Hay Festival 2024

How can you fight something if you don’t know it exists? We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: education, employment, healthcare and leisure; our relationships and mental wellbeing; even the planet we inhabit. So pervasive has it become that it seems unavoidable. But trace it back to its roots, and we discover that neoliberalism was conceived, propagated and concealed by the powerful few. It's time to bring it into the light – and to find an alternative worth fighting for. Environmental campaigner George Monbiot's previous book is Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet. This latest is co-authored by Peter Hutchison, filmmaker, New York Times author, educator and activist.

Having a healthy gut is fundamental to good health, and the best way to harness the benefits of gut health is by eating 30 plants a week, says the River Cottage author, who shares 100 recipes to help us put more plants on our plates, whether we are omnivores, vegetarians or vegans. In Food for Life, scientist Tim Spector investigates everything from environmental impact and food fraud to allergies, ultra-processed food and deceptive labelling. His previous books are Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth. Professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, he leads the ZOE Health study, which analyses our unique gut, blood fat, and blood sugar responses, so that we can improve our long-term health.

In the new children’s novel from historian and broadcaster Alice Roberts, prehistoric Tuuli travels with her tribe through the seasons – making camp, hunting for food and protecting themselves against the hazards the climate throws at them. She knows there’s a bigger world out there, and when she spots a strange boy lurking outside their camp, she realises he might hold the adventure she is looking for. He is from another tribe, and as he and Tuuli strike up an unlikely friendship, they set out on a journey that will influence the rest of human history. This tale full of wild animals and heart-stopping danger, is inspired by real anthropological discoveries.

Join the award-winning and much-loved author, comedian and actor for a fun-filled event centred on his action-packed, children's books, The Boy With Wings and The Book of Legends. His latest title, Clash of the Superkids (illustrated by Keenon Ferrell) sees the return of Tunde Wilkinson, an ordinary boy who happens also to be a winged superhero. Join Lenny and compère Mic Lord to find out about Tunde’s impossible mission, chat about super powers, and listen to an extract from the book.

He talks to theatre maker, MC and recording artist Mic Lord.

DJ Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 6, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru) explains how he selected 100 Welsh records for his new book, and how these artists have influenced Wales’ culture, past and present. He analyses highlights in the careers of the most important recording artists Wales has produced, singing in English or Welsh – including Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Dafydd Iwan, Max Boyce, Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Adwaith and Mace the Great.

He talks to Welsh-Jamaican reggae artist and presenter Aleighcia Scott.

Europe: Reluctant Superpower No More?

Surrounded by a necklace of crises from Ukraine via the Middle East to the Maghreb, Europe has been signalling that it must play a more active role on the global stage, but it has sat passively as China and the US direct the course of events. As we approach the US presidential election, does it have the strength, ability and will to assert itself against an unpredictable mixture of populism, war, technological advance and economic uncertainty? Misha Glenny, journalist and Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, asks the EU’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Catherine Ashton, and the political scientist, Ivan Krastev, whether Europe can weather the approaching storms.

The historian explores the ancient world, told through its seven greatest monuments: Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt; Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Iraq; Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece; Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Turkey; Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, Turkey; Colossus of Rhodes, Greece; Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt. All were staggeringly audacious, and demonstrated the reaches of human imagination. Now only the Pyramid remains, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today. The author and academic asks: why do we wonder, why do we create and why do we choose to remember the wonder of others? Her previous books include Venus & Aphrodite and Helen of Troy: goddess, princess, whore.

The front-bench Labour MP grew up on a council estate in Stepney, East London, the son of teenage parents. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner. This memoir brings to life the struggle and heartache of his parents’ and grandparents’ lives in poverty; the choices they had to make between feeding the meter and feeing the family. It's also about the life-changing power of education. Encouraged by a series of inspirational teachers, he won a place at Cambridge, and later became head of education at Stonewall. He was elected an MP in 2015 and is now Shadow Health Secretary.

There is a prescription for whatever might be your poetic need or desire, from verses to soothe your soul and brighten your day to poems that offer comfort in times of trouble. The creator and editor of The Poetry Pharmacy is joined by special guests (to be announced) for an event of connection, imagination and inspiration.

Gloriously Gothic and unnervingly contemporary, this is a blend of chilling short stories and the author's real-life encounters with the supernatural. Winterson explores grief, revenge, and the myriad ways in which technology can disrupt the boundary between life and death. Our lives are digital, exposed and always-on. We can find out everything about our world, but we know little about the world of ghosts. They wander the metaverse just as they haunt our homes and our memories, seeking new ways to connect, to live among us, to remind us, to tempt us, to take their revenge. These are the stories of the dead – of those we've lost, loved, forgotten...and feared.

