Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2025

Kick off your Hay Festival Winter Weekend in style with an intimate night of conversation and stories under the stars with 90s rap rock legend Huey Morgan.

Grab a glass of mulled wine or a warming hot chocolate, and listen as the Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ frontman and Radio 6 Music presenter tells tales from his remarkable career.

Morgan’s memoir The Fun Lovin’ Criminal brings the grit and glamour of 1990s New York to life, as he tells the story of his ascent to stardom, the trials and triumphs of touring, and his life after leaving the Fun Lovin’ Criminals.

Morgan talks to journalist and broadcaster Nuala McGovern.

Imagining the future of Hay Festival Global, CEO Julie Finch leads an open forum to kick off Friday’s events.

A registered charity, Hay Festival Global convenes diverse voices from the worlds of art, literature, science, humanities, politics, music and comedy to listen, talk, debate and create, tackling some of the biggest political, social and environmental challenges of our time.

Share your ideas, ask your burning questions and get an early preview of the new initiatives coming up at Hay Festival in this special event hosted by journalist Decca Aitkenhead.

You can submit your questions in advance to questions@hayfestival.org and there will be time for follow-ups in the room over tea, coffee and cake. Let's talk, let's listen.

Beloved Welsh actress and Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page shares heartwarming stories about her upbringing and candid reflections on life on and off the screen.

A unique chance to celebrate a leading contemporary actress, Page – who also starred in Love, Actually – will talk to Woman’s Hour presenter Nuala McGovern, reflecting on growing up along the glorious Welsh coastline outside Swansea, the culture shock of moving to London alone to pursue acting, and the chaos and joy of bringing up four children.

Page played the titular Stacey in the hit BBC show, which gave Barry Island and the Vale of Glamorgan a place in viewers’ hearts. Page’s memoir Lush! sees her tell her story for the first time and share honest thoughts on staying true to yourself when fame comes knocking.

The historic St Mary’s Church provides the atmospheric setting for a unique and immersive screening of the classic silent film Faust.

Experience the 1926 film – which follows the demon Mephisto (Emil Jannings) as he tries to corrupt old alchemist Faust (Gösta Ekman), who is desperately trying to save his village from a plague in a completely new way only at Hay Festival Winter Weekend.

Organist and composer Father Richard Williams, former vicar of St Mary’s Church in Hay-on-Wye, provides soaring live accompaniment on the church’s Bevington Organ in an evening that calls on the nostalgia of the old school cinema experience.

Queen of the high street Mary Portas breathed new life into iconic department store Harvey Nichols and revolutionised the way shop window displays are used forever, before going on to found her own creative empire.

Portas, judge of this year’s Hay-on-Wye window display competition, speaks to acclaimed journalist and broadcaster Decca Aitkenhead about how she turned Harvey Nichols, a fusty and fussy shop that was mostly associated with dowagers in the 1990s, into Harvey Nicks, a trend-setting favourite of style icon Princess Diana and a leader in outrageous, headline-grabbing window displays.

Sharing candid behind-the-scenes stories and gossip from the early days of her career, Portas offers a glimpse at the creative risk taker whose impact continues to be felt on our high streets.

There’s a word for just about everything, and Susie Dent is here to enlighten you on a host of new (and old) vocabulary.

The lexicographer speaks to Gary Raymond about her new book Words for Life, in which she shares the definition and history of a word for each day of the year.

You’ll go away knowing the word for someone who loves to read in bed (useful for all Hay Festival attendees, we suspect) and the strange history of the word arse, plus expand your vocabulary to words you didn’t know you needed.

Dent is Queen of Dictionary Corner on Channel 4’s Countdown, and hosts TV and radio shows.

Raymond is a novelist, critic, editor and broadcaster, the presenter of The Arts Show for BBC Radio Wales and former editor of Wales Arts Review.

The Greek myths you think you know are thrown into new light by Nikita Gill and Natalie Haynes, two of the most engaging and exciting voices in retellings, seen together in a rare appearance.

Poet Gill and writer and broadcaster and rock star mythologist Haynes discuss their work, and delve into why they – and we – are so fascinated by new takes on some of the world’s oldest stories. In Hekate: The Witch, Gill relates in verse the story of the goddess of magic and witchcraft, who is raised by Hades and Styx in the Underworld, where she encounters beauty and horror. Haynes’ No Friend to This House is a reimagining of the life of Medea, based on the classic tragedy by Euripides, and tackles Medea’s power, her relationship with Jason, and the rippling effects of her actions. Both tales are electrifying and spine-chilling – the perfect pairing for a dark November evening.

Step back into your childhood with John Turrell, and reminisce about school playground games from years past.

Based on more than 20 years of research into children’s games and child-lore across Herefordshire and Worcestershire between 1880 and 2010, Turrell’s book Acky, Acky 1, 2, 3! is a deep dive into the games played – from tag to What’s the Time Mr. Wolf – the songs sung and the rhymes that were chanted by children in the streets and in school playgrounds across the two counties.

This event, ironically not suitable for children, is an uncensored look at games and their contribution to social history, and why children’s games are still alive and thriving. Expect fun and, of course, games. Turrell is a former teacher, and researcher with a long-time interest in children’s play and language.

