Hay Castle’s executive director Tom True introduces the key moments and characters from the castle’s past followed by a continental breakfast.
Start your day at Hay Festival with our daily news review. Join our leading journalists and special guests as they take us behind the headlines with insider perspectives, insights and an eye on what’s next. Strong coffee recommended! Among today’s guests are judge Lady Hale and comedian Doon Mackichan.
Doon Mackichan is best known for her comedy characters in the hugely popular Brass Eye, Smack the Pony and Toast of London. Lady Hale is former President of the UK Supreme Court.
How many friends do you have? Growing up, Elizabeth Day wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health. Join Day, in conversation with the internet’s resident librarian Jack Edwards, to unpack her Confessions of a Friendship Addict, from her own personal friendships and their distinct importance, to the significance and evolution of friendship across the globe. Day’s critically acclaimed books include How to Fail, The Party and Magpie. She hosts the iTunes chart-topping podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day.
The Irish novelist’s latest work is a series of four novellas, collectively titled The Elements. Four stories with four very different narrators, all of whom have been involved in, complicit with, or found themselves the victims of trauma. The first, Water, published in 2023, is a confronting, reflective story about a woman coming to terms with the demons of her past. Boyne now unfolds the tale of Earth, which follows young footballer Evan Keogh as he leaves his Irish island, finding work as a male escort before becoming a professional footballer. It’s a gritty and complex narrative exploring guilt, shame and facing the consequences of one’s actions. Boyne is one of the most critically acclaimed novelists of his generation. His best-known book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, is a modern classic.
Tree Warden Sam Harpur from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park leads a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye, with Treescapes Policy Officer Kathy Jenkins. Learn more about Hay-on-Wye’s iconic ancient trees.
Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of everyone’s favourite dinosaur-who-cried-wolf story, Gigantosaurus – as seen on TV! Listen to bestselling author and illustrator Jonny Duddle read the story and join in with his draw-along, creating your own dinosaurs to take home.
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to draw along in this event.
Rusty Fizzbang, vet to magical beasts, needs an apprentice. Ember Spark, looking for adventure, is his newest recruit, along with an unlikely friend called Arno. But keeping magical beasts a secret isn’t an easy task, especially with arch-villain Jasper Hornswoggle hot on their heels…
Join bestselling children’s author Abi Elphinstone as she talks about her new book Ember Spark and the Thunder of Dragons. Abi reveals where she finds her ideas – from shower gel bottles and street signposts to adventures in the Arctic and Mongolia – as well as showing you how to plan your own stories, dream up titles and nail that opening line. An event that champions the joy of reading and writing while encouraging you to be curious, courageous and kind.
Please bring your own notebook and pen or pencil to this event.
Get your Hay day off to a brilliant start with our daily Ready, Steady, Music workshops! With different activities each day, these interactive, fun-filled sessions for mini musicians will have you tapping sticks, roaring like dinosaurs, flying with unicorns, dancing with scarves, playing with parachutes and much more. Come and meet our puppets, explore our instruments and be accompanied by the beautiful sound of the cello.
Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available
Come to a fun, story-generating workshop with Emma Bettridge and her dog Nell. During this inspiring outdoor session, you’ll walk to the River Wye where you’ll write, draw and record your stories, inspired by the river and its surrounding area. Emma Bettridge is a theatre producer, nature lover and children’s author whose books include Goodbye Hobbs and Red is Home.
Please come dressed for the weather. We regret that we can’t accommodate dogs at this session.
An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials, with today’s sessions focusing on rivers. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit.
Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.
Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available
American filmmaker Norma Percy’s documentary series Putin vs the West aired a second series this year. At War looks at the first year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, through the eyes of the Presidents and Prime Ministers who had to deal with it, including Volodymyr Zelensky, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, the head of the CIA and the UN Secretary General.
Producer Norma Percy, former Ukraine Defence Minister Oleksii Réznikov and the director of the series Tim Stirzaker discuss the show and what is happening in Ukraine with investigative journalist Misha Glenny.
