Hay Festival 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic was a life-changing and terrifying event, with the world engulfed by panic and the search for a vaccine. But in Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations, historian Simon Schama shows how the world has survived similar pandemics before in this new history. Covering smallpox in London, cholera in Paris and plague in India, Schama takes us on a journey of terror, suffering and hope through the eyes of a cast of characters including doctors, patients, scientists and more, centering on Waldemar Haffkine, a gun-toting Jewish student in Odessa turned microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute. Join Schama for a thrilling and inspirational story of people winning in the toughest of times.

Three experts discuss Russia in the current context. Fiona Hill is a former senior advisor to Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and briefly Donald Trump, former official at the U.S. National Security Council specialising in Russian and European affairs, and author of There is Nothing For You Here, and Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin. Oliver Bullough is author of Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals, and Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back. Luke Harding is the Guardian's foreign correspondent and author of Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival. In conversation with senior international affairs correspondent for the Guardian and Observer, Emma Graham-Harrison.

As they embark on the third series of this popular podcast, Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken (Operation Ouch!) reflect on what they have learned about their relationship to food, to each other and themselves. They have both changed dramatically – so what have they learned about the process of change itself? It’s time to take stock…

Guides from the Brecon Beacons National Park will lead a gentle walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. Learn more about the challenges facing the River Wye and what must be done to save it with, writer, journalist and River Wye campaigner Oliver Bullough.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) 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 gentle walks will take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear.

Join actor, writer and Rizzle Kicks member Jordan Stephens along with illustrator Beth Suzanna for an interactive storytelling adventure to find The Missing Piece. A heart-warming, fresh and original picture-book event about family and friendship. Beth Suzanna is Hay Festival’s 2023 Illustrator in Residence.

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to draw along in this event. You can buy these at the Hay Festival shop.

The story of animation stretches back to the early 1800s with the invention of spinning optical illusion devices such as the zoetrope. These days animation is everywhere from animated films, cartoons and GIFs to computer games and VR. But how did we get here? Learn about the origins of early animation and create your own loopy animation in this fun, hands-on workshop led by visual artists MASH Cinema.

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.

To mark the publication of his latest book, a collection of his best sport writings alongside new thoughts on the world of sport as he sees it, Sir Michael Parkinson is in conversation with his son Mike, co-author of My Sporting Life: Memories, Moments and Declarations. Showing highlights from the Parkinson archive, this special Hay Festival event is a unique opportunity to get an intimate, entertaining and informative look at his remarkable journey from a pit village in Yorkshire, via rejection at the Yorkshire nets, earning a living watching and writing about sport to eventually finding himself at the top of those famous stairs as host of a show that for many defined their Saturday night.

Get an insight into the world of publishing with Rebecca F Kuang’s highly anticipated satirical thriller Yellowface, in which a woman watches her frenemy – and super successful author – Athena Liu die…and then steals her manuscript and publishes it under her own name. Kuang discusses skewering the publishing industry, trial by social media, toxic friendships and the co-option of identity politics, and whether any of her characters are taken from real life. Yellowface is Kuang’s first adult contemporary novel; her fantasy epic Babel, which drew on her experiences as a translator and an Oxford graduate, was a New York Times bestseller.

A round up the best of the Welsh contemporary arts scene.

Cwtch up for this joyful event full of familiar rhymes, riddles and tongue twisters, from ‘Oranges and Lemons’ to ‘She Sells Sea Shells’. Allie Esiri and her guests present these and contemporary favourites such as ‘Baby Shark’ and new rhymes from Floella Benjamin, Julia Donaldson, Brian Bilston and Michael Rosen. Allie’s beautiful anthology A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year is a definitive collection of nursery rhymes, each introduced with a quirky fact or historical reference.

Please note that the final line-up may be subject to change.

Join the Horrible Histories guru, author and podcast host as he takes you on a trip through the amazing history hidden in the things we use every day. Did you know that the first TV was made out of biscuit tins and knitting needles? Or that the humble paperclip helped lead an anti-war movement? Or that a few hundred years ago it was fashionable to style your hair with cat poo?! Find out the delightful, daft history of everyday life that your teachers won’t tell you about. This is history – but not as you know it!

There will be a BSL interpreter at this event

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.

The story of animation stretches back to the early 1800s with the invention of spinning optical illusion devices such as the zoetrope. These days animation is everywhere from animated films, cartoons and GIFs to computer games and VR. But how did we get here? Learn about the origins of early animation and create your own loopy animation in this fun, hands-on workshop led by visual artists MASH Cinema.

Award-winning author Claire Fuller welcomes readers into the haunting world of her new novel Memory of Animals, a book about love, memory and survival. Running from grief and guilt, Neffy volunteers for a controlled vaccine trial. After the London streets fall silent and all external communications cease, only Neffy and four other volunteers remain in the unit. Introduced to a pioneering and controversial technology which allows her to revisit memories from her life before, Neffy becomes intoxicated by the freedom of the past, and increasingly turns away from her perilous present, putting any chance of a future into jeopardy. Fuller talks to Georgina Godwin, journalist and Books Editor for Monocle 24.

The historian discusses her non-fiction book about a group of extraordinary thinkers who gathered in the small German city of Jena in the 18th century, introducing ideas and concepts that permeated through the following centuries. She gives us an overview of the most important ideas of Romantic philosophy and how they have influenced our thinking. Wulf was the winner of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award 2013. In conversation with journalist and rector of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna) Misha Glenny.

A whistle-stop tour of the current state-of-the-art in AI, from ChatGPT to deepfakes and self-driving cars. Its complex models, immense amounts of data and computer power represent the biggest hurdles in the pursuit of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and explainable, robust systems. As AI technologies become increasingly prominent, their certification is paramount in protecting humanity. A discussion on how these systems work, why they work, what they do and where they are currently flawed with Matthew Hopkins, a machine learning engineer, and David John, a data scientist at Airbus.

Compelled by his own experience of a mental health crisis, writer Horatio Clare is joined by psychiatrist Femi Oyebode to explore some of the key debates in contemporary psychiatry. Together they interrogate the different types of treatment we have and to what extent they work. They navigate the sometimes polarised yet intertwined worlds of psychiatry and psychology to discuss what could be done to improve outcomes. With the numbers of people seeking treatment for mental health disorders on the rise this is an urgent assessment of where we’ve been and where we should go next.

Spend time in the company of one of our best-loved children’s authors, and the creator of characters including Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson, as she introduces her new book. The former children’s laureate, who has written more than 100 books, brings together the modern world and Victorian London in The Other Edie Trimmer, as the title character finds herself travelling back in time when she begins to write in a Victorian notebook she’s been gifted.

There will be no book signing after this event, but bookplates with Wison’s signature printed on them will be available from the bookshop.