From the historian and co-presenter of the podcast The Rest is History comes the story of antiquity's ultimate superpower at the pinnacle of its greatness. The Roman Empire once stretched from Scotland to Arabia, the wealthiest and most formidable state the world had seen. Beginning in 69 AD, a year that saw four Caesars in succession rule the empire, and ending some seven decades later with the death of Hadrian, Pax covers the destruction of Jerusalem and Pompeii, the building of the Colosseum and Hadrian's Wall, and the conquests of Trajan, vividly sketching the lives of Romans from slaves to emperors. This is the last of the trilogy that began with Rubicon and continued with Dynasty.

Join the renowned scientist to hear about The Story of Science – a journey through human history, looking at the stories behind humanity's greatest inventions and discoveries. With fascinating facts, tales of innovative inventions and daring discoveries, the professor explains how accidents have led to some of the greatest findings we’ve ever seen, from the stone hand-axe to life-changing medicine. This is for any young inventor or science enthusiast who is constantly asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ things happen.

The debut novel from critically acclaimed comedian Sara Pascoe follows Sophie, an existential Essex girl battling low-level paranoia in her search for happiness and truth. All Sophie wants to do is act like a normal, well-adjusted person and not say any of her inner monologue out loud. If she can suppress her pornographic visualisations and pathological lying, who knows, maybe she can get out of debt, dump her current boyfriend and try to enjoy Christmas with her awful family? The author wrote and starred in the sitcom Out of her Mind and has written two non-fiction books – Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body and Sex Power Money.

"Quietly profound and laughing-in-public funny" – Caitlin Moran

‘The Singularity’ is how Silicon Valley likes to describe the ultimate break point in human history: when we will come face to face with machines that have minds of their own. But what if this has already happened? Hundred of years ago, human beings started building the artificial entities that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful robots, able to take decisions and act for themselves. They have made us richer, safer, healthier and more capable – and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over 300 years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency. David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and host of the Past Present Future podcast.

In Long Island, the sequel to Brooklyn, published in 2009, we are reunited with Eilis Lacey 20 years on, in the 1970s, living with her husband, Tony Fiorello, and children on Long Island, rather too close to her Fiorello in-laws. A shocking piece of news propels Eilis back to Ireland, to a world she thought she had long left behind and to ways of living, and loving, she thought she had lost. The master storyteller has written 11 novels, two collections of stories and many works of non-fiction. He has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award, the Rathbones Folio Prize and is the current Laureate for Irish Fiction.

The leading human rights lawyer, campaigner and former Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales argues for the vindication of human rights, attacked by opponents from across the political spectrum and populist and authoritarian movements worldwide. After the devastation of the Second World War, the international community came together to enshrine fundamental rights to refuge, health, education and living standards, for privacy, fair trials and free speech, and outlawing torture, slavery and discrimination. Their goal was greater global justice, equality, and peace. That goal is now threatened by wars, inequality, new technologies and climate catastrophe. Outlining the historic struggles for human rights, Chakrabarti is an indispensable guide to the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal freedoms. For human rights to survive, they must be far better understood by everyone.

This new collection reflects on several decades of the poet's political activism, from her Glasgow childhood, accompanying her parents on Socialist campaigns, through the feminist, LGBT+ and anti-racist movements of the Eighties and Nineties, to the present day when a global pandemic intersects with the urgency of Black Lives Matter. Her writing bring to life a cast of influential figures – Jamaican model Fanny Eaton, muse of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England; singer, Marxist academic Angela Davis and the poet and civil rights campaigner Audre Lorde. Woven through are lyric poems on the loss of Kay’s parents: poems of grief infused with the light of love and celebration.

The host of The Repair Shop shares his inspirational words of positivity for making the very best of life. Filled with characteristic warmth and humour, he talks about the life lessons that have helped him to find positivity and growth, no matter what he’s found himself facing. "It’s very easy to be passive in life and just do what you know. But you’ll be a lot more excited every day if you shape your own future." After leaving school at 15 without qualifications, Blades eventually managed to study for a degree in criminology and philosophy at Buckingham University before finding his vocation in restoration. He is co-founder of the social enterprises Out of The Dark and Street of Dreams, working with disadvantaged young people.

In The Silver Bone, Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist transports the reader to early 20th-century Kyiv during the turmoil following the Russian Revolution. This mystery introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he tackles his first case, involving two murders, a long bone made of pure silver and a suit of decidedly unusual proportions tailored from fine English cloth. Inflected with the author's signature humour and magical realism, the novel takes inspiration from the archives of crime enforcement agencies in Kyiv, crafting a propulsive narrative with rich historical detail. Kurkov has written 19 novels, nine books for children and numerous documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts.

Humans are capable of both love and hate, amazement and disgust, fun and misery. So why do we live in a world that constantly urges us to hate ourselves and others, to be repulsed by our own bodies, to be ashamed of pleasure, to be embarrassed by fun? In her new collection, the author and poet asks why we have been taught to hate, and if we might learn to love again. She won the Ted Hughes Award for Nobody Told Me, wrote the three poetry collections Plum, Cherry Pie and Papers, adapted the Greek tragedy Antigone and co-wrote the play Offside with poet Sabrina Mahfouz.