Hay Festival 2023

Two of our greatest living novelists speak to literary critic Chris Power about their new books. Booker Prize-winner John Banville’s The Lock-Up is the latest novel in his Stafford and Quirke historical crime series, and sees the pair investigate their most puzzling case yet, that of a woman discovered dead in an apparent suicide in a lock-up garage in Dublin. Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Ford’s Be Mine sees him return to the character of Frank Bascombe, now in the twilight of life and finding himself a carer to his son Paul, who has ALS. In Bascombe’s story is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world.

In Nomad Century, science writer and broadcaster Gaia Vince – the first woman to win the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize – presents an urgent investigation of the most underreported, seismic consequence of climate change: how it will force us to change where – and how – we live. With every degree of temperature rise, a billion people will be displaced from the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years. But the reality is that huge swathes of the world are becoming uninhabitable. Vince, in a rousing call to arms, describes how we can plan for and manage this unavoidable climate migration while we restore the planet to a fully habitable state. She talks to Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen.

Go behind the scenes of the justice system with three insiders who have seen the best and worst the judiciary has to offer. Joseph was the only woman judge at the Old Bailey Bench from 2012 until her retirement this year, writes about how the juridic system is failing people in her book Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder – Trials at the Old Bailey. Sands is a writer and lawyer whose latest book The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy is the story of Liseby Elysé, a victim of British colonialism when the country deported the people of Diego García, in Chagos Archipelago. Lady Hale formerly served as president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, a career described in her autobiography, Spider Woman: A Life. They talk to lawyer and human rights advocate Baroness Helena Kennedy.

Explore friendship and what really matters in families with author Anna Woltz and translator David Colmer as they discuss this funny and heartwarming novel featuring 12-year-old Tess and her friend Sam, on a mission to find a missing dad. My Especially Weird Week with Tess has been made into an award-winning film, My Extraordinary Summer with Tess.

Actor Tovey and Diament, director of the Carl Freedman Gallery and Counter Editions in Margate, discuss some of the most profound, interesting, moving, funny and informative moments from their popular Talk Art podcast. Exploring the inspirations, art experiences and favourite artists of a fascinating range of creative people from Grayson Perry to Elton John, Tracey Emin to Paul Smith, this is a down-to-earth discussion about art, accessible to everyone. Tovey is an actor best known for appearing in The History Boys, Being Human and American Horror Story. Before working in art, Diament was lead singer of electro-pop band Temposhark.

Writers Tania Branigan and Xiaolu Guo speak to the Guardian and Observer’s senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison about their work, the past and present of China, and the Chinese cultural role in the world. Branigan is a journalist for the Guardian and author of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution, a book about the people who lived under Mao’s regime and how the Cultural Revolution affects China today. Guo was born in China and her most recent book is the memoir Radical, which she wrote after moving to New York for work, leaving her child and partner in London. The encounter with American culture and people threatened her sense of identity and threw her into a crisis, and Radical is a playful and deeply personal take on carving out a life of her own.

Some of the biggest names in fiction have featured on the prestigious Granta magazine Best of Young British Novelists’ lists, from Zadie Smith and Kazuo Ishiguro to Salman Rushdie and Rose Tremain. Three writers from the fifth iteration of the list, announced on 13 April, take part in a riveting conversation with psychotherapist Maxine Mei-Fung Chung on the writing process, today’s publishing landscape and what it feels like to be nominated as a voice of a generation.

The poet discusses his deeply humane and brutally hilarious boyhood memoir Toy Fights with broadcaster and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor. Born in Dundee, Paterson spent his boyhood on a council housing estate, dodging kids who wanted to kill him in a game of Toy Fights and obsessing over everything from origami to sex and Scottish football cards. The first 20 years of his life – for better or worse – shaped who he would become. His story is one of family, money and music, as well as schizophrenia, hell, narcissists, debt and the working class. Paterson has won some of the country’s most prestigious poetry prizes, and spent 25 years as a poetry editor.

Did you know that the veins on a leaf can help you find water? In How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Roots to Leaves, you’ll discover the signs a tree can give you about its past and the landscape surrounding it. Through his journeys, teaching and writing, Tristan Gooley, author of The Walker’s Guide and How to Read Water, has pioneered a renaissance in the rare art of natural navigation. He has both flown solo and sailed single-handed across the Atlantic. He has explored close to home and walked with tribal peoples in some of the most remote regions on Earth.

Presenting music for violin and viola duo by Mozart and his contemporaries Ignaz Pleyel, Michael Haydn and Franz Anton Hoffmeister, members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform on instruments from the period, tuning up for an evening of virtuosity. They will create the closest possible experience to what the original composers imagined and the first audiences heard.

