A Night of Hope’ set the tone for Hay 2021 at a gala of Festival stars and some very special guests chose readings from works that have carried them through the dark moments of the past 14 months, and are an inspiration to us all. Author and broadcaster Natalie Haynes introduced each speaker, beginning with HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, who launched this year’s Festival and said Hay’s principle of bringing readers and writers together was close to her heart. She started her own reading group during lockdown.
Watch the session of Wednesday 26 May 2021 again on Hay Player.
In order of appearance, here are the speakers and their chosen works:
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall – ‘A Gentleman In Moscow’ by Amor Towles
Benjamin Zephaniah – ‘People Will Always Need People’
Louise Brealey – 'From Women to the World: Letters for a New Century' by Elizabeth Filippouli
Romola Garai – ‘To Hope’ by John Keats
Karl Nova – ‘The Amazing Discovery’
Hafsa Zayyan – Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare
Sindhu Vee – ‘Us Two’ by A. A. Milne
Hollie McNish – ‘Obsessive Cannibal Love Poem’ by Michael Pedersen
Maggie Aderin-Pocock – ‘Antidotes to Fear of Death’ by Rebecca Elson
Joanne Harris – Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Rufus Mufasa – ‘Carol Haf’ by Ioan ap Hywel
Juno Dawson – ‘Wonderland’
Margaret Busby – ‘Playing in the Dark’ by Toni Morrison
Richard Eyre – The Mystery of Things’
Charly Arrowsmith –Sonnet 73 by Shakespeare, in British Sign Language
Jessica Raine – ‘Hope Is The Thing With Feathers’ by Emily Dickinson
Guvna B – 'One of Them' by Musa Okwonga
Rob Brydon – ‘Small man in a Book’
Clemency Burton-Hill – ‘The Guesthouse’ by Rumi
Stephen Fry – ‘The Trees’ by Philip Larkin
Natalie Haynes – ‘Whose Mouse Are You?’ by Robert Kraus
Theresa Lola – ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou