Anthony Horowitz talks to Julia Wheeler

Close to Death

Thursday 23 May 2024, 7pm –  Wye Stage

How do you solve a murder, when everyone has the same motive? Magnifying glasses at the ready in this event with the bestselling author of the Detective Hawthorne novels. In the latest, Hawthorne is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle – a man is shot dead within a quiet, gated community, and it appears that every neighbour has a reason to hate him. Horowitz talks about his characters and his work, which includes two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, three James Bond novels, and mystery novel Magpie Murders, recently adapted for the BBC with Lesley Manville.

Vanessa Walters talks to Alex Wheatle

Debut Discoveries: The Lagos Wife

Friday 24 May 2024, 4pm –  Spring Stage

Vanessa Walters discusses her British debut, a thriller about family, motherhood, identity and diaspora, with Alex Wheatle, author of Cane Warriors. Author of two books for young adults, this is Walters’ first adult fiction, described by writer Afua Hirsch as “a brilliantly original novel.”

Nicole Oruwari disappears during a boat trip. Born in south London, she had moved to Lagos to begin a new life with her perfect husband, but something went wrong. Back in London, her busybody aunt Claudine decides to fly to Lagos to investigate the mystery...

Supported by Hawthornden Foundation

Jasper Fforde

Red Side Story

Friday 24 May 2024, 7pm –  Meadow Stage

Jasper Fforde is here to show you the UK, but not as we know it. Civilisation has been rebuilt after an unspoken ‘Something That Happened’ five hundred years ago. Society is now colour-based, the strict levels of hierarchy dictated by the colours you can see. From the economy to the health service, the shadowy National Colour reigns supreme. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules, Jane and Eddie must find out the truth of their world: what is it, where is it and is there a safe place that they can escape to?

Jodi Picoult talks to Julia Wheeler

By Any Other Name: Proof Party

Friday 24 May 2024, 8.30pm –  Meadow Stage

Get an exclusive preview of Jodi Picoult’s new novel By Any Other Name, to be published in October. Moving between Elizabethan England and modern-day Manhattan, it explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart – one of whom might be the real author of Shakespeare’s plays – are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard. Jodi Picoult describes her 29th novel as the “book of my heart”, the one she was destined to write. She describes the sleuthing she carried out to establish her character Emilia’s links to Shakespeare, and her personal experiences as playwright and author.

Sponsored by Little Moments Melts

Robin Ince

The Book Club

Friday 24 May 2024, 10pm –  Meadow Stage

Join comedian Robin Ince for his unique Book Club, in which he chats with guests about the weirdest books and strangest stories they have read, and their secret reading obsessions. He brings along many of his favourite pulpy horrors, awkward romances and most eccentric self help guides. Expect an exhilarating tour around these books, where readings from Crabs on the Rampage will be twinned with Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin. Robin was named Author of the Year by the Booksellers Association and his most recent book, Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain was described by the TLS as “a tonic”. Don’t miss this event exclusively designed for Hay Festival 2024.

Giuliano da Empoli in conversation with Misha Glenny

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Saturday 25 May 2024, 10am –  Wye Stage

Working at the heart of Russian power, the enigmatic Vadim Baranov – nicknamed the Wizard of the Kremlin – is Putin’s chief spin doctor. Using his background in experimental theatre and reality TV to turn the entire country into an avant-garde political stage, he’s discovered the lines between truth and lies, news and propaganda have become indistinguishable, and he wants out. Political scientist and prize-winning writer Giuliano da Empoli tells journalist Misha Glenny about his all-too-plausible novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, taking readers into the heart of the Kremlin, and how fiction can give us insights into real-world events and figures.

Supported by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni

Anne Enright talks to Julia Wheeler

The Wren, The Wren

Saturday 25 May 2024, 11.30am –  Wye Stage

Plunge into a meditation on love and generational trauma with the author of the Man Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, in conversation with the Guardian literary critic. Nell is a young woman with adventure on her mind, but as she sets out into the world, she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell’s leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. And across the generations falls the long shadow of Carmel’s famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions. Dublin-based author Anne Enright was the first Laureate for Irish Fiction, and in 2018 received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature.

Alice Roberts

Wolf Road

Saturday 25 May 2024, 1pm –  Discovery Stage

In historian and broadcaster Alice Roberts’ new children’s novel, Wolf Road, 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. Find out about the real anthropological discoveries that inspired this tale full of wild animals and heart-stopping danger.

Lenny Henry talks to Mic Lord

Clash of the Superkids

Saturday 25 May 2024, 2.30pm –  Discovery Stage

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, sees the return of Tunde Wilkinson, an ordinary boy who happens also to be a winged superhero. Lenny chats to compère Mic Lord, a theatre maker, MC and recording artist, all about Tunde’s impossible mission and super powers, and reveals an extract from the book.

David Nicholls talks to Samira Ahmed

(Un)scripted: You Are Here

Saturday 25 May 2024, 4pm –  Discovery Stage

His novel One Day (recently adapted for Netflix) was an international publishing phenomenon and the iconic love story for a generation, while Us placed him on the Man Booker Prize long list. His latest novel, You Are Here, is a love story which unfolds on a walk across the north of England. It’s the story of two lonely people, both a little lost and wary of new company. But, over many miles, as they start to talk and share stories, the possibility of a new beginning opens up before them. Witty and thoughtful as ever, David Nicholls talks to BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed about first encounters, second chances and finding the way home.

Supported by TikTok

Rose Wilding talks to Jeanette Winterson

Debut Discoveries: Speak of the Devil

Saturday 25 May 2024, 5.30pm –  Meadow Stage

Debut novelist Rose Wilding talks to author Jeanette Winterson about her multi-layered thriller. Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man’s severed head sits in the centre of the floor. Each of the women – the wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend, and the woman who raised him – has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she didn’t. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who did. Against the ticking clock of a murder investigation, each woman’s secret is brought to light as the connections between them converge to reveal a killer.

Supported by Hawthornden Foundation

International Booker Prize Winner

Romesh Gunesekera, the Winner and the Translator talk to Gaby Wood

Saturday 25 May 2024, 7pm –  Meadow Stage

The International Booker Prize celebrates the world’s best fiction in translation. It’s awarded annually for a single book and celebrates the vital work of translators, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between author and translator. The prize will be announced in May, and we present the winners in conversation with Booker Prize Foundation Director Gaby Wood and one of the judges, Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Romesh Gunesekera.

In association with the International Booker Prize

Robin Ince

The Book Club

Saturday 25 May 2024, 10pm –  Meadow Stage

Join comedian Robin Ince for his unique Book Club, in which he chats with guests about the weirdest books and strangest stories they have read, and their secret reading obsessions. He brings along many of his favourite pulpy horrors, awkward romances and most eccentric self help guides. Expect an exhilarating tour around these books, where readings from Crabs on the Rampage will be twinned with Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin. Robin was named Author of the Year by the Booksellers Association and his most recent book, Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain was described by the TLS as “a tonic”. Don’t miss this event exclusively designed for Hay Festival 2024.

David Mitchell

(Un)scripted: Cloud Atlas at 20 Years

Sunday 26 May 2024, 11.30am –  Wye Stage

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas burst onto the literary scene in 2004. A novel comprised of six interconnected tales, each written in a unique style and told from a differing perspective, this genre-defying ‘Russian doll’ epic remains one of the most original, unusual and polarising works of recent times. Shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, in 2012 it was adapted for film with a stellar cast including Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. Mitchell has been nominated for the Booker Prize five times as well as winning the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, given in recognition of a writer’s entire body of work. Twenty years after publication, Mitchell reflects on the past, present and future of his novel. He speaks to journalist and director of the Booker Prize Foundation Gaby Wood.

