Hay Festival 2025 Full Programme

We live in a world where uncertainty is inevitable. How should we deal with what we don’t know? And what role do chance, luck and coincidence play in our lives? Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter dissects data in order to understand risks and assess the chances of what might happen in the future. His The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck guides us to live calmly with risk and uncertainty.

Join him at the Festival to learn how we can all do this better. He’ll take us through the principles of probability, suggesting that it can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to pandemics and climate change forecasts. He’ll explore how we can update our beliefs about the future in the face of constantly changing experience. We’ll also hear why roughly 40% of football results come down to luck rather than talent, and why we can be so confident that two properly shuffled packs of cards have never, ever been in the exact same order.

Family, friendships and love are the centre of new books by Holly Bourne (author of the Spinster Club series) and Lorraine Kelly (ITV’s Lorraine), and the two authors join forces to examine our love for fictional family dramas.

Bourne’s new novel So Thrilled for You is about four friends reunited at a baby shower on a sweltering hot summer day. When someone starts a fire at the house, everyone’s a suspect and the group’s relationship is changed forever.

Kelly’s The Island Swimmer follows Evie, who returns to Orkney after her father falls desperately ill. As she clears out her father’s neglected house to prepare it for sale, she is drawn to a group of cold-water swimmers led by her old friend Freya, who find calmness beneath the waves.

Until now, poet Gwyneth Lewis has kept the story of her painful upbringing at the hands of a coercive and controlling mother to herself. In her memoir Nightshade Mother, the inaugural National Poet of Wales shares her story through revisiting her childhood diaries and looking back on her younger years.

Lewis was brought up Welsh-speaking in Cardiff. She was Wales’s first National Poet and composed the six-foot-high words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre. Her non-fiction books are Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression and Two in a Boat: A Marital Voyage. Her tenth book of poetry, First Rain in Paradise, is out in March 2025. In 2023, Lewis was made an MBE for services to literature and mental health.
Lewis talks to broadcaster and presenter of A Good Read, Harriett Gilbert.

Nussaibah Younis discusses her darkly comic coming-of-age novel about a professor who accepts a job rehabilitating ISIS women in Iraq. In Fundamentally Nadia meets Sara, a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just 15. When Sara confesses a secret, Nadia is forced to make a difficult choice.

Younis talks to broadcaster, journalist and filmmaker Bidisha about exploring love, family, religion and radicalism through comedy, writing, and what it’s like to be a first-time author.

Dr Nussaibah Younis is a peace-building practitioner and a globally recognised expert on contemporary Iraq. She was a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, where she directed the Future of Iraq Task Force and offered strategic advice to US government agencies on Iraq policy. Bidisha is a critic and columnist for the Guardian and Observer and broadcasts for BBC TV and radio, ITN, CNN and Sky News.

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

Join Lucy Worsley and the team from the hit BBC Radio 4 series Lady Killers for a rip-roaring exploration of murder by the book. In conversation with historian Professor Rosalind Crone and guest, Lucy brings you infamous murderesses from history and separates fact from fiction. This is where true crime meets literature, with a twist.

There’s Maria Manning immortalised by Charles Dickens in Bleak House; Margaret Garner the inspiration for Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved and many more. Featuring live reconstructions, readings and questions from the audience, Lady Killers: Murder by the Book is coming exclusively to the Hay Festival in 2025.

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.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Political sketch writer John Crace introduces his satirical memoir – written from the viewpoint of his beloved dog Herbie. Herbie is a Westminster veteran, with stories to share about all the prime ministers (and there are many of them) of the last decade.

Crace discusses writing Taking the Lead, and the state of our politics today. He has been the Guardian’s political sketch writer for the last ten years and has written books on everything from cricket, football and TV to literature, politics and himself. He talks to comedian Marcus Brigstocke.

A panel of experts assesses whether our current food system is fit for purpose, both now and in a changing world in which we may have to cope with a series of shocks and challenges.

Campaigner Minette Batters, academic Tim Lang, food grower Claire Ratinon and farmer James Rebanks tell us what we should be worrying about when it comes to food, and what solutions to problems of sustainability, social justice, public health and food security look like.

Batters is former president of the National Farmers’ Union, and was the first woman to hold the post. Lang is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy, and author of Atlas of Food. Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer, author of Unearthed: On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong. Rebanks is a farmer based in the Lake District, author of The Shepherd's Life.

Christine Rosen draws on decades of research to build her philosophical defence of what makes us human, and makes an urgent call to reclaim our humanity in a digital world.

Human experiences are disappearing. Social media, gaming and dating apps have usurped in-person interaction. With headphones in and eyes trained on our phones, even boredom has been obliterated. But when we embrace this mediated life and conform to the demands of the machine, we risk becoming disconnected and machine-like ourselves.

There is another way – we must become more critical, mindful users of technology, and more discerning of how it uses us. We must return to the real world, while we still can. Rosen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, will show us how.

