out to interrogate the link between religion and bloodshed.

Religion is as old as humanity: Fields of Blood goes back to the Stone Age hunter-gatherers and traces religion through the centuries, from medieval crusaders to modern-day jihadists. Today we regard faith as a personal and private matter, but for most of history faith has informed people’s entire outlook on life, and has often been inseparable from politics. Fields of Blood is a celebration of the ancient religious ideas and movements that have promoted peace and reconciliation across millennia of civilization.

The creator of the famous blog issues a brilliantly bolshy and raucously funny rallying call to girls and women of all ages: The Vagenda asks real women everywhere to demand a media that reflects who we actually are.

The amazing story of Ffion Rees and the peregrine falcon she rescued from the sea off the remote coast of west Wales. It’s the story of how Ffion nursed the falcon back to life and back to the wild, and about the bond that grew between the two. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs, drawings, sketches and magnificent paintings in watercolour and gold leaf by Jackie Morris.

The Director of the British Library browses the infinite possibilities for Libraries and Creativity in an Age of Data. ‘These are times of historic disruption in the whole global system of information and publication, and it seems right that the great knowledge institutions – with their historic remit to think and act with a view far into the future – should play a full part in shaping the changes that lie ahead.’ Chaired by Gaby Wood, Head of Books at The Telegraph.

Fierce, astringent, profoundly tender - and spanning the twentieth century, this beautifully orchestrated novel explores the big themes of betrayal and the struggle for happiness, and above all, the passionate love of a childhood friendship as it is tested over a lifetime. Tremain’s award-winning fiction includes Music and Silence, The Road Home, Sacred Country, Restoration and The Colour. She talks to Peter Florence.

Two compelling views of sex and gender in the Middle East. In Superman Is An Arab, her sequel to I Killed Sheherezade, Haddad examines the patriarchal system and machismo that continues to dominate in the Arab world. Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, gender and generations, so it makes the perfect lens for examining the region’s complex social landscape in El Feki’s study of Intimate Life In A Changing Arab World.