Hay Festival 2024

Legendary Welsh superstar Bonnie Tyler recounts how she carved out an extraordinary career that is still going strong. From her early days growing up in a tiny mining village in South Wales to her career as a club singer, which led to her accidental discovery by a talent scout, she charts her incredible rise to fame. Her memoir Straight from the Heart tells the story of how a shy, music-loving teenager called Gaynor Hopkins came to record some of the most iconic songs of all time, including ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and ‘Holding Out for a Hero’, achieving chart success all over the world. Tyler has always determinedly followed her own path, breaking down barriers and leading the way for other female artists. Her roots remain firmly in her beloved Wales, and she’s bringing her down-to-earth, candid outlook to Hay Festival.

Helen Garner’s first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977 and immediately established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene – it’s now considered a classic. Garner is widely recognised as one of Australia’s greatest living writers and has received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, the prestigious Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Non-fiction and the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

Up to now her books have rarely been published this side of the Atlantic, but that’s about to change. Join Garner at Hay Festival on a rare trip to the UK to celebrate the launch of her novels Monkey Grip, a seminal novel of Australian counterculture, and The Children’s Bach, a sparkling family novel set against the bohemian underground of 1980s Melbourne, as well as her non-fiction work This House of Grief, an engrossing true-crime story.

Literary Death Match is a groundbreaking take on the written and spoken word — it’s an electrifying, feel-good spectacle that takes place in over 70 cities around the planet. Part literary event, part comedy show, part game show, it brings together four established and emerging writers at Hay Festival to compete in an edge-of-your-seat read-off critiqued by celebrity judges and concluded by a slapstick showdown. Judges Jay Blades (The Repair Shop) and Viv Groskop (How to Own the Room) preside over this hilarious, off-the-wall competition of literary merit. Presented by veteran host Suzanne Azzopardi and newcomer Hattie Williams.

Australia is now facing the truth of its past – the slaughter of Indigenous peoples as the British conquered the continent with unique brutality. Two truth-tellers of today discuss how the country is reckoning with its history. Larissa Behrendt is an award-winning author, a filmmaker and host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. Journalist David Marr is author of Killing for Country, a personal reckoning with his family’s role in the slaughter.

Nitin Sawhney brings to Hay Festival his most recent album, Identity, packed full of collaborations with his favourite artists. Sawhney says: “I’m working and collaborating with artists who are proud of who they are and whose work is defined by that pride. This album is a sonic collage of music, strong voices and self-validation. The album is a love letter to who we all are.” Expect an eclectic set influenced by Indian and Spanish styles, along with blues, soul, funk, electronica and pop.

The Ivor Novello Lifetime Award-winning writer, composer and producer is one of the most distinctive and versatile musical voices around. He has worked with the likes of Paul McCartney and Sting and scored numerous films and television series. He’s established as a world-class producer, songwriter, touring artist, BBC Radio and club DJ, multi-instrumentalist, composer and cultural/political commentator.

David Baddiel discusses his new book, based on his long-running stand-up show My Family (Not the Sitcom). Like the show, the book covers the death of his mother and his turbulent relationship with his father, who suffered from an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s and died in 2022. Much of the stand-up covered his mother’s affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman – which Baddiel describes as “stuff that people don’t normally talk about with a recently departed parent”, but explained was a substantial part of her identity, “her way of saying she was not just a prim, suburban, Jewish housewife”. And the show portrayed his father as a difficult man who would aggressively criticise his sons, a trait amplified by his Pick’s disease.

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.

Danish comedian, author and podcaster Sofie Hagen is coming to Hay Festival with their new book Will I Ever Have Sex Again?. This is a candid, hilarious and disarming attempt to explore our sexual landscape, through conversations with experts, therapists, sex workers, porn stars, comedians and public figures. Why are we not having the sex we want to have? Where is the sexual liberation we were promised? With part memoir, part exploration, Sofie attempts to figure out why they haven't had sex in over 3,000 days – and why this frustration is so relatable to so many people. Sofie talks to journalist, beauty editor and broadcaster Anita Bhagwandas.