Take a trip around Europe through the work of three writers in translation. Jean-Baptiste del Amo’s The Son of Man (translated by Frank Wynne) sees a man reappear in the life of his wife and their young son and take them to the dilapidated house in the mountains where he grew up with his ruthless father. Living Things by Munir Hachemi (translated by Julia Sanches) follows four recent graduates who travel to the south of France to work the grape harvest, but end up working on an industrial chicken farm. Sara Mesa’s Un Amor (translated by Katie Whittemore) is about Nat, who arrives in an arid rural village in Spain following a cryptic mistake. They speak with writer Max Liu.
Join our expert panel as they delve into the pressing issues surrounding the surge in flooding incidents driven by climate change and their profound effects on communities, agriculture and our landscapes. From exploring the current challenges faced by farmers to discussing innovative strategies for future preparedness, this discussion aims to help us cultivate resilience.
Ali Capper is a fruit and hops grower in Worcestershire. She is director of the British Hop Association, member of the Hop Industry Committee and chair of British Apples and Pears. Ian Maddock is Professor of River Science, Geography, Environmental Management and Sustainability at the University of Worcester. David Throup was Environment Agency Area Manager in Worcester for 22 years and is an expert on flooding. They talk to Nicola Goodwin from BBC Midlands Investigations...
Two Hay Festival Writers at Work/Awduron Wrth eu Gwaith alumni discuss their work with author Tiffany Murray. Sophie Buchaillard is a French novelist writing in English. Her debut novel This is Not Who We Are was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2023. In her latest book Assimilation, Buchaillard takes us on a world tour through history exploring identity while pursuing spies, drug dealers – and a talking bear. Francesca Reece is a writer and translator from North Wales, winner of the 2019 Desperate Literature Prize. Reece’s Glass Houses is a love story reckoning with class, second home ownership, and Welsh identity.
Settle in for a joyous morning of family entertainment with national treasure and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. He shares stories and poems from his extensive back catalogue, and introduces his latest playful tale The Incredible Adventures of Gaston le Dog. Inspired by stories Michael used to tell his son on holiday in France, this was the book he dreamed of writing while he was recovering from Covid.
Island boy Aaron loves the sea. But he's a bit scared of going under the water. Then one day Aaron finds an octopus stranded on the beach. And as he helps Dad return it to the water, something amazing happens… Can Aaron lose his fear and go underwater? Maybe now he can help look after the sea creatures and be… Aqua Boy!
Award-winning author and illustrator Ken Wilson-Max (Astro Girl and Eco Girl) reads from Aqua Boy, an empowering story about looking after the ocean and its wildlife. Next he shows you how to draw an octopus yourself, and then – hold your breath! – while you complete your drawing, Ken creates a stunning live painting.
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to draw along in this event.
Rotoscope and remix! Leave your mark – help reanimate, reimagine and remix short films with visual artists MASH Cinema. During the workshop you’ll experiment with techniques pioneered by animator Max Fleischer to produce new moving image artwork in this fun, hands-on collaborative creative project. Completed animations will be available to view online.
An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials, with today’s sessions focusing on rivers. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit.
Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.
From the historian and co-presenter of The Rest is History podcast comes the story of antiquity’s ultimate superpower at the pinnacle of its greatness. The Roman Empire once stretched from Scotland to Arabia, the wealthiest and most formidable state the world had seen. Holland’s Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age begins in 69 AD, a year that saw four Caesars in succession rule the empire, and ends some seven decades later with the death of Hadrian. Covering the destruction of Jerusalem and Pompeii, the building of the Colosseum and Hadrian’s Wall, and the conquests of Trajan, he vividly sketches the lives of Romans from slaves to emperors. This is the last of his trilogy that began with Rubicon and continued with Dynasty.
Every day we’re sold a dream life through adverts: sun-soaked holidays, beautiful interiors, perfect home-brewed coffees. We consume goods like there’s no tomorrow, and if advertising continues as it is, that might indeed become true. Leo Murray and Andrew Simms, authors of Badvertising: Polluting our Minds and Fuelling Climate Chaos, raise the alarm about an industry that is making us both unhealthy and unhappy, and that is driving the planet to the precipice of environmental collapse in the process. Speaking to Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, they address the psychological impact of being barraged by thousands of adverts a day, how commercialisation of public spaces weakens our sense of belonging and what we can do to change things for the better.
Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway) shares some of his stylish and transporting shorter fiction with Guardian literary critic Chris Power. Table for Two is a sophisticated collection of stories set in New York City and Golden Age Hollywood. Taking place at the turn of the millennium, the New York stories consider the fateful consequences of brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. The novella ‘Eve in Hollywood’ picks up where Towles’ first novel Rules of Civility left off, with the indomitable Evelyn Ross crafting a new future for herself – and others – in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets and dive bars of 1938 Los Angeles.
A BBC Radio 3 lunchtime concert series marking the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s death. This first of four recitals recorded for broadcast explores the music of Fauré and others. James Atkinson (baritone) and Michael Pandya (piano) perform a programme including Fauré, Chausson, Lili Boulanger and Hahn.
Live your best life with empowering advice from Jessie Yendle, the beauty and self-confidence boosting influencer AKA ‘That Girl with the Stammer on TikTok’. In this empowering event for young adults, Jessie shares her experiences and how she learnt to challenge herself to ‘have a go’. She offers a safe space to help you increase your positivity, let go of the things that bother you and deal with your anxieties. Inspired by her book Let’s Talk, Jessie gives tips to boost confidence and support positive mental health – and she’ll answer your questions too.
Please bring your own notebook and pen or pencil to this event.
Zoom in for a session of silliness, thoughtfulness, laughter and a song or two with award-winning author and poet John Dougherty as, with his brand new collection of verse, he answers questions like: Why should we feel sorry for bats? How can the dog get a turn on the chair? And why shouldn’t you hold a Zoom call with zoo animals?
Come to a fun, story-generating workshop with Emma Bettridge and her dog Nell. During this inspiring outdoor session, you’ll walk to the River Wye where you’ll write, draw and record your stories, inspired by the river and its surrounding area. Emma Bettridge is a theatre producer, nature lover and children’s author whose books include Goodbye Hobbs and Red is Home.
Please come dressed for the weather. We regret that we can’t accommodate dogs at this session.
Rotoscope and remix! Leave your mark – help reanimate, reimagine and remix short films with visual artists MASH Cinema. During the workshop you’ll experiment with techniques pioneered by animator Max Fleischer to produce new moving image artwork in this fun, hands-on collaborative creative project. Completed animations will be available to view online.
As Home Secretary for six years and Prime Minister for three, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged. The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life is May’s searing exposé of injustice and an impassioned call to exercise power for the greater good. The former prime minister argues for a radical rethink in how we approach our politics and public life, in conversation with BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed.
Come and celebrate with the much-loved author and former Children’s Laureate as he introduces a new edition of his 1979 diary of Parsonage Farm. All Around the Year was Morpurgo’s first book, and his early impressions of the English countryside grew into an undertaking that he describes as the best story of his life: the founding of Farms for City Children, a charity started with his wife Clare that has since enabled over 100,000 city children to spend a week in the countryside, living and working on a farm. The book includes poems by Ted Hughes, Morpurgo’s friend and neighbour, and is illustrated with photographs by James Ravilious, who spent most of his life documenting rural life in Devon. This new edition is published to mark Morpurgo’s 80th birthday.
Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire is one of the foremost recording studios in the world, immortalised in the documentary, Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm. The ‘Galileos’ of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ were born at Rockfield. Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Rush, Oasis, Simple Minds, Coldplay, Robert Plant, The Manic Street Preachers and Paolo Nutini have all recorded there. Tiffany Murray, whose memoir My Family and Other Rock Stars is set at the studios, talks to the King of Rockfield, Kingsley Ward MBE, and studio manager Lisa Ward about the legendary location.
Join renowned scientist Robert Winston to hear about The Story of Science – a journey through human history, looking at the stories behind humanity’s greatest inventions and findings. With fascinating facts, tales of innovative inventions and daring discoveries, the professor explains how accidents have led to some of the greatest findings we’ve ever seen, from the stone hand-axe to life-changing medicine. If you’re a young inventor or science enthusiast, or simply a curious mind, constantly asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ things happen, this event is for you.