Hay Festival 2019 Programme

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.

Radio Platfform hosts a debate with a panel of young adult Hay Festival-goers. Hay Festival is a hub of creative thought, and this is your chance to discuss the topics of the day and express your opinions. We want to hear what you’ve got to say… Radio Platfform: Your Voice, Your Sound, Your Platfform.

Book your table for dinner in The Grove festival restaurant and receive a complimentary drink* with each ticket.

The comfortable and relaxed restaurant offers friendly and professional table service and an exciting menu of locally-sourced fresh and seasonal food, expertly crafted by our passionate kitchen team. Click here to see a sample of the menu.

We also offer delicious vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices, desserts and local cheeses. Complement your meal with a choice of local craft beers, artisan gins and quality wines from our fully stocked bar. A selection of Fairtrade coffees and teas is also available.

Your reservation will be held for your arrival between 5pm and 6pm and our staff will be ready to warmly welcome you.

If you have any special dietary requirements please contact us in advance on 01453 708336 or email thegrove@bigeventcatering.co.uk

 *A 125ml glass of house wine, 500ml bottle of beer, lager or cider or a soft drink.


The Grove also offers delicious afternoon teas, including optional Bollinger Champagne, and a sumptuous array of delicate finger sandwiches and homemade cakes. Please call ahead to book for afternoon tea on 01453 708336. £25 per person.

A conversation between two writers renowned for their explorations of nature and landscape. Robert Macfarlane's Underland, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated non-fiction book of 2019, takes us on a journey into the worlds beneath our feet. From the ice-blue depths of Greenland's glaciers to the underground networks by which trees communicate, from Bronze Age burial chambers to the rock art of remote Arctic sea-caves, this is a deep-time voyage into the planet's past and future, and into darkness and its meanings. Global in its geography, gripping in its voice and haunting in its implications, it is both an ancient and an urgent work.
Macfarlane, a winner of the Hay Festival Prose Medal, is the author of Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways, Landmarks and (with Jackie Morris) The Lost Words. Horatio Clare’s latest books are The Light in the Dark and Something of his Art: Walking to Lübeck with JS Bach – Hay Festival’s Book of the Month for December 2018.

See also event [235] on 29 May – Spell Songs, a musical performance of The Lost Words – Macfarlane's multi-award-winning collaboration with the artist Jackie Morris.

The polarised intensity of Brexit can seem like a very British civil war. What might healing and reconciliation look like? What can we learn from the past, and from present examples? Classicist Bettany Hughes reflects on her 2014 documentary series What’s The Point of Forgiveness? and takes a long view of ancient historical paths to peace. War correspondent Jon Lee Anderson discusses the political wrangling of peace terms and treaties he’s witnessed, the amnesties and the long recovery from totalitarian oppressions. Olusoga is an historian and author of Black and British: A Forgotten History. Paul Dolan is Professor in Behavioural Science at the LSE, where he works on measures of happiness and subjective wellbeing that can be used in policy and by individuals looking to be happier.

Sophie Ratcliffe’s book is about the things we hide from other people. Love affairs, grief, domestic strife and the mess at the bottom of your handbag. Part memoir, part imagined history, Ratcliffe combines her own experience of childhood bereavement, a past lover and the reality of motherhood and marriage with undiscovered stories about Tolstoy and trains, handbags and honeymoons, to muse on the messiness of everyday life.

The contemporary view of dyslexia has emerged from a century of research in medicine, psychology and, more recently, neuroscience. Considering the potential causes of dyslexia, and looking at both genetic and environment factors, Professor Snowling shows how cross-linguistic studies have documented the prevalence of dyslexia in different languages. Discussing the various brain scanning techniques that have been used to find out if the brains of people with dyslexia differ in structure or function from those of typical readers, Snowling moves on to weigh up various strategies and interventions which can help people living with dyslexia today. Chaired by Stephanie Boland of Prospect magazine.

Conran’s Dignity is a powerful novel about belonging, race, British India and contemporary Britain, by the Dylan Thomas Prize-shortlisted author of Pigeon. Doshi’s Small Days and Nights is a captivating and original story of family, of the ties that bind and the secrets we bury, set against the vivid and evocative backdrop of modern India. Doshi is the award-winning author of Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods and The Pleasure Seekers. They talk to Oliver Balch.

A round-up of highlights from Hay Festival on the national radio station for Wales.

The actor and writer tells stories from his two books Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold and Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures.

The award-winning author of The Eichmann Trial and Denial: Holocaust History on Trial gives us a penetrating and provocative analysis of the hate that will not die, focusing on its current, virulent incarnations on both the political right and left, in America, across Europe and in Britain. She addresses what can be done about it.

When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming a grown-up, journalist and former Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod Stewart themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you’ve ever been able to rely on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of every messy night out. Alderton’s captivating memoir is about bad dates, good friends and – above all else – about recognising that you and you alone are enough.

Ahmed’s childhood was very British in every way – except for the fact that he was brown. Half English, half Sudanese, he was raised in 1970s London at a time when being mixed-race meant being told to go home, even when you were born just down the road. The memoir by the Editorial Director of BBC News makes the case for a new conversation about race in Britain through personal stories, political analysis and a passionate belief in the ultimate good of this country. He talks to Thea Lenarduzzi of the TLS.

The writer discusses his magnificent 2014 Siberian novel The People’s Act of Love and his new work of reportage Dreams of Leaving and Remaining – an anatomy of Britain on the edge of Brexit. He previews his forthcoming novel To Calais in Ordinary Time, a 14th century epic narrative.

Nick Robinson talks about what’s really going on in British politics.

Book your table for dinner in The Grove festival restaurant and receive a complimentary drink* with each ticket.

The comfortable and relaxed restaurant offers friendly and professional table service and an exciting menu of locally-sourced fresh and seasonal food, expertly crafted by our passionate kitchen team. Click here to see a sample of the menu.

We also offer delicious vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices, desserts and local cheeses. Complement your meal with a choice of local craft beers, artisan gins and quality wines from our fully stocked bar. A selection of Fairtrade coffees and teas is also available.

Your reservation will be held for your arrival between 7pm and 8pm and our staff will be ready to warmly welcome you.

If you have any special dietary requirements please contact us in advance on 01453 708336 or email thegrove@bigeventcatering.co.uk

 *A 125ml glass of house wine, 500ml bottle of beer, lager or cider or a soft drink.


The Grove also offers delicious afternoon teas, including optional Bollinger Champagne, and a sumptuous array of delicate finger sandwiches and homemade cakes. Please call ahead to book for afternoon tea on 01453 708336. £25 per person.

Simon Armitage hosts an all-star line-up to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of the iconic publisher, home of one of the world’s greatest poetry lists. Each of the poets reads from their own work and from the work of a Faber poet from a previous generation. The readings are interwoven with audio recordings from the Hay Player archive by the late, great Faber poets Derek Walcott, Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

A conversation about the nature of the lifelong friendship between historian and writer Simon Schama and Martin Sorrell, businessman and advertising legend. The two men have known each other since their school days.

The actor’s celebrated one-man show takes the form of an evening spent in the company of the Russian writer towards the end of his life. In it he reminisces about his life, his times and work; he demonstrates his writing technique by telling stories, speaks about the theatre and engages deeply and humorously with his English audience. The show premiered at the National Theatre in 1984, since when it has toured the world. “Chekhov in all his humour and humanity” – Sunday Telegraph. “Marvellously done” – New York Times.