Sponsored by Green Ink Booksellers

This event will be available online

Téa Obreht and Sarah Perry talk to Shahidha Bari

Fictions: Past and Future

Sunday 26 May 2024, 1pm –  Meadow Stage

The American and British novelists discuss their latest work. Téa Obreht won the Orange Prize in 2011 for The Tiger’s Wife. Her new novel The Morningside follows Silvia and her mother, expelled from their ancestral home, to a crumbling luxury tower in a dystopian future. Silvia knows nothing about why she and her mother came to be here, but an aunt offers glimpses of her demolished homeland. Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment is a story of love and astronomy told over the course of 20 years through the lives of two improbable best friends, torn between their commitment to religion and their desire for more. They develop an obsession with the 19th-century female astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love? Perry’s previous novels include The Essex Serpent, which was adapted into an Apple TV series starring Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes. Obreht and Perry talk to critic, academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari.

Carys Davies and Francis Spufford talk to Shahidha Bari

Fictions: Keeping the Peace

Sunday 26 May 2024, 2.30pm –  Wye Stage

Join the novelists for a discussion of writing and their latest books. Carys Davies’ Clear is set in 1843 on a remote Scottish island. Ivar leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach. Taking him into his home, Ivar is unaware that the newcomer has been sent to evict him and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz takes place in 1922, in an America that never was, when two detectives find a body on a roof. A delicate peace holds in the city of Cahokia, but that body is about to spark off a week that will spill the city’s secrets and bring it either to destruction or rebirth. Davies and Spufford talk to critic, academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari.

Marian Keyes talks to Kirsty Lang

My Favourite Mistake

Sunday 26 May 2024, 4pm –  Global Stage

Facing a minor mid-life crisis, Anna packs in her high-powered life in New York – complete with beautiful apartment, well-meaning partner, and excellent job – to head back to Ireland for a PR job at a super-high-end coastal resort. Even though the locals hate the resort, there’s no wrinkle Anna can’t smooth over… apart from her own mistakes, which have followed her from New York. Much-loved author and literary phenomenon Marian Keyes introduces Anna, the star of her newest book My Favourite Mistake, discusses her writing career and perhaps even shares a few of her own favourite mistakes.

Supported by TikTok

Moses McKenzie talks to Ben Mercer

Fast by the Horns

Sunday 26 May 2024, 4pm –  Meadow Stage

An exciting new voice in fiction presents his latest book. McKenzie’s debut An Olive Grove in Ends was Guardian Novel of the Year 2022. Fast by the Horns is set in Bristol, 1980, in the tight-knit neighbourhood of St Pauls. Fourteen-year-old Jabari is proud of his position as the only son of revered Community leader Ras Levi. Raised in a world of sus laws and council neglect, Jabari finds hope in his Rastafari faith, with the comforting vision that one day believers will at last be free from oppression and prejudice. But a local firebrand activist has been arrested, and violence soon overflows, pulling father and son into its maelstrom. A chance encounter with a young Black child gives Jabari an opportunity for justice – or is it revenge? McKenzie talks to writer and TikTok creator Ben Mercer.

Kaliane Bradley talks to Francis Spufford

Debut Discoveries: The Ministry of Time

Sunday 26 May 2024, 5.30pm –  Spring Stage

Kaliane Bradley, a British-Cambodian writer and editor, talks to the author of Cahokia Jazz about her first novel, set in the near future. A disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test the limits of time-travel. Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as ‘1847’ – a man supposed to have died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic. As the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, both have to confront their past choices.

Supported by Hawthornden Foundation

Coco Mellors talks to Jack Edwards

Blue Sisters

Sunday 26 May 2024, 7pm –  Wye Stage

Coco Mellors introduces her new novel, Blue Sisters, in which the titular sisters reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home. The Blue sisters are Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London; Bonnie, a boxer who is now working as a bouncer in LA; and Lucky, the rebellious youngest, a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her. They are reeling from the death of Nicky, their beloved fourth sister, and discover that it’s only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak. Mellors’ debut novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein is being developed for television by Warner Bros. Mellors talks to the internet’s resident librarian Jack Edwards.

