Hay Festival 2019 Programme

Join the New York Times duo as they conspire again on two slyly funny tales about some creative shapes. Visually stunning and full of wry humour, these thoughtful offerings about different shapes from two of today's most irreverent picture-book creators emphasize the importance of keeping your eyes and your mind open to wonder, where others see only rubble and rocks.

Join the writer-illustrator in the worlds she has created, populated entirely by animals. Explore her two new picture-books: hop along to meet The New Neighbours and find out how a hopeful young Diplodocus becomes Dinoville’s hero in Dinosaur Firefighters. Stories and drawing in this interactive session for families.

Come to this family and children's nature adventure session run by Rooted Forest School in the Hay Festival Wild Garden. Join in a range of outdoor, Forest School-inspired activities including nature games, natural crafts and making, fire skills, foraging and cooking.

(parents must attend but do not require a ticket)

Roll up, roll up...run away with the circus at Hay Festival. Join two fantastic performers from Splatch, a community-driven company from Cardiff. They will be teaching hula hoop, juggling, tightwire and acrobatics. Get physical and have fun at this workshop.

(parents must attend but do not require a ticket)

Join the illustrators in a printmaking workshop and have a go at creating characters through rubber and foam stamping techniques.

(parents may attend but do not require a ticket)

We are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. Sixty-five million people are fleeing for their lives. The choices are urgent, not just for them but for all of us. What can we possibly do to help? With compassion and clarity, Miliband shows why we should care and how we can make a difference. He takes us from war zones in the Middle East to the heart of Europe to explain the crisis and to show what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. Miliband is President of the International Rescue Committee.

A conversation between two of the world’s great novelists about the elemental and eternal human crises they have explored in their engagement with classic Greek tragedies in their latest stories. House of Names is Tóibín’s version of the terrible fates visited upon the House of Atreus: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and their children Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes. A contemporary reimagining of Sophocles' Antigone, Shamsie’s Home Fire is an urgent, fiercely compelling story of loyalties torn apart when love and politics collide.

Every week seems to throw up a new discovery, shaking the foundations of what we know. But are there questions we will never be able to answer - mysteries that lie beyond the predictive powers of science? Marcus du Sautoy invites us to consider the problems in cosmology, quantum physics, mathematics, and neuroscience that continue to bedevil scientists and creative thinkers who are at the forefront of their fields. He challenges us to consider big questions - about the nature of consciousness, what came before the big bang, and what lies beyond our horizons - while taking us on a virtuoso tour of the great breakthroughs of the past. He celebrates the men and women who dared to tackle the seemingly impossible and had the imagination to come up with new ways of seeing the world. The mathematician holds the University of Oxford's prestigious Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science.

Is monolingualism harming us, both as individuals and as a society? We look at the value of languages for health and well-being, social cohesion, diplomacy and conflict resolution, defence and national security. Wendy Ayres-Bennett is Professor of French Philology and Linguistics.

Indian writer and publisher Anuradha Roy talks about her novel An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), which has been widely translated and was named one of the 60 most essential books on modern India by World Literature Today. Her third book, Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), about the constant human search for another version of existence, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize. Her new book All the Lives We Never Lived is the story of Gayatri, a rebellious artist who abandons her family to follow her primal desire for freedom.

Join Waterstones' Children’s Laureate as she introduces a storytelling event and talks about the inspiration for her latest picture-book. Learn about dogs of all shapes, sizes and colours in this interactive event, full of games and storytelling, led by Devon Black. Lauren will read from the book and answer questions.

Join the author of The First Book of Nature and The First Book of Animals as she introduces a collection of poems about the oceans of the world and their shores. Feel what it is like to swim with dolphins and flying fish, pore over rock-pools and sail from pole to pole and back, learning about everything from phosphorescence and plankton to manta rays and puffins. With exquisite watercolour illustrations from Emily Sutton, the book captures the excitement of a child's first glimpse of the sea, the majesty of ancient trading ships and the wonder of the humpback whale.

Audiences are immersed in an exquisite story while performers enhance the experience through smell, taste and touch. Feral places you at the centre of a magical soundscape, taking you on a dreamlike journey that is unforgettable. This multisensory production fuses the Danish Ole Lukkoye tale with gentler elements of Hoffman’s Sandman story.

Come to this family and children's nature adventure session run by Rooted Forest School in the Hay Festival Wild Garden. Join in a range of outdoor, Forest School-inspired activities including nature games, natural crafts and making, fire skills, foraging and cooking.

(parents must attend but do not require a ticket)

Roll up, roll up...run away with the circus at Hay Festival. Join two fantastic performers from Splatch, a community-driven company from Cardiff. They will be teaching hula hoop, juggling, tightwire and acrobatics. Get physical and have fun at this workshop.

Join the illustrators in a printmaking workshop and have a go at creating characters through rubber and foam stamping techniques.

(parents may attend but do not require a ticket)

The novelist discusses his essay collection Dæmon Voices and his novel La Belle Sauvage with Daniel Hahn.

McGowan is a film-maker, thought leader and agent of change. Brave is her raw, honest, and poignant memoir/manifesto: a no-holds-barred, pull-no-punches account of the rise of a millennial icon, fearless activist, and unstoppable force for change who is determined to expose the truth about the entertainment industry, dismantle the concept of fame, shine a light on a multibillion-dollar business built on systemic misogyny, and empower people everywhere to wake up and be BRAVE. Laurie Penny is author of Bitch Doctrine and Everything Belongs to the Future.

To live in 19th century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent in human experience. There were revolutions in transport, communication, work; cities grew vast; scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognisable. This was an exhilarating time, but also a horrifying one. In this lecture David Cannadine discusses his dazzling new book offering a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British 19th century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice. Professor Sir David Cannadine is President of the British Academy, Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University and visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. His books include Margaret Thatcher: A Life and Legacy and The Undivided Past. Chaired by Tom Clark of Prospect magazine.

The destruction of cultural heritage has grabbed headlines worldwide. Does it matter? This talk will explore the dynamics of violence, reconstruction and repair that underlie these dramatic acts of destruction. Dr Viejo is a Lecturer in Heritage and the Politics of the Past.