Children Secondary

Two powerhouses of children’s literature captivate in this creative event bringing William Shakespeare’s work to life with the help of some special guests. Poet Michael Rosen and illustrator Chris Riddell, both former children’s laureates, have collaborated on Pocket Shakespeare: A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Bits of the Bard, a celebration of the words of Shakespeare.

In this event, Rosen will guide the audience through the Bard’s exploration of love, heartbreak, magic, superstition and more, including insults and one-liners, accompanied by Riddell, who’ll draw live on stage.

Philippa Gregory’s bestselling Normal Women has been adapted for teens! Join the international blockbuster author of The Other Boleyn Girl as she redefines the story of ordinary English women and asks why they are missing from 900 years of history. Hear some fascinating stories of highwaywomen, pirates, soldiers, inventors and rioters in this lively and interactive event.

Join the author of The Rachel Incident and All Our Hidden Gifts, Caroline O’Donoghue, to hear about her new fantasy romance with a sci-fi twist, Skipshock. When Margo boards a train to her new school, she could never have expected a time slip into the chill of an alien winter. Margo and Moon were on two different trains, in two different worlds. They never should have met – but they did. And now they are running out of time. Will Margo manage to find a way home, or will she choose to stay in a world where she may have found the only person with whom she would choose to spend eternity?

Caroline’s The Rachel Incident is being adapted for television by Universal Studios, and her hit podcast Sentimental Garbage has had over 9 million downloads worldwide.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Award-winning historian and broadcaster Professor David Olusoga and Lecturer in Education Dr Yinka Olusoga introduce their book Black History for Every Day of the Year. This unique and vital celebration of Black history travels across the world from ancient times to the modern day.

Meet well-known figures and unsung heroes, learn about famous and lesser-known key cultural moments in history, sport, science, activism, music and more. Hear stories of hope, connection and creativity, alongside tales of racism, resistance and celebration – from the nineteenth century anti-slavery movement to World Wars I and II, to the Harlem Renaissance, Stormzy, Simone Biles and beyond. With an accessible story for every day of the year, here is a rich history that is relevant to us all.

Lose yourself with Tahereh Mafi in her exhilarating return to the Shatter Me universe. Watch Me is the first book in a new series set ten years after the fall of The Reestablishment. Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, it’s an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape, begging a desperate question – who are we when no one is watching?

James Anderson has infiltrated Ark Island. No outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but a win is a win. Rosabelle Wolff is tightly controlled – where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. When she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates…

Spend a special afternoon with author Michael Morpurgo and musician and actor Ben Murray, as they retell War Horse in this moving concert.

First published in 1982, War Horse is one of Morpurgo’s best known and most beloved books. It has gone on to be adapted for the stage in an award-winning production by the National Theatre and for the screen in a Steven Spielberg film.

Told from the perspective of a young farm horse Joey, it follows his story as he is taken from the fields of Devon to the Western Front after being sold to the British Army in 1914. With his officer, Joey charges towards the enemy, witnessing the horror of the frontline.

In this event, Morpurgo retells an abridged version of War Horse accompanied by music and songs from Murray, who previously played the Songman in the National Theatre production of the book.

How do you create world-changing television that resonates across generations? How do you bring ambitious, complex stories to life for global audiences? Join Jane Tranter, CEO of Bad Wolf and executive producer of award-winning television shows such as His Dark Materials, Industry and Succession, as she shares the journey behind her career – from navigating an ever-evolving television landscape, to setting up her own production company.

In this workshop-style event, Jane will draw on her extensive experience to offer invaluable insights and advice for aspiring storytellers looking to make their mark in the television industry.

This event is one of a Hay Festival series of sessions delivered by inspiring producers and practitioners from the creative industries, giving their insights, experience and advice on progression in their field.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Shimmy up to hear the ballroom star, Strictly Come Dancing judge and author Anton Du Beke talk about his new book for young readers with CBeebies presenter Maddie Moate.

Set in Britain during WW2, the book sees 10-year-old twins Harry and Rosie evacuated to live with their great uncle on the Lancashire coast. Missing the vibrancy of London and the dancers at the tearoom where their mother works, they throw themselves into a local Christmas show. But when Harry sees strange lights out on the treacherous mudflats, he and Rosie discover their new home is hiding huge secrets…

The author of Safiyyah’s War weaves a powerful story of friendship and family set during the violence and chaos of Indian partition, as two friends desperately try to make it to the right side of the border in time.

It’s 1947 in Lahore. Jahan and Ravi spend their days racing, wrestling and teasing each other. Jahan’s dad works for the British government and the boys hear snippets about the end of the British Raj and a partition of India. Tensions are rising throughout the city and beyond. Then word comes that there are only two days until the partition. Families must flee through desperate violence – will the boys ever see each other again?

Where do you get started in comedy, as a writer, creator or performer? And what do you do when the industry wants you to be one thing, but your best work is spread across disciplines? Rachel Parris is a Bafta-nominated comedian and writer (The Mash Report, Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You) with experience of writing stand-up, radio comedy, TV satire and songs, as well as fiction and non-fiction books. She’ll discuss carving out your own unique path in a complicated and changing industry. Bring your own questions!

