Hay Festival 2020 is cancelled

The guitarist plays a meditative late-night concert featuring music by Robert Schumann, Agustin Barrios, Graeme Koenhe, John Dowland and Roland Dyens.

David and Catherine James’s cider orchards are carefully managed to produce a range of cider apples for the Bulmers and Magners premium brands, some of which will be available for tasting. In a happily synergistic relationship with a local beekeeper, the trees are pollinated by bees, the nectar making delicious honey. Look inside a beehive and learn how bees make honey and store it for the winter. Trevithel Court is a traditional mixed farm, so there will also be the opportunity to see beef cattle and arable crops at various stages of production. Agronomist Jonathon Harrington leads the tour.

With thanks to Catherine and David James

The Professor of English at the University of Oxford leads a walk through an old English garden, talking about her book The Brief Life of Flowers. Their beauty has inspired some of the greatest works of art and literature, captivating creative minds from Ovid to O’Keeffe, Wordsworth to Van Gogh, Botticelli to Beatrix Potter. While the poppy is often associated with WWI, it was the elderflower that treated the wounded horses, joining a long line of healing flowers, including lavender and foxgloves. From the personal to the political, flowers play a part in all aspects of life: the right rose, according to the Victorian language of flowers, might mend a broken heart, while sunflowers may just save our planet. 

Please wear appropriate footwear. Numbers are limited. Return to Festival site by 12pm.

Philippe Sands, Tishani Doshi, Ann Mroz, Daljit Nagra, Chris Riddell, Amol Rajan, Kate Nicholls and Jeanette Winterson

As part of the #BooksToInspire campaign, Festival guests bring the novels, poetry and non-fiction that first sparked their love of reading or set them off on a journey of discovery in their lives. #BooksToInspire is a campaign from Hay Festival and TES, inviting book recommendations for primary and secondary schools to inspire the next generation of world changers. Chaired by Peter Florence.

The Industrial Revolution brings to mind famous male inventors and industrialists. Spanning the globe and drawing on thousands of years of history, Bateman weaves rigorous analysis with autobiographical insights to tell a bold, ambitious story about how the status and freedom of women – particularly freedom over their bodies – is central to our prosperity and economic wellbeing. Genuine female empowerment requires us not only to recognise the liberating potential of the market and the importance of smart government policies, but also to challenge the double standard of many modern feminists when they celebrate the brain while denigrating the body. Chaired by Jane Garvey of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

We are delighted to launch the new novel by one of the world’s great storytellers, the author of the Ibis trilogy. A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors but, as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. 

The Untold is an award-winning, observational documentary series made for Radio 4 and which has recently celebrated its 100th edition.  Uniquely in its field, The Untold unravels a story in real-time, following apparently ordinary people as they face an extraordinary decision in their life.  As well as compelling radio, it is also very interested in the techniques of story-telling; by using scenes, characterisation, narrative, suspense and resolution.  With this series, and US podcasts like Dirty John and S*Town, there is an emerging genre of audio documentaries that draw, and apparently compliment, the structures and devices that are used by novelists.

In this special session at Hay, we are bringing the presenter of the series, Grace Dent, Radio 4 producer Laurence Grissell and excerpts from the documentaries together with the novelists John Lanchester and Pat Barker, to discuss and share their sense of the crossover between real-life audio storytelling and that used in novels.  We will also reflect on the changing nature of audience’s expectations of storytellers – in the multi-part, binge consumption era – what makes for compelling story telling, in fact and fiction?

Did you know what a busy place Hay was in bygone days? As we walk up Cusop Dingle, you’ll learn how water powered corn mills, a paper mill and early hydroelectricity. It’s not just about industry, though, for as well as a brick kiln and a tram road, Cusop Dingle was also home to the poisoner Herbert Armstrong, the only English solicitor ever hanged for murder. We’ll cover geology, landscape, industrial archeology and history. Walking boots and all-weather clothing required. Bring a packed lunch. Distance 7 miles. Ascent 200 metres.

Join the ridiculously funny author of Mr Gum for an hour of joyous nonsense as he introduces his brand new series, set in ancient Pompeii. Meet Caecilius the fart merchant! Thrill to the adventures of Barkus Wooferinicum, the family mutt! Tremble at the terrifying legend of the ma-wol-n-f! 85% historical inaccuracy guaranteed!

Join storyteller Atinuke and illustrator Angela Brooksbank for a captivating read-along brought to life with live illustration. Hear fascinating folk tales from the bustling city in Nigeria where she grew up as she brings to life traditional stories from her childhood. Full of warmth and colour, Atinuke’s storytelling will have little ones mesmerised.

Cook School is pitching up at Hay Festival to offer hands-on, fun cookery sessions, preparing a couple of Italian classics to take home for dinner along with an easy step-by-step recipe card, written by renowned children’s cookbook author Amanda Grant. Cook School is on a mission to teach as many children and young people to cook as possible. Head to cookschool.club to find out more.

Come and join Rooted Forest School (rootedforestschool.co.uk) for an outdoor family session inspired by the Forest School approach. We will be making charcoal on the fire, using natural pigments to create our own paint, making brushes from found materials and creating communal land art. These sessions are aimed at families and will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

Join us in NMiTE’s Studio 1, a hi-tech refurbished shipping container, to explore ideas through making. Experience how highly creative and technological engineering can be. NMiTE is located in Hereford and aims to be the city’s first university with a focus on engineering.
Sign up at the venue for 10am, 11.30am or 1pm. Ingenuity Studio 1 free drop-in sessions for families take place between 2.30pm and 5pm, Sunday 26 May – Saturday 1 June. 

Radio Platfform is a youth-led radio station that offers young people a platform to build their confidence, find their voice and express their opinions. Join this interactive workshop to get a taste of all aspects of radio production, from presenting to editing and producing.

O’Toole examines how trivial journalistic lies became far-from-trivial national obsessions; how the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact has come to define the style of an entire political elite; how a country that once had colonies is redefining itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation; the strange gastronomic and political significance of prawn-flavoured crisps; the dreams of revolutionary deregulation and privatisation that drive Arron Banks, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg; and the silent rise of English nationalism, the force that dare not speak its name. O’Toole is an investigative journalist, historian, biographer, literary critic and political commentator. His acclaimed columns on Brexit for the Irish Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books have been awarded both the Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize. Chaired by Sarfraz Manzoor.

Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime – even before we were born – may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes. Geddes explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight, from ancient solstice celebrations to modern sleep labs, and from the unexpected health benefits of sun exposure to what the Amish know about sleep that the rest of us don’t.

The new book by the author of Capital is a dystopian thriller set in a near-future Britain that invites comparison with Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Orwell’s 1984. Kavanagh begins his life patrolling the Wall. If he’s lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights. But somewhere, in the dark cave of his mind, he thinks: wouldn’t it be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if you had to fight for your life?

Horatio Clare explores the castaway myth, looking at what happens to the soul and mind in the great spaces and on actual desert islands.

Alys Conran reflects on the theme of isolation in Robinson Crusoe and the act of reading it as a novelist.

Daniel Hahn considers the enduring figure of Robinson Crusoe.

Former Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell will talk about the inspiration behind his art for The Tales of Beedle the Bard and what it was like to illustrate JK Rowling’s words. There will be dramatic readings of the stories from the book while Chris Riddell draws live.