French novelist Mathias Énard has won many international awards including the Prix Goncourt for his novels Zone, Street of Thieves and Compass. He talks to writer and Guardian literary critic Chris Power about his latest novel The Deserters, which vividly lays bare the devastations of war.

Fleeing a nameless war, an unknown soldier emerges from deep within the Mediterranean scrubland, dirty and exhausted. A chance meeting forces him to rethink his journey, and the price he puts on a life.

Aboard a small cruise ship near Berlin, a conference of scientists pays homage to the late East German mathematician Paul Heudeber, a Buchenwald survivor and steadfast antifascist who remained loyal to his side of the Berlin Wall despite the collapse of the Communist utopia, unaware that a new era of violence is about to descend.

Out of the tension between these narratives, everything that is at stake in times of conflict comes to light: commitment and betrayal, loyalty and lucidity, hope and survival.

How do you get to the heart of the story you’re trying to tell? Experienced author Emma Jane Unsworth shares insights on structure, style and voice, with hands-on writing exercises to help you find your story.

Unsworth is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter, author of Animals, Adults and, most recently, Slags). Animals was adapted into a film, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay.

Arvon is the UK’s leading creative writing charity. Founded in 1968, it is known for its diverse creative writing courses and events led by leading authors. An online programme, ‘Arvon at Home’ offers virtual writing weeks, writing days, masterclasses and readings. Residential five-day courses are set in historic writing houses in inspiring countryside locations. Courses cover a range of genres including fiction, poetry, theatre, YA, creative non-fiction and more.

Henry Normal presents the 12th instalment of his acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series. He tackles subjects so big only radio can contain them.

Henry is an award-winning writer, producer and poet. He co-wrote TV programmes including The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show and Paul Calf, and produced the Oscar-nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge.

How are we different from other animals? Is there such a thing as a soul? Just two of the unanswerable questions he’ll be unanswering once and for all.

"Shove up, National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal" – Simon O'Hagan, Radio Times.

Join our celebrated pizzaioli for an entertaining, hands-on workshop that will teach you everything that you knead to know about how to make pizzas. Since nothing complements pizza quite like a perfect glass of wine, let us pair and enjoy Italian wine together with your pizza creations.

This 90-minute session includes snacks, a 12” pizza of your own creation and complementary wine throughout. Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Helen Castor and Dan Jones, both broadcasters and historians, discuss the Crown of England from Richard II to Henry V.

Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart tells the story of the power struggle between cousins Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke, one a thin-skinned narcissist, the other a chivalric hero and leader. As king, Richard II became consumed by the need for total power. When he banished Henry into exile, the stage was set for a final confrontation.

Jones offers a new perspective on the life of Henry V, who reigned over England for only nine years but who looms large over the late Middle Ages and beyond. As king, Henry saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders, but he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Join author Janice Hadlow (The Other Bennet Sister), screenwriter Sarah Quintrell (The Power) and executive producer and Bad Wolf co-founder Jane Tranter (His Dark Materials) as they discuss the challenges of adapting and reinterpreting Austen for modern audiences, in her 250th birthday year.

Following the announcement that Bad Wolf will adapt Janice Hadlow’s best-selling novel The Other Bennet Sister for the BBC, the trio will discuss their approach to reinterpreting Mary Bennet, the seemingly unremarkable and overlooked middle sister in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Described as a “fresh spin around the ballroom for one of Jane Austen’s most unassuming characters”, the ten-part drama is written by Sarah Quintrell and gives Mary Bennet the epic love story nobody predicted for her.

The Booker-shortlisted author (Do Not Say We Have Nothing) shares her profound and adventurous new novel. The Book of Records questions how collective political moments can determine an individual’s future, and revels in the infinite joys of intellectual endeavour.

Lina and her ailing father have had to flee their home, and have taken refuge in a mysterious building known as the Sea, that dominates a staging-post for migrating people. With only a few possessions, including three volumes from the Great Voyagers encyclopaedia series, they find some rooms and wait for the rest of their family.

While they wait, Lina befriends her unusual neighbours – who resemble the radical 17th-century Dutch scholar Baruch Spinoza, the philosopher Hannah Arendt and the Chinese poet Du Fu – while her father struggles with the concept of leaving this supposed temporary home. As his health worsens, he finally recounts how he and Lina came to reside in the Sea, and what his betrayals cost their family and others.

Acclaimed filmmaker Joachim Trier (Oslo, August 31st, Louder Than Bombs)’s The Worst Person in the World is a wistful and subversive romantic drama about the quest for love and meaning. Set in contemporary Oslo, it features a star-making lead performance from Renate Reinsve as a young woman who, on the verge of turning thirty, navigates multiple love affairs, existential uncertainty and career dissatisfaction as she slowly starts deciding what she wants to do, who she wants to be, and ultimately who she wants to become.

As much a formally playful character study as it is a poignant and perceptive observation of quarter-life angst, this life-affirming coming of age story deservedly won Reinsve the Best Actress award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Original Screenplay and International Feature Film), and two BAFTA awards (Leading Actress and Film Not in the English Language).

“Sublime… An instant classic” – The Guardian