One of a Hay Festival series of sessions delivered by inspiring producers and practitioners from the creative industries, giving their insights, experience and advice on progression in their field.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

The activist and bestselling feminist writer introduces the second instalment in her epic Arthurian fantasy series. Sisters of Fire and Fury is a reimagining of the tales of the Arthurian Round Table through a feminist lens. Discover the Sisterhood of Silk Knights who live in a world of ancient feuds and glorious battles and who are determined to protect their community and right the wrongs of men.

Laura will share her original inspiration, her action-packed research at Knight school and why she hopes this novel will bring joy to feminists young and old. The founder of the Everyday Sexism Project has made waves in YA fiction with her Sisters of Sword and Shadow series, combining mythic elements with contemporary feminist themes.

Following the success of last year’s production at Hay Festival, we’re thrilled to present a delightful 30-minute, family-friendly adaptation of As You Like It by William Shakespeare, directed by award-winning writer and director Greg Banks. Performed by Hereford College of Arts Performing Arts degree students, this lively rendition of the classic comedy is filled with love, laughter and unforgettable characters.

Jenny Valentine has been thinking about lists. Long lists, short lists, shopping lists, wish lists, missing lists, to-do lists. Everybody writes them, one way or another. Our lists say more about us than we realise. And they can be very helpful when you are writing a story!

Come and make some lists with Jenny about everyday things or life and death things. Jenny will introduce you to her latest YA novel, Us in the Before and After, a tear-jerking, heartbreakingly beautiful read about the fallout of a sudden death and the lifelong consequences of a single tragic act.

Clara Kumagai burst on the YA scene last year with the popular Catfish Rolling, a 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal nominee. Now she’s back, with restless ghosts to be appeased in her new novel, inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. When Japanese-American teenager Adam discovers a diary in his attic, he is enthralled by its account of a young Japanese woman’s life. A hundred years separate them yet she, like Adam, is caught between cultures, relationships and heartbreak. She also writes of the ghosts that have begun to seek her out, which Adam dismisses as fantasy – until he too, begins to be haunted. It leads him to Nagasaki, trying to solve the mystery of the diary, and his own identity. And the ghosts gather…

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Learn the basics of juggling and object manipulation in this workshop with expert tutors from Deviate Creative. You can continue to practise these skills and improve on your own at home. Try out hula hooping, diablo and more, in true Big Top style.

Take a deep dive into the story of information with author and illustrator Chris Haughton (A Bit Lost). His latest work is a graphic handbook to the biggest influence on human history.

Exploring the ways humans share and store information, and how this has shaped and changed the world, we travel through time from the first languages and cave paintings to how we communicate and record information today. With illustrations in his signature style, Chris shows us everything we know and how we know it!

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.

Join the Paralympic champion, Strictly Come Dancing star and You Can Do Anything! author for an empowering and inspirational discussion with former Paralympic athlete Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson about finding your happiness, chasing your dreams and being unstoppable. Jonnie will take us on a journey to get inspired, build confidence, overcome setbacks and learn that we can achieve anything, no matter what our abilities or ambitions might be.

A double Paralympic 100-metre sprint champion, Jonnie won gold and set the Paralympic record at the age of 19 at the London 2012 Olympics, going on to win gold again, and smash his own record at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. He was the first disabled contestant to compete on Strictly Come Dancing and is passionate about challenging and changing other people’s perceptions around disability.

A brilliant interactive workshop with Neill, Phoenix comic supremo and creator of the graphic novel series Mega Robo Bros. In this fun-filled hour, Neill will introduce you to his latest epic robot book Mega Robo Bros: Final Form and show you how to generate awesome ideas for your own comics, how to turn those ideas into a fully-fledged story and how to make your stories come alive with incredible artwork.

Fee Mak shares her career journey – from her start as a professional ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet School through to becoming a national BBC Radio broadcaster, and her love for literature which has led to her chairing events at leading UK literature festivals.

Join Fee in this workshop-style event, one of this of a Hay Festival series of sessions delivered by inspiring producers and practitioners from the creative industries, giving their insights, experience and advice on progression in their field.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Light. Darkness. Power. Magic. Join YA author and TikTok personality Andy Darcy Theo as he talks about his publishing journey and epic Descent into Darkness series. From BookTok to Bookshop, Andy shares the inspiration behind The Light That Blinds Us and his publication journey. He’ll offer top tips for aspiring writers and walk you through an interactive quiz to find out your elemental power! Andy Darcy Theo is a BookToker and Bookstagrammer and has been documenting his author journey as @andydarcytheo.

Reena from Bollywood Dreams Dance Company will teach you some dynamic moves in this fun Bollywood dance workshop. You’ll learn hand gestures, some technique work and choreography. By the end of the session you’ll have formed a fun Bollywood routine to take away and show your friends!

This much-loved musical conversation-starter asks its family audiences: 1) What kind of world would you like to be living in? and 2) What will you do to create that world?

