Hay Festival 2023

A troubled teenage boy spends his night hours listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him. In conversation with author Kim Sherwood (A Wild & True Relation), Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, tells the story of Shy, a boy escaping Last Chance, a home for ‘very disturbed young men’, and walking into the haunted space between his night terrors, his past and the heavy question of his future. A story about guilt, rage, imagination and boyhood, Porter’s novel offers hope that you’re not alone and lost in the dark.

The word ‘Windrush’ evokes both tragedy and triumph. The exuberance of arrival in 1948 is now tied up with the scandal of elderly black Britons who faced deportation decades later. Seventy-five years on the ship Windrush docked in Tilbury, Essex, the Royal Literary Fund’s WritersMosaic sees poets Raymond Antrobus (All the Names Given) and Hannah Lowe (The Kids), debut author Jacqueline Crooks (Fire Rush) and historian Colin Grant (I’m Black so You Don’t Have to Be) respond to the vibrant stories of Empire Windrush.

Get your pencils at the ready! It’s doodling time. You can learn how to draw Tom Gates and a host of other characters with author and illustrator Liz Pichon. She’ll answer your questions about her books, doodling and more. You can also find out everything about the newest Tom Gates book, Happy to Help (Eventually)! The Brilliant World of Tom Gates is an award-winning series on Sky Kids.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for outdoor family sessions inspired by the Forest School approach. We’ll use foraged materials to craft natural items that you can take away with you, taking part in some simple tool use and finishing off with a hot apple juice around the fire. These sessions are aimed at families and will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

Named by the Guinness Book of Records as ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’, Ranulph Fiennes has spent his life in pursuit of extreme adventure, risking life and limb in some of the most ambitious expeditions ever undertaken. Join him in conversation with broadcaster and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor to hear about some of the everyday lessons you can draw from his extraordinary life. Among Fiennes’ achievements are crossing both Polar ice caps on foot, climbing Everest and the Eiger, and circumnavigating the world along its polar axis – a 53,000-mile odyssey that has never been repeated.

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass in New Zealand’s South Island, leaving a sizable farm abandoned. This land offers an opportunity to ‘Birnam Wood’, a guerrilla gardening collective who plant crops where no one will notice. But they hadn’t figured on the enigmatic American billionaire, Robert Lemoine, also having an interest in the place. Can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

The first novel in a decade from the Booker Prize-winning author, Birnam Wood is a brilliantly constructed tale of intentions, actions, and consequences, a skewering of political certainties, and an unflinching examination of the human impulse for survival. Ultimately, the reader is left to wonder: who will survive, and what will be left of them?

Eleanor Catton is the author of The Luminaries, winner of the Man Booker Prize and a global bestseller. She talks to The TLS fiction and politics editor Toby Lichtig.

Thea Lenarduzzi’s Dandelions is a family memoir and social history which explores the evocative power of shared language and stories tracing four generations of migration between Italy and England. Colombian author Pilar Quintana’s The Abyss leads us brilliantly into the lonely heart of the child we have all once been, driven by fear of abandonment, through the character of impressionable eight-year-old Claudia. The authors discuss family relations and gender inequality through their books, with author and translator Daniel Hahn.

Don’t stand us up for this very special in conversation event with Alice Oseman, creator of global smash-hit coming-of-age romance Heartstopper. We follow the story of Nick and Charlie, two teenage boys who meet at grammar school, quickly become friends and fall in love. The book navigates the ups and downs of first loves, friendships, coming out and mental health, beautifully framed by a warm cast of supporting characters.

Heartstopper started life as a webcomic, quickly becoming an online sensation with over 100 million views. The #1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling graphic novels that followed have brought this charming love story to even more readers. Now it’s a critically acclaimed major Netflix series, written by Oseman herself.

So come along to hear her talk about the incredible journey so far and maybe even get a special sneak peek at what’s to come in Heartstopper volume five…

Come and join Rooted Forest School for outdoor family sessions inspired by the Forest School approach. We’ll use foraged materials to craft natural items that you can take away with you, taking part in some simple tool use and finishing off with a hot apple juice around the fire. These sessions are aimed at families and will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

With multiple Grammys and Brit Awards to her name, the music icon and global superstar last year revealed another string to her bow – as a talented and engaging interviewer on her podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service.

Dua’s love of books is no secret. As well as the likes of Elton John and Monica Lewinsky, Dua’s podcast has featured numerous star writers including Hanya Yanagihara, Min Jin Lee and Lisa Taddeo. Fresh from her Future Nostalgia world tour, Dua joins us at Hay Festival for an exclusive recording of her podcast featuring author Douglas Stuart, for a deep dive into his Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain.