Jeanette Winterson

Night Side of the River: Ghost Stories

Sunday 26 May 2024, 8.30pm –  Global Stage

Gloriously Gothic and unnervingly contemporary, Jeanette Winterson’s Night Side of the River 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.

This event will be available online

John Boyne talks to Stephanie Merritt

The Elements

Monday 27 May 2024, 10am –  Wye Stage

The Irish novelist’s latest work is a series of four novellas, collectively titled The Elements. Four stories with four very different narrators, all of whom have been involved in, complicit with, or found themselves the victims of trauma. The first, Water, published in 2023, is a confronting, reflective story about a woman coming to terms with the demons of her past. Boyne now unfolds the tale of Earth, which follows young footballer Evan Keogh as he leaves his Irish island, finding work as a male escort before becoming a professional footballer. It’s a gritty and complex narrative exploring guilt, shame and facing the consequences of one’s actions. Boyne is one of the most critically acclaimed novelists of his generation. His best-known book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, is a modern classic.

Jean-Baptiste del Amo, Munir Hachemi and Sara Mesa talk to Max Liu

Great Books From Continental Europe

Monday 27 May 2024, 11.30am –  Wye Stage

Take a trip around Europe through the work of three writers in translation. Jean-Baptiste del Amo’s The Son of Man (translated by Frank Wynne) sees a man reappear in the life of his wife and their young son and take them to the dilapidated house in the mountains where he grew up with his ruthless father. Living Things by Munir Hachemi (translated by Julia Sanches) follows four recent graduates who travel to the south of France to work the grape harvest, but end up working on an industrial chicken farm. Sara Mesa’s Un Amor (translated by Katie Whittemore) is about Nat, who arrives in an arid rural village in Spain following a cryptic mistake. They speak with writer Max Liu.

Supported by AC/E Acción Cultural Española

Sophie Buchaillard and Francesca Reece

Writers at Work/Awduron wrth eu Gwaith

Monday 27 May 2024, 11.30am –  Writers at Work Hub – Hwb Awduron wrth eu Gwaith

Two Hay Festival Writers at Work/Awduron Wrth eu Gwaith alumni discuss their work with author Tiffany Murray. Sophie Buchaillard's debut novel This is Not Who We Are was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award in 2023. In her latest book Assimilation, Buchaillard takes us on a world tour through history exploring identity while pursuing spies, drug dealers – and a talking bear. Francesca Reece is a writer and translator from North Wales, winner of the 2019 Desperate Literature Prize. Reece’s Glass Houses is a love story reckoning with class, second home ownership, and Welsh identity.

Supported by Arts Council Wales

Amor Towles talks to Max Liu

Table for Two

Monday 27 May 2024, 1pm –  Discovery Stage

Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway) shares some of his stylish and transporting shorter fiction with journalist Max Liu. Table for Two is a sophisticated collection of stories set in New York City and Golden Age Hollywood. Taking place at the turn of the millennium, the New York stories consider the fateful consequences of brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. The novella ‘Eve in Hollywood’ picks up where Towles’ first novel Rules of Civility left off, with the indomitable Evelyn Ross crafting a new future for herself – and others – in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets and dive bars of 1938 Los Angeles.

Sara Pascoe in conversation with Shahidha Bari

Weirdo

Monday 27 May 2024, 4pm –  Global Stage

Critically acclaimed comedian Sara Pascoe introduces her engaging debut novel. Weirdo 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? Pascoe wrote and starred in the sitcom Out of Her Mind, hosts The Great British Sewing Bee and has written two non-fiction books – Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body and Sex Power Money. Pascoe talks to broadcaster Shahidha Bari.

“Quietly profound and laughing-in-public funny” – Caitlin Moran.

There will be a BSL interpreter at this event

Supported by TikTok

Gemma June Howell talks to Rachel Trezise

Debut Discoveries: The Crazy Truth

Monday 27 May 2024, 5.30pm –  Spring Stage

Girlo Wolf longs for something beyond the defunct slag heaps of post-industrial Wales and nurtures dreams of becoming a poet. But, struggling with mental health challenges and the repercussions of childhood trauma, she falls into a dark underworld of sex, drugs and alcohol. Poet and activist Gemma June Howell discusses her darkly comedic novel The Crazy Truth, which sheds light on the harsh realities of economic poverty and present-day oppression, with author Rachel Trezise. Howell is director of Women Publishing Wales/Menywod Cyhoeddi Cymru.

