Hay Festival 2023

Celebrate the 30th year of A Squash and A Squeeze in a fun-packed hour of stories and songs based on the author’s many books. She performs with her guitar-playing husband Malcolm and other actors, bringing to life her much treasured and brand new stories. Get ready to join in!

There will be a BSL interpreter at this event

Develop your illustration skills at this fun collage workshop delivered by Hay Festival 2023 Illustrator in Residence Beth Suzanna. In this empowering workshop you’ll use the medium of collage to reflect who you are and what’s important to you. You’ll create self portraits depicting the things that inspire you. You’ll learn about the art of visual storytelling from one of the UK’s rising stars of illustration, and work together to create a large-scale group collage. Whether you want to feel inspired in a relaxed space or to get stuck in and learn a new skill, this workshop is an informal session for everyone.

Beth recently collaborated with hip hop star, actor and writer Jordan Stephens on a children’s book, The Missing Piece – you can see them in conversation about their collaboration in an event on Sunday 28 May, 10am.

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.

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.

Enjoy this half-hour open air performance between events. Formed from a group of community choirs spanning the Midlands, Got 2 Sing Choir perform contemporary, uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter. The choir want to share their passion of singing with everyone – if you’re interested in joining, visit got2sing.co.uk.

Checking into a psychiatric institution wasn’t on broadcaster and comedian Ruby Wax’s agenda for 2022, and neither was writing about it in her new book, I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was. But with rawness and honesty, she takes us into the depths of her psyche and shows us what trauma can do to someone. Reflecting on years of personal and professional experience, she opens up about her struggles with mental health and different treatments over the years. This intimate event offers hope, reassurance and guidance to anyone struggling with their own mental health.

In 1923, German democracy faced crisis and near destruction. In this remarkable year in modern European history, France and Belgium militarily occupied Germany’s economic heartland, the Ruhr, triggering a series of crises that almost spiralled out of control. Drawing on previously unseen sources, in 1923 Mark Jones weaves together a thrilling and resonant narrative of German lives in this turbulent time. Tracing Hitler’s rise, he shows how political pragmatism and international cooperation eventually steered the nation away from total insurrection, and illustrates how the warnings of 1923 – a rise of nationalist rhetoric, fragile European consensus, and underestimation of the enemies of liberalism – became only too apparent a decade later when Weimar democracy eventually succumbed to tyranny. Jones is assistant professor in history at University College Dublin. He talks to Georgina Godwin, journalist and Books Editor for Monocle 24.

Drawing on over a decade of archival research, Rebecca N Mitchell, professor of Victorian literature and culture at the University of Birmingham, shows that the effortless wit and writing of Wilde – often chided by detractors for being indolent and egotistical – was actually the product of studious and carefully concealed labour. Mitchell takes a look at the manuscript evidence which shows that he worked tirelessly at his craft, filling notebooks with drafts and carefully revising his bon mots.

BBC Culture announces the results of a new poll into the best works of fiction written for young people around the globe. Michael Rosen, Jeffrey Boakye and Julia Eccleshare will discuss the findings, and the role of children’s literature in the 21st century.

The super-star space scientist is back with her second book, and is ready to answer your questions about the wonders of the universe. Reach for the stars with questions like…is it raining gemstones on Jupiter? What do astronauts have for dinner on the International Space Station?

Join our family group and experience what Theraplay is like! The session will be playful, physical and fun. Everyone joins in, so come prepared for activity. Theraplay is a way of playing with your child which builds and enhances attachment, self-esteem, trust in each other and joyful engagement. It’s based on the natural patterns of healthy interaction between parent and child. You can use the ideas in everyday parenting and in any setting where relationship connection is important, for example in schools, older adult care settings, or for family reconnection following life events.

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.

Enjoy this half-hour open air performance between events. Formed from a group of community choirs spanning the Midlands, Got 2 Sing Choir perform contemporary, uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter. The choir want to share their passion of singing with everyone – if you’re interested in joining, visit got2sing.co.uk.

When actor Richard E Grant’s wife Joan died in September 2021, after the couple had been together for almost 40 years, he was left with a challenge from her: find a pocketful of happiness each day. The result is the book A Pocketful of Happiness, set between the present day and the past, using diary entries that recall landmarks from Grant’s remarkable life and glittering career. This candid and profound event from one of Britain’s best-loved actors will make you laugh and move you.

Join novelist Aleksandar Hemon and musician Damir Imamović for an exciting cross-genre collaboration. Widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, Hemon’s latest novel The World and All That It Holds is an engrossing, moving epic taking readers from Sarajevo to Shanghai and across a century of tumultuous history. He is joined by fellow Sarajevan Damir Imamović, celebrated Sevdah artist (Sevdah is a form of ‘Bosnian blues’; it literally means ‘beautiful sadness’) who will perform from his new Smithsonian Folkways album, inspired by and forming a rich soundtrack to The World and All That It Holds. An unmissable hour of words and music.

Laleh Khalili (Sinews of War and Trade) explains how maritime transportation is central to the fabric of global capitalism and how ports create racialised hierarchies of labour, engineer the lived environment, aid the accumulation of capital regionally and globally, and carry forward colonial regimes of profit, law and administration. China is the factory of the world, and a parade of ships arrive and leave in all directions to fuel its manufacturing trade. The oil needed by China primarily comes from the Arabian Peninsula, and much of the material it requires is transported through the ports of Arabian Peninsula. China's ‘maritime silk road’ flanks the Peninsula on all sides. Khalili is a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London. In conversation with writer and broadcaster, Horatio Clare.

Amy Green and Sam Wilson, virtuosic members of the award-winning musical group Riot Ensemble, perform a show that explores the possibilities of two nebulous and anarchic instruments: saxophone and percussion. Testing the full capabilities of both, this programme includes solo pieces that feature different saxophones, as well as a plethora of tuned and untuned percussion. Full details at haymusic.org.

Come on down to the farm with JB Gill for an event packed full of adventure and animal antics. Dr Dolittle meets Dick King-Smith in Ace and the Animal Heroes: The Big Farm Rescue, a funny and charming tale from the pop star and presenter turned award-winning farmer and author. When Ace receives a surprise gift from a long-lost relative, he and his grandparents pack up their life in the city and move to the countryside to live on a run-down farm. Little does Ace know there’s an even bigger surprise awaiting him…

JB Gill rose to fame as a member of one of the UK’s biggest boybands – JLS. Ten years ago, he set up a farm in the Kent countryside, where he lives with his wife and children, Ace and Chiara. JB presents Channel 5’s Milkshake TV series Cooking With The Gills and CBeebies BAFTA-nominated Down on the Farm.