Philippa Gregory’s latest historical novel Dawnlands uncovers the little-known story of Queen Mary of Modena, King James II’s second wife. It is 1685 and England is on the brink of a renewed civil war against the Stuart kings with many families bitterly divided. Navigating this world are Alinor, coaxed by the manipulative Livia to save Queen Mary from the coming siege; Ned Ferryman, who returns from America with his Pokanoket servant to join the uprising against roman catholic King James; and Livia, summoned by Queen Mary to a terrified court. Gregory is the author of novels including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.

From arithmetic to infinity, fundamental mathematical concepts have never been so engaging as when Manil Suri guides us through them. In his mathematical origin story, Suri creates a natural progression of ideas needed to design our world, starting with numbers and continuing through geometry, algebra, and beyond. Using evocative examples from multidimensional crochet to the Mona Lisa’s asymmetrical smile, he proves that we can all fall in love with maths. Suri is a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and is also a novelist whose work has been long-listed for the Booker Prize. The lecture will be introduced by Dr Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature.

Historian David Olusoga speaks to a panel of experts, to be announced, about rewriting history, the history of future generations and new global perspectives. Olusoga’s work includes the book Black and British, a Black history of Britain, and an accompanying BBC TV programme. Olusoga is a Hay Festival 2023 Thinker in Residence, questioning norms, finding new perspectives and challenging us to action.

Elsie is a sexy, funny and fiercely independent woman in South London, but she is a very tired 28-year-old. Estranged from her family, struggling with being continually rejected from jobs and scared of never making money doing what she loves, Elsie begins sleeping with co-worker Bea, and discovers it’s just another place for her to hide. As she tries to reconnect with her best friend Juliet, Elsie’s fragile world spirals out of control. Liv Little, the founder and former CEO of the award-winning publication gal-dem, talks to writer, performer and theatre maker Travis Alabanza about her gritty and strikingly bold novel.

Join musician Stormzy and authors from #Merky Books, including Jade LB (Keisha The Sket) and Jyoti Patel (The Things That We Lost) in person, with Malorie Blackman (Just Sayin’) joining digitally, to celebrate five years of the award-winning publishing imprint he founded. #Merky Books launched with the ambition to publish books that will own – and change – the mainstream. Featuring established authors and exciting new voices, this is an evening of discussions and performance.

We are thrilled to welcome back the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for this special event looking back on his career – with readings from the earliest collections to his book of lyrics, Never Good With Horses, and some new poems.

Museums in Britain are facing an uncertain period. Centres of learning and wonder, their role in keeping and displaying items often taken from other countries risks their future reputations among a generation questioning the way British history is presented. Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s Chief Culture writer; Tristram Hunt, historian, broadcast journalist and former politician who has been director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017; and Dr Marenka Thompson-Odlum, Research Associate at the Pitt Rivers Museum, talk to editor of Prospect magazine Alan Rusbridger about contemporary museum issues, from restitution to funding.

From how to fuel business to how to hire ethically, market sustainably and deliver a product in an environmentally friendly way, environmental trailblazer Juliet Davenport leads us through the most pressing questions facing any company to be kinder to the world around us. She discusses her book The Green Start-Up with Hay Festival’s Sustainability Director Andy Fryers.

Also joining this discussion is journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis with his book Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters. When we throw things ‘away’, what does that actually mean? Where does it go, and who deals with it when it gets there? Franklin-Wallis takes us on an eye-opening journey through the global waste industry.

Born into a family of poets and storytellers in the Hebrides, Colin MacIntyre is an acclaimed multi award-winning musician, author and playwright, who releases under the moniker Mull Historical Society. MacIntyre’s album In My Mind There’s a Room is a collaboration with his favourite authors. He recorded it in his charismatic poet-come-bank manager grandfather’s front room of 45 years, and asked authors to provide lyrics on significant rooms to them. MacIntyre, whose novel When the Needle Drops is published later this year, performs tracks from the album and his back catalogue, with readings and discussion on the creative process involved.

N’famady Kouyaté is a young, energetic master musician who plays modern interpretations of traditional West African Mandingue songs. His primary instrument is the balafon – the traditional wooden xylophone, sacred to West African culture and his family heritage of the griot/djeli. This 40-minute performance shows Kouyaté mash-ups of traditional Guinean songs with new Welsh lyrics, and modern and traditional instrumentation.