Hay Festival 2023

Three crime writers give an insight into how they create convincing crimes, intelligent (and occasionally infuriating) investigators, and tons of tension in this panel discussion. Abell is a journalist and radio presenter who presents the breakfast show on Times Radio; Death Under a Little Sky is his first crime novel. Griffiths is best known for her Dr Ruth Galloway series; her latest novel is The Last Remains, the 15th Ruth Galloway book. Herron is the author of the Slough House series; the latest book, Bad Actors, is about a missing staffer from a governmental think-tank.

What are you scared of? What is the biggest risk to your safety? And how do experiences and worries differ across the world? Sarah Cumbers, director of evidence and insight at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, takes us through the World Risk Poll, which reveals a world of worry changed less by a global pandemic than you might expect, where the countries most exposed to disasters are those least resilient to them, and where discrimination has major consequences for safety.

In this event, Connor Allen will announce the new Children’s Laureate Wales for 2023–25 and welcome them on stage for their first ever appearance as Children's Laureate Wales here at Hay Festival.

Join Connor, the current Children’s Laureate Wales, for a lively and interactive poetry event featuring poems from his upcoming new collection, Miracles.

Recreate the magic world that exists beneath the surface of the world’s seas, with the University of Worcester’s illustration team. Come to draw and paint all manner of aquatic scenes and creatures. Take inspiration from recycled, hand-made ‘all seeing’ boxes, and mix it with your imagination, using paint, crayons and coloured pencils to express your ideas. You’ll create pictures of your underwater world that will contribute to a larger collaborative collage.

This workshop is part of Sea Change, the new venture of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, which is concerned with sustainability and promoting ocean literacy.

Artists from around the world have sent illustrated postcards to form the Sea Change exhibition, drawing attention to the growing threat to our ocean and seas. You can visit the exhibition at the Festival, and talk to the University of Worcester Illustration Department lecturers who made the Sea Change project possible, on Friday 2 June, 4pm.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit. 

Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 2.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.

The gardening expert shares the most reliable and bountiful varieties to grow, recommends her favourite crops, and unusual vegetables, herbs and salads that you can’t buy in the shops. As well as planting inspiration, she offers expert tips and techniques for growing and harvesting flavourful crops from January right through to December, all based on easy, efficient and productive techniques that work no matter how much outdoor space you have. Lucy Dallas is arts and digital editor at The TLS.

A candid look into the literary life of Wales through the eyes of two men deeply connected to the words of the country. Dai Smith’s memoir Off the Track: Traces of Memory looks back at his time as a writer and historian, broadcaster, chair of the Arts Council of Wales, editor of the Library of Wales, chair of the Dylan Thomas Prize and editor of BBC Wales. Sam Adams’ Letters from Wales: Memories and Encounters in Literature and Life is a collection of his columns over 30 years in the poetry magazine PN Review, offering insights into the literary lives and culture of Wales. In conversation with the editor of the Wales Arts Review, Dr Emma Schofield.

Witness the stars of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers read through tonight’s episode and find out how the world’s longest running continuing drama is made.

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer, activist and director of the Centre for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize together with the Russian human rights organisation, Memorial, and Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski. Matviichuk and the Centre have fought for democracy in Ukraine since 2007 and are now part of a ground-breaking international effort to ensure accountability for war crimes. In her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, she reminded the world that, “We don’t have to be Ukrainians to support Ukraine. It is enough just to be humans.” She talks to the Guardian’s chief culture writer.

Come on a powerful, hopeful and timely journey into the real effects of climate change with the authors and illustrator behind the Artemis Fowl and Illegal graphic novels as they present their new book Global. They’ll tell us how the graphic novel came to be, the real-life stories that inspired it, and what it takes to create a breathtaking story mixing words and illustrations.

Global follows two young people on different continents whose lives are changed by global warming. Yuki, who lives in an increasingly deserted Inuit township in Nova Scotia, is trying to protect a rare grolar bear (a terrifying crossbreed created by climate change). Sami lives in a fishing village on the Bay of Bengal but, because of the ever-rising ocean level, each day is a struggle to survive.

You’re invited to take part in a mixed media character design workshop, using our Sea Change postcard exhibition as inspiration, and incorporating collage, print and projections. Enter the magical, mystical marine world of Merfolk!

This workshop is part of Sea Change, the new venture of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, which is concerned with sustainability and promoting ocean literacy.

Artists from around the world have sent illustrated postcards to form the Sea Change exhibition, drawing attention to the growing threat to our ocean and seas. You can visit the exhibition at the Festival, and talk to the University of Worcester Illustration Department lecturers who made the Sea Change project possible, on Friday 2 June, 4pm.

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.

It’s time for a straight-talking discussion about menopause, and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and health journalist Alice Smellie are here with all the information you need, plus a side order of humour. Looking at how menopause has been ignored by society and what it really encompasses and means, Frostrup and Mariella use direct experience, the latest science and cutting-edge research, and funny illustrations to present their ground-breaking, no-holds-barred guide to the menopause. Frostrup made the groundbreaking BBC1 documentary The Truth About the Menopause. Smellie is author of Cracking the Menopause: While Keeping Yourself Together. They speak to Dr Nighat Arif, whose forthcoming book is The Knowledge: Your Guide to Female Health.

Environmental journalist Tim Smedley gives a thought-provoking and gripping look into his newest book The Last Drop, an investigation into the world’s next great climate crisis: the scarcity of water. Looking at how countries have been addressing water quality issues caused by pollution as well as human mismanagement of water, Smedley offers a fascinating, honest and ultimately hopeful account of the crisis and how we might address it before it’s too late. He talks to Hay Festival Sustainability Director Andy Fryers.

Join Emma Cline and Nicola Flattery as they discuss their new novels about young women navigating uncertain worlds, and trying to find their place. Cline’s The Guest is about a woman who chooses to stay on Long Island after her relationship with an older man ends, drifting like a ghost through the gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world, trailing destruction in her wake. Flattery’s debut Nothing Special is a tale of two young women navigating the world of Andy Warhol’s Factory, and coming of age in 1960s New York.

Citizens of Worlds is the first thorough study of the increasingly widespread use of digital technologies to monitor and respond to air pollution. Drawing on data from the Citizen Sense research group, Jennifer Gabrys argues that citizen-oriented technologies promise positive change but collide with entrenched and inequitable power structures, and explains how people respond to, care for, and struggle to transform environmental conditions informs the political subjects and collectives they become. Gabrys is chair in media, culture and environment in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and the author of books including Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics.

Join script editor and chair of the Royal Television Society Wales Ed Russell as he talks Champion, the new BBC One prime time drama described as a love letter to Black family and Black music penned by Candice Carty-Williams (author of Queenie).

An opportunity to view the Sea Change postcard exhibition now touring the world. Artists from around the world have sent illustrated postcards to form this exhibition drawing attention to the growing threat to our ocean and seas. The exhibition is accompanied by a book featuring 50 of the postcards, including work by Axel Scheffler, Jackie Morris, Roger Mello and Nicola Davies and with a foreword by Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean. Enjoy viewing the postcards, and meet the staff from the University of Worcester who made this exciting project possible.

Sea Change is the latest venture of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, concerned with sustainability and promoting ocean literacy.

See also our range of Sea Change workshops: Fish Face, Sea Change Underwater World and Merfolk.

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.