Join Shea Ferren, Male Singer of the Year at the International Eisteddfod 2023, and Peace Child International’s David Woollcombe, for what may be the most consequential conversation you will ever have.

Driven by the magisterial songs of David Gordon (brother of Cat Stevens) and marking the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations, this show gets audiences to create a collective time machine to bring themselves back from two very different futures – one in which they follow UN guidance and create a safe, sustainable future, the other in which they don’t. If, as we hope, audiences choose the first option, the workshop focuses on answering the second question.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then he’ll begin… Settle in for a thrilling adventure from long ago, brimming with monsters, madness and gruesome humour, told by the Festival’s favourite storyteller Daniel Morden. Conall was once a hero of the people, but he has left behind his thieving ways – until three strangers come to his door and he reluctantly agrees to One Last Job, with predictably disastrous results! One part Homer’s Odyssey, one part anxiety dream, The Thief’s Tale is proof of the power of a great tale well told.

Join award-winning author Elle McNicoll for a conversation to launch her new YA book, Wish You Were Her. Book Lovers meets You’ve Got Mail in this enemies-to-lovers romance. Elle will share her thoughts on diving into Young Adult fiction, cosy romance, experiencing fandom and normalising neurodiversity.

Elle’s debut novel A Kind of Spark won the Blue Peter Book Award, the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Blackwell’s Book of 2020. She is twice Carnegie nominated, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, the Branford Boase Award and the Little Rebels Award.

Have you ever wanted to create your own picture book? Join award-winning picture book maker Leo Timmers to get going on your first book! Using examples of his own work, Leo will walk participants through his creative process, demonstrating how to craft stories that play on character creation and narrative development through illustration. Then have a go yourself, with Leo on hand to help guide and advise.

Leo Timmers is author/illustrator of Gus’s Garage (2017 Children’s & Youth Jury Award), A Home for Harry (Netherlands Picture Book of the Year 2019), Monkey on the Run and Elephant Island.

In this arts-based workshop you’ll use collage and printmaking techniques to design a Sirens of Sustainability character to protect our rivers, waterways and oceans.

University of Worcester staff and students from the Department of Illustration and the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society (ICPBS) return to Hay Festival with their engaging workshops to inspire young creatives. All materials and equipment provided – just bring your imagination!

The author of Inkheart and Dragon Rider, Cornelia Funke shares the magic in her new and exciting mystery set in the heart of New York City. Come and hear how Caspia’s summer in the city is transformed when she discovers a bundle of letters containing ten botanical riddles. She sets out to solve the riddles and, as she does, she meets friends she could never have imagined and discovers that anywhere can feel like home, if you are brave enough to put down new roots.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Look out for the Scavenger Trail around the Festival site, inspired by Cornelia Funke’s The Green Kingdom.

Join Queen of Historical Fiction Emma Carroll (Secrets of a Sun King, When We Were Warriors) as she introduces the magical world of her new novel. In The Houdini Inheritance, two children in the 1920s find themselves dragged into the seedy world of American amusement parks in the service of the world’s greatest escapologist…

Discover everything there is to know about the world-famous escape artist Harry Houdini and his suitcase full of secrets, and pick up tips on how to fire your imagination and write your own stories.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Celebrate big decisions and messy relationships with Dean Atta as he launches his new coming-of-age novel-in-verse I Can’t Even Think Straight. Kai and his best friend Matt made a promise to each other to stay in the closet. Matt isn’t ready to come out, but Kai wants nothing more than to write his own story. He decides it’s time to break his promise…

Dean Atta has been named as ‘one of poetry’s greatest modern voices’ (Gay Times). His first novel The Black Flamingo was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, the Jhalak Prize and the YA Book Prize.

In this pen-to-portrait workshop with author and illustrator Siôn Tomos Owen, you’ll explore creating a character by developing their personal history. Learn how to create the story of their life through exploring the events, hobbies and people in their lives. Finally, see how you can use these stories to describe how they look as an illustration.

Save the date… for a killer wedding! Award-nominated BookTokkers Busayo Matuluko and Kemi Ayorinde bring the vibe, discussing Busayo’s slick and addictive mystery thriller ’Til Death celebrating the nuances and dramas of Nigerian family and culture. Busayo will break down all the elements of a gripping mystery as they guide you through building the perfect ‘whodunnit’. Bring your best plot twists and red herrings, and join in the conversation.

In ’Til Death, true-crime-obsessed Lara is heading to Lagos for her cousin Dérin’s wedding. It’s going to be a holiday filled with glitzy dress-fittings and glamorous parties. But everything isn’t perfect in Dérin’s world. Lara puts her sleuthing knowledge to work – and soon she’s uncovering a web of secrets and malicious crimes…

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

The Queen of Historical Fiction, Emma Carroll (The Houdini Inheritance, Letters From the Lighthouse and many more) shares tips on how to fire your imagination in this fun, interactive workshop masterclass, searching out potential ideas and inspirations to encourage you to keep writing.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.