Renowned around the world for its dynamic music making driven by curiosity, the Orchestra takes its name from the description commonly given to the scientific, cultural and political revolution in western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Fifty years of genetic engineering have brought us to the brink of a profound and disturbing future, and Cobb, in conversation with Rutherford, is here to explain how, why and why we should care. Looking at 50 years of discoveries around genetics, and placing them into context, Matthew Cobb weaves the stories of science, history and culture to shed new light on our future and look at the benefits and threats new genetics poses. Cobb is professor of zoology at the University of Manchester and the presenter of the BBC radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares. Adam Rutherford is author of Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean (Have I Got News For You, Live at the Apollo, and Would I Lie to You? ) is on her way! It’s been a big few years for most of us and Kiri is no different. She’s moved back to her home island of Anglesey, struggled with lockdown and got herself some rescue chickens. You can expect jokes about skinny jeans, learning Welsh and white supremacy.

“Making powerhouse stand-up from the thorniest of subjects” – Guardian

What do women want? Through the stories of seven very different women, psychotherapist Maxine Mei-Fung Chung believes she knows the answers. From a young bride-to-be struggling to accept her sexuality, to a mother grappling with questions of identity and belonging, her book What Women Want: Conversations on Desire is an electrifying and deeply intimate examination into the inner lives of women. Join her for a liberating and insightful discussion about an age-old question, and get a deeper understanding of who we all are. Chung is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, who was awarded for her work supporting people from ethnic minorities experiencing isolation and mental health problems. She talks to journalist and editor Alex Clark.

Start your day with a morning yoga class designed to reinvigorate your energy and spirit. Enjoy a grounding, energising, alignment‐based yoga practice, using the breath and sound to rediscover and rejuvenate the body and mind. Beginners and experienced students are most welcome. Yoga mats and props are provided.

Please contact Kanga Wellbeing on spa@kangaevents.com for any questions relating to these classes. As capacity is limited, we recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Bring your best ideas to this solutions-focused workshop session. Facilitated by sustainability entrepreneur Andy Middleton, Chief Exploration Officer at the TYF Group, and joined by key speakers to be announced, we’ll look at the key issue of mobility. We’ll discuss the scale of the issue and a range of solutions, how to action them, how they might impact on their lives and how to manage the change.

Creating sustainable mobility goes far beyond reducing emissions. Greening how we all travel will improve the lives and livelihoods of billions of citizens around the world. How dramatically are we willing to change the way we move? How might a combination of new technologies, walking and cycling radicalise our behaviour and innovate what we take for granted? We want to hear your experiences. Come to share ideas that will inspire new ways to move around efficiently and sustainably.

This workshop is part of our Hay Festival Planet Assembly, a daily, inclusive conversation over ten days involving lay people, scientists, commentators and experts. We want to empower everyone to be accelerators and multipliers for the dramatic policy transformations that are needed immediately to tackle the acute climate and biodiversity emergencies.

Sign up to our free Planet Assembly daily briefing.

Enjoy a little light ridicule, mockery and fun to start the day as the satirists read the papers and see what’s trending online. An irreverent look at what’s tickling the nation’s fancy – and driving it to splenetic fury – today. Strong coffee recommended.

Before Charles became King, he was Prince of Wales. Charles’ approach to the role has been to serve Wales and to promote Welsh life. But what impact has he had on the country, and what impression did the Welsh leave on him? Huw Thomas, Business Correspondent at BBC Wales and author of Charles: The King and Wales, discusses the role and the man.

Channel the power to change the way you look at your entire life in this workshop with wellness industry expert Bhavini Vyas. She’ll share her theory on how the space between happenings is actually where our life happens, and how connecting to this space can inject us with renewed purpose, passion and power.

Bhavini is host of the Your Wellbeing podcast and curates the Mind Body Spirit UK festivals. Having taught thousands of people how to connect to the core of their being, through breathwork, Vedic meditation, yoga and philosophy, Bhavini is an authority on guiding us into the space between and how to live our lives with real mastery.

Guides from the Brecon Beacons National Park will lead a gentle walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. Experts from the Park will take you on a tour of the local historic environment. You’ll be joined by a guest from the Festival programme.

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.

Imagine how boring the world would be if everyone was the same. You’re all amazing! George Webster, CBeebies’ first presenter with Down’s syndrome, shows how every child is unique and that difference is a wonderful thing.

Celebrate your differences with Webster, an Ambassador for Mencap and a star of Strictly Come Dancing 2022, in this joyous event exploring his hugely uplifting picture book about George, a boy with an exceptionally big heart. This is Me will bring out the glow in everyone!