New Events and Speakers

The American financier and former White House Communications Director shares a candid look at the wheels of power in the US. As a front seat commentator on the US/UK relationship, The Rest is Politics US podcast co-host takes a view of its twists, turns and possible futures, with political strategist and The Rest is Politics UK co-host Alastair Campbell.

Anthony Scaramucci is founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. He also co-hosts the Open Book podcast, and is author of several books, most recently The Little Book of Bitcoin.

The global finance and Crypto entrepreneur was in the first generation of his Italian-American family to attend college, and his ascent in the financial industry and the world of politics has been both remarkable and hard-won. Scaramucci served briefly in President Trump’s White House team in 2016, before some strongly worded comments on members of the administration saw him leave after an 11-day tenure.

The UK’s most apologetically posh comedian shares a deep dive into the various facepalms of his recent past, and a live diary of his unravelling present.

After coming last by quite a distance on Taskmaster Series 15, and seeing his emotional frailties laid bare in a series of memes of him with his head in his hands, Ivo Graham is adapting to an increasingly irreversible reputation as a man better known for his chaos than his comedy.

Longer-term resolutions of rest and relaxation can wait; in the meantime he’s trying to host the greatest club night of all time, run a Sub-3 marathon while pushing a wheelchair, and put his heart on the line in a show unlike anything he’s ever done before. Can these dreams become a reality, or will they just become more yardsticks for failure?

Leah Hazard, Sunday Times bestselling author of Hard Pushed and Womb, introduces her debut novel The Anatomy of Us. Published exclusively in audio as an Audible Original and brought to life with stunning narration from Wicked Little Letters star Jessie Buckley, Leah’s fiction debut was inspired by her first-hand experiences on the NHS front line and written in-between long, hectic shifts. The story unfolds amidst the chaos of New Year’s Eve in an Edinburgh hospital, where two perfectly imperfect, dysfunctional healthcare heroes struggle to love each other – and themselves – in a system full of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Join Leah as she discusses her influences and inspirations for The Anatomy of Us, why mental health has to be a feature of any NHS love story and what it’s like to launch a debut exclusively on audio.

The double Grand National-winning jockey recounts his remarkable life story from his childhood in Youghal to the horse-riding heroics of a superlative career in the saddle.
From Davy Russell's early life to his winning ride on Tiger Roll in the 2018 Grand National, this story has it all. Capturing the highs of an incredible career as a top jockey, from the adrenaline rush of winning the Grand National twice, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, it also dwells on the devastating blows that Davy experienced through injury and shows his huge resilience and strength of character.
From the point-to-point scene, his big move to England and his first Cheltenham victory in 2006, his experiences at Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown Stud as the number one rider, his charity work with Hurling for Cancer Research, and his retirement. It is a truly remarkable journey written by the most entertaining jockey in the business.

Renowned broadcaster and journalist Ash Bhardwaj delves into the psychology behind our desire to explore and examines what we can gain from venturing out into the world. Both a highly personal and universal book, Bhardwaj explores his Indian heritage and expounds on his struggles with grief and identity. He calls for us to embrace serendipity and the natural wonders of the world, to awaken us to our surroundings, leaving us more connected to the people and places around us.

Bhardwaj is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster who has reported from over 50 countries for BBC Radio 4, The World Service, The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and he appears as a travel expert on BBC One’s Morning Live and Sky News. He is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers and has judged both the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award.

Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path was published in 2018 by Penguin Michael Joseph to universal acclaim. Now adapted for a major film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, the story is set to hit our screens on the 30th May. In this unmissable event with the award-winning author and the film’s director Marianne Elliott and producer Elizabeth Karlsen, they discuss the book and the process of adapting it for the screen, showing clips from the upcoming film.

Winn’s inspirational combination of memoir, nature and travel writing tells the true story of how, just days after she learns that her husband Moth is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the desperate decision to walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path, in the hope that, in nature, they will find solace and a sense of acceptance.

Don’t miss this screening of a documentary championed by Mark Kermode as “utterly remarkable and utterly life-affirming”. Charting the rise of a west London football club for young players with Down’s syndrome, Mighty Penguins follows coach Allan Cockram, the players of Brentford Penguins FC and their families as they prepare to be the guard of honour at a Premier League match.

A funny, illuminating film about the transformative power of sport and the many ways we can enrich each other’s lives, it has won numerous awards including the prestigious Grierson Award for best sports documentary in 2024.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Allan Cockram, a former professional footballer and founder of Brentford Penguins FC, and the documentary’s director Louis Myles.

BAFTA award-winning actor, writer, producer and director Sharon Horgan discusses her outstanding creative work with TV executive and new Hay Festival Chair Jay Hunt.

A writer with a remarkable ability to craft complex, compelling and messy characters within worlds of hilarity and intrigue, Horgan is well known for her sitcom Catastrophe and BBC show Pulling, winner of two British Comedy Awards. Black comedy series Bad Sisters, which Horgan co-wrote, produced and starred in for Apple TV+, has received high critical acclaim, winning Best Drama at the 2023 Television BAFTAS.

Horgan shares a look at her source material, from the Belgian TV series Clan on which Bad Sisters was based, to the true crime literature she loves to read. Considering how story bends and changes in the transfer across different media, she describes what gives a book great potential for adaptation. Her production company is currently co-producing adaptations of two New York Times bestsellers, I’m Glad My Mom Died for Apple and Vladimir for Netflix.

Highly-acclaimed actor David Harewood OBE discusses his journey from his birth in Birmingham to Barbadian parents of the Windrush Generation, to RADA and on to a stellar film and TV career. His on-screen presence, including Homeland, The Night Manager and Supergirl, is lauded equally in the US and the UK.

Harewood talks frankly to broadcaster and historian David Olusoga (author of Black and British), in a conversation ranging across the demands and opportunities of an acting career, the arts as a catalyst for cultural change and the role of celebrity in activism.

From making history playing the National Theatre’s first ever black Othello in 1997 to iconic screen roles, Harewood is a master of script-to-screen. He has recently stepped into a directing role, and is current president of RADA. A prominent activist, his work includes slavery reparations and mental health campaigning. His documentary Psychosis and Me, based on his own psychotic breakdown in his 20s, was BAFTA-nominated.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is an American multimedia artist and poet, whose work has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Her most recent poetry collection is Seeing the Body. Her first novel, Promise, tells the story of two Black sisters growing up in small-town New England at the end of the 1950s, during the Civil Rights Movement. She discusses this book, and the global role of literature, with Colombian writer and political essayist Juan Gabriel Vásquez (The Sound of Things Falling), a former winner of the IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award and Man Booker International Prize finalist.