Hay Festival 2025 Full Programme

Take a trip along the A1 (no traffic, guaranteed) and learn about the history and mystery of the Great North Road, a 400-mile route that has run through Britain for the last 2,000 years. Writer and author Rob Cowen follows this road – throughout history an ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway – and takes a journey through history, place, people and time in his new book The North Road.

In conversation with Phoebe Smith, journalist and author of Wayfarer, he describes journeying along the Great North Road, and weaving his own histories and memories with the landscapes he moved through. Cowen writes on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors.

Celebrate the beauty, strength and joy of being a woman with Donna Ashworth.

The author and poet introduces her collection To the Women, which has been updated with over 70 new poems since its first publication.

Ashworth offers words of wisdom and comfort in this uplifting and empowering event, celebrating the beauty, strength and joy of being a woman. She reminds us that we are stronger when we come together and unstoppable when we accept ourselves.

Ashworth’s daily poetry has nearly 1.8 million followers on social media. Her books include Wild Hope, Love, Loss, Life and I Wish I Knew. She talks to style advisor, television presenter and author, Susannah Constantine.

Steve Crawshaw has written and worked on human rights and justice for more than thirty years, from reporting on Eastern Europe for The Independent to directing Human Rights Watch, becoming advocacy director for the UN and Amnesty International and then Director of the Office of the Secretary General. With human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, he discusses the process of bringing war criminals to justice.

Putting a country’s leader on trial once seemed unimaginable. But as Crawshaw describes in his book Prosecuting the Powerful, the possibilities of justice have been transformed. He recounts his encounters with retributive justice from Slobodan Milošević and Bashar al-Assad to the front lines in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and at The Hague.

Salman Rushdie is famed for his books Midnight’s Children, Booker Prize winner 1981, The Satanic Verses (1988), Victory City (2023) and most recently, Knife, following a stabbing in 2022. He has been President of PEN America, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2023. He discusses the role of fiction in the world today, how it inspires and challenges us, with Erica Wagner, writer and former literary editor of The Times.

Do the stories we tell ourselves shape our destiny? And what do stories say about us? Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and senior presenter, considers Joan Didion’s famous quote: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

Doucet and guests explore the global shift in finding ourselves through stories, borrowing narratives from many sources, escaping from the daily bombardment of negative news and shifting to podcasts, long form narratives, to frame our own sense of self. Doucet is joined by Matt Frei, Europe Editor and Presenter at Channel 4 News; media mogul and Director of the MOBY group, Saad Mohseni; and producer, presenter and author Beaty Rubens.

Doing nothing is seen as one of the ultimate wastes of time. But what if doing nothing can actually help us be happier, healthier and more successful? Dr Joseph Jebelli blends science and personal stories to reveal how neuroscience is solving the mystery of the brain at rest, with profound implications for intelligence, creativity and even life expectancy.

Advocating breaking the taboo around rest, Jebelli looks at how things like long baths, walks in nature, meditation and simple daydreaming are key to a more productive life. Jebelli holds a PhD in neuroscience from University College London. His books include In Pursuit of Memory, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.

A highly anticipated return to fiction feature filmmaking from Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire), Perfect Days takes the writer-director to Tokyo to tell a story celebrating the hidden joys and minutiae of Japanese culture.

Winner of the Best Actor award at Cannes 2023, Koji Yakusho (Babel, 13 Assassins) stars as Hirayama, a contemplative middle-aged man who lives a life of modesty and serenity, spending his days balancing his job as a dutiful caretaker of Tokyo’s numerous public toilets with his passion for music, literature and photography. As we join him on his structured daily routine, a series of unexpected encounters gradually begin to reveal a hidden past that lies behind his otherwise content and harmonious life.

Combining a refreshingly unstereotypical depiction of the Japanese capital with a soundtrack comprised of iconic hits from the ’60s and ’80s, this is a subtle, shimmering and ultimately life-affirming reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. The film was nominated for the Best International Film award at the 96th Academy Awards.

“A humane, hopeful embrace of everyday blessings” – Variety

Internationally renowned lyricist Sir Tim Rice steps out from the wings and takes to the stage to reflect on his illustrious career at the heart of musical theatre.

This evening of music and anecdotes sees Rice sharing the stories behind some of the most-loved and best-known musicals of our time, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar to Evita and the Disney productions The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.

A must for fans of musical theatre, there will be performances by some of the UK’s leading West End singers, including ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’, ‘Any Dream Will Do’ and ‘I Know Him So Well’.