Supported by Hawthornden Foundation

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ talks to John Mitchinson

A Spell of Good Things

Monday 27 May 2024, 7pm –  Meadow Stage

Nigerian writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s debut novel Stay With Me was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction and the Wellcome Book Prize. Discussing her latest novel A Spell of Good Things – longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize – Adébáyọ̀ shines her light on the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots in Nigeria, and the shared humanity that lies in between. Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers and begging, dreaming of a big future. Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. When sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola and Eniola’s lives collide.

In partnership with the Service95 Book Club

Lionel Shriver talks to Stephanie Merritt

Mania

Tuesday 28 May 2024, 11.30am –  Discovery Stage

The American author whose We Need to Talk About Kevin won the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction discusses her latest novel at Hay Festival. What if calling someone stupid was illegal? In Mania, where the Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, everyone is equally clever, exams are discarded and children are expelled for saying the S-word. You don’t need a qualification to be a doctor. Best friends since adolescence, Pearson and Emory find themselves on opposing sides of this culture war. Radio personality Emory makes increasingly hard-line statements while Pearson believes the whole thing is ludicrous. As their friendship fractures, Pearson’s determination to cling onto the ‘old bigoted way of thinking’ begins to endanger her job, her safety and even her family.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Roman Stories

Tuesday 28 May 2024, 1pm –  Meadow Stage

Steep yourself in the lives of characters living against the beauty, magic and history of Rome, as Jhumpa Lahiri takes you into her new collection of short stories. In Roman Stories, we meet a man who recalls a summer party that awakens an alternative version of himself, a couple haunted by a tragic loss who return for consolation, and an outsider family who is pushed out of the block where they hoped to settle.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lahiri discusses the collection, her love of Italy and her work as a bilingual writer and translator. She has been writing fiction, essays, and poetry in Italian since 2015 and is the editor of The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories. Lahiri talks to Creative Producer Heather Marks.

Mendez, Irenosen Okojie, David Olusoga and Colm Tóibín

James Baldwin: Still Resonating

Tuesday 28 May 2024, 4pm –  Discovery Stage

American novelist James Baldwin is often called one of the best writers of the 20th century, and his writing, from essays to fiction to critiques, is still popular. But why is Baldwin still so well-read? And what makes his work – much of it rooted in his own experiences as a gay Black man who grew up in poverty in New York’s Harlem – so relevant still, to so many people? Our panel of experts take a look at Baldwin’s life and work, and address why his voice still resonates.

Mendez’s debut novel Rainbow Milk was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the Polari Prize, among others. Irenosen Okojie’s novel Butterfly Fish and her short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. David Olusoga is a historian and the author of Black and British: A Forgotten History. Colm Tóibín’s most recent novel is The Magician, and he is the current Laureate for Irish Fiction. They talk to Creative Producer Heather Marks.

In partnership with Words of Colour and the Service95 Book Club

This event will be available online

Lisa Jewell and Alex Michaelides talk to Stephanie Merritt

Fictions: Friends and Enemies

Tuesday 28 May 2024, 4pm –  Wye Stage

When do friends become enemies? And how intertwined are love and murder? Authors Lisa Jewell and Alex Michaelides discuss these questions and more as they celebrate their latest books. Jewell’s None of This is True follows podcaster Alix Summers, who meets her birthday twin Josie at her local pub, and soon discovers that Josie has a story to tell. As Alix records Josie’s strange and complicated life for a podcast, Alix begins to uncover some deeply hidden secrets. In Michaelides’ The Fury, reclusive ex-movie star Lana Farrar invites a small group of her closest friends for a weekend away on her small private island. There, old friendships conceal violent passions and resentments, and in 48 hours, one of the party will be dead.