Hay Festival 2019 Programme

International bestseller Erling Kagge leads a walk exploring his books Silence in the Age of Noise and Walking: One Step at a Time, a life-changing celebration of the love of exploration, the delight of discovery and the equilibrium that can be found in this most simple of activities. “Everything moves more slowly when I walk, the world seems softer.”

Please wear appropriate footwear. Numbers are limited. There will be a bus journey to and from the walk location; return to Festival site by 12.30pm.

A little light ridicule, mockery and fun to start the day as the satirists read the tabloids and surf the social media storms for an irreverent look at what’s tickling the nation’s fancy – and driving it to splenetic fury – today.

One of the great, unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. Baggini sets out to expand our horizons, exploring the philosophies of Japan, India, China and the Muslim world, as well as the lesser-known oral traditions of Africa and Australia’s first peoples. Interviewing thinkers from around the globe, the philosopher asks: why is the West more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom?

Award-winning travel writer Nicholas Jubber journeys across Europe, exploring the great epic poems and how they have a startling resonance in contemporary times. Reaching back to the era remembered as ‘the Age of Migration’, Jubber explores how attitudes to population movement, borders, kin relations, sex, class and political structures are dramatised in the ancient and medieval epics. From Homer’s Odyssey through the devastating conflict of the French Song of Roland and the German Nibelungenlied, to the great Viking sagas such as Beowulf and the Icelandic Njal’s Saga, these are timeless tales about human nature, but also windows into other societies, with different emphases on matters of honour, kinship, fundamentalism and fate. He talks to the great storyteller Daniel Morden.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston burst to fame when he became the first man ever to complete a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation of the world. Now, fifty years on from that famous voyage, he reveals the true, extraordinary story of his life. Stadlen hosts his own weekend show on LBC.

A lovely walk with panoramic views, starting with a steep climb over Cusop Hill, then through woods and open moorland before descending to the ruined Craswall Priory where we will stop for lunch. Having explored the Grandmontine monastery, we return by contouring around the base of Hay Bluff, and follow the Offa’s Dyke Path back down to Hay. Strong boots and all-weather clothing recommended for this strenuous walk. Bring a packed lunch. Distance 11 miles. Ascent 450 metres.

An exploration of the concept of neurodiversity and what it means to society and the public sphere to be genuinely accepting and inclusive of all people. Rhi Lloyd-Williams is Director of the Autact Theatre Company, fresh from a successful tour of her play The Duck, which draws on her own experience as an autistic writer and director. Jon Adams is Director of the Flow Observatorium, a charity campaigning for parity within the arts and society for every neurodivergent person. Guy Shahar is CEO of the Transforming Autism Project, a charity committed to empowering the families and carers of children with autism to optimise their life prospects and unlock their true potential. The panel will be chaired by Grainne O’Reilly, Principal of Ruskin Mill College. Grainne and her team provide day and residential places for young people with complex needs, especially autism and ADHD.

"Pants for iguanas and ravenous piranhas, groovy pants for gibbons, with pictures of bananas!" Come and join Nick Sharratt as he introduces his latest hilarious picture book.

Join an action-packed kitchen adventure with catapults, explosions and edible slime. Nanotechnologist Dr Michelle Dickinson shows you how to be a top scientist in your own kitchen. Using everyday equipment such as marshmallows and nuts, string and balloons, her experiments demonstrate principles of science and chemistry the whole family will find fascinating.

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. 

In Sweden, children and young people are recognised as an important part of society. Swedish children’s culture is open-minded and doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. This has fostered a generation of young people who express their opinions, are listened to and speak up to claim their rights, from Pippi Longstocking to Greta Thunberg. Join us to explore the power and potential of children changing the world.

Almost seventy-five years have passed since D-Day, the day of the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The outcome of the Second World War hung in the balance on that chill June morning. If Allied forces succeeded in gaining a foothold in northern France, the road to victory would be open. But if the Allies could be driven back into the sea, the invasion would be stalled for years, perhaps forever. An epic battle involved 156,000 men, 7,000 ships and 20,000 armoured vehicles. The desperate struggle that unfolded on 6 June 1944 was, above all, a story of individual heroics – of men who were driven to keep fighting until the German defences were smashed and the precarious beachheads secured. Their authentic human story – Allied, German, French – has never fully been told until now.

Ben Jonson famously accused Shakespeare of having “small Latin and less Greek”. But he was exaggerating. Shakespeare was steeped in the classics. Shaped by his grammar school education in Roman literature, history and rhetoric, he moved to London, a city that modelled itself on ancient Rome. He worked in a theatrical profession that had inherited the conventions and forms of classical drama, and he read deeply in Ovid, Virgil and Seneca. Revealing in new depth the influence of Cicero and Horace on Shakespeare, Bate offers striking new readings of a wide array of the plays and poems. The heart of the argument is that Shakespeare’s supreme valuation of the force of imagination was honed by the classical tradition and designed as a defence of poetry and theatre in a hostile world of emergent Puritanism. Bate is the author of Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare and is co-editor of The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works.

Matt Morgan is an intensive care doctor; that is to say, a person in whose hands you may find yourself one day – as one in five of us will – when something has gone seriously wrong. It may be down to an accident, following a major operation, or you may have succumbed to serious illness. Being critically ill means that one or more of your vital organs has failed. At such times you’ll need faith in the ability of the medical team looking after you to make life-or-death decisions under extreme pressure or to unravel the mysteries of the human body and diagnose unexplainable illnesses urgently. On this day of his book’s launch, Morgan draws on his time spent with real patients on the brink of death, and explains how he and his colleagues fight against the odds to help them live. Baroness Finlay is a professor of palliative medicine.

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of this ever-popular character. Join author Francesca Simon to find out what Henry gets up to in his latest mischievous adventure Up, Up and Away – a brand new collection of wickedly funny and totally brilliant stories.

Join the author and illustrator of this gloriously silly story for a fun-filled event packed with songs and games. Laura Hughes and John Dougherty will sing and sketch their way through what happens when little Natalie enlists the help of her classmates after waking up one day with a pig up her nose. The story is the 2018 winner of Oscar’s Book Prize, which celebrates the best pre-school book of the year. Named after Oscar Ashton, a book-loving boy who died aged three-and-a-half, it is supported by Amazon and the National Literacy Trust.

Hop into a fantasy adventure with Blue Peter award-winning author Kieran Larwood. Hear about the inspiration behind the fearsome warrior rabbits of the Five Realms series and help Kieran create a new land in an interactive map-making experience.

Have a go at green woodwork, pottery and weaving and find out what our craft-based Practical Skills Therapeutic Education brings to autistic young people. Talk with students, craft tutors and staff. Ruskin Mill Trust is a unique educational charity for learners with complex needs.

2Join the University of Worcester illustration team to make bird masks in response to the Migrations – Open Hearts, Open Borders exhibition. Find out how artists can change attitudes and help us to empathise with people who face dangers in their struggle to find a safer and better place to live. We will provide postcards and colours; please bring kindness and imagination to show that a small gesture can make a difference.

In Sweden, children and young people are recognised as an important part of society. Swedish children’s culture is open-minded and doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. This has fostered a generation of young people who express their opinions, are listened to and speak up to claim their rights, from Pippi Longstocking to Greta Thunberg. Join us to explore the power and potential of children changing the world.