PLEASE NOTE: Readers will find examples of offensive language at various points in the book. This book records the words used by the contributors without any attempt to censor them.That does not mean that any of them are condoned or approved of, but that actual usage is kept in the interests of social history and recording the reality of children’s play. Readers may find the racial language, the slurs and stereotyping offensive – it was and still is.

Actor, artist, and conservation activist James Murray MBE looks at the current crisis facing our rivers from pollution, overextraction and poor management.

Murray grew up in Hereford and is a passionate campaigner for improvements in river quality, including the River Wye. The river, which is protected for its importance to rare wildlife including endangered Atlantic salmon, is suffering ecological decline and under threat from agricultural run-off, sewage pollution, climate change and other pressures.

A lifelong fly fisherman, Murray founded Activist Anglers in 2023 to empower and educate anglers to protect their local waterways. James is an ambassador for the Atlantic Salmon Trust; he also hosts the acclaimed podcast The Last Salmon and is instrumental in Project White Hart, a pioneering salmon restoration effort for the Test and Itchen chalkstreams where he lives.

Murray, who has starred in The Crown and Masters of the Air, will be in conversation with investigative journalist Nicola Cutcher, who co-produced a documentary about the polluted state of Britain's rivers and is a lead campaigner for Friends of the River Wye.

Murray combines his passion for conservation with creativity. This event is also a chance to see one of Murray’s paintings from his Creatures of Light series, where he sank 10 canvases in key salmon rivers across the UK, including the Wye, during spawning season, retrieved them, then painted on them.

Hear from one of Britain’s best-loved authors, Sebastian Faulks, as he takes us on a journey through his life and writing career.

In his memoir, the author shares stories of his post-war rural childhood; not one, but two daring escapes from boarding school; the booze-sodden heyday of his time as a journalist on Fleet Street; the delirium of a jetlagged American book tour; and the writing of the award-winning Birdsong in his brother’s house in 1992.

There will be politics, psychiatry and frustrated ventures into the world of entertainment and all analysed with his signature patience and rueful humour. Sharply perceptive and alive with a generous wit, Fires Which Burned Brightly is a work of subtle yet profound intelligence and warmth. Faulks talks to writer and critic Erica Wagner.

Floral artist Layla Robinson creates an incredible everlasting floral piece live on stage, as she discusses her creative process and offers inspiration on how to brighten up your home with flowers.

Robinson, who lives locally and is the author of Everlasting Blooms, will speak to writer and editor Kitty Corrigan about her passion for sustainability and how she weaves it into all her work, and about growing and drying her own flowers. In Everlasting Blooms, Robinson sets out 25 floristry projects that can be done at home.

This is a chance to experience the work of a renowned floral artist in the heart of the wild and beautiful landscape that inspires her every day.

Peek behind the curtain of the critically acclaimed adaptation Slow Horses, with author Mick Herron and actor Jonathan Pryce.

The pair speak to Jay Hunt, creative director for AppleTV+ and chair of Hay Festival, about bringing the grit and high-stakes drama of Herron’s acclaimed Slough House espionage series to the screen, and why they think the show, which also stars Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas, has been so successful and celebrated.

As Slow Horses’ fifth season airs, hear from Herron about adapting his books for the screen and from Welsh actor Pryce about bringing retired MI5 officer David Cartwright to life. The latest book in the Slough House series is Clown Town, in which Diana Taverner sees an opportunity for blackmail when someone threatens to expose the ugly side of state security.

Celebrate the craftsmanship that has shaped our surroundings, with award-winning broadcaster and art historian James Fox, and hear about some of the country’s last remaining master craftspeople.

Fox’s book Craftland chronicles the traditional crafts of the British Isles, for generations what we made with our hands shaped our identities, built our communities and defined our regions. Craftland chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions such as thatching, hedgelaying and weaving which used to govern every aspect of life.

Fox, director of studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, talks to writer and broadcaster Kate Humble, known for promoting traditional rural crafts and skills through her smallholding, Humble by Nature. The pair discuss why skills passed down the generations must not be allowed to disappear, and celebrate the craftspeople who keep them alive.

Join us this Hay Festival Winter Weekend and be taken on a behind the scenes journey of the upcoming Amgueddfa Cymru exhibition, and explore fresh perspectives on the celebrated Welsh artist's work and life in the experienced hands of the senior curator of the exhibition Lucy Wood, and senior paper conservator at Amgueddfa Cymru Fiona McLees, and is a chance to gain fresh new perspectives on John’s work and her artistic legacy.

Gwen John, a groundbreaking modern artist. Gwen John’s work is both instantly recognisable and era-defining. She is known for the quiet strength of the solitary women in her portraits and the reflective stillness of her interiors. Gwen John defied convention to forge her own, independent existence. She trained at the progressive Slade School of Fine Art, then one of the few art schools that were accepting women on the same terms as men.

Poet and performer Hollie McNish assesses the power of the word 'virgin' – a six-letter word that can pressure, judge, harm, praise, profit, or punish.

With her trademark mix of humour, fury and compassion, McNish – whose videos often go viral on social media – looks at the role the word has played in her life, including how ridiculously she ate creamy mashed potato with her family after apparently ‘losing’ her virginity.

McNish is the author of Lobster and Slug, and winner of the Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry with Nobody Told Me.

At a time when poetry has never been more popular, McNish performs from Virgin about love, loss, wolves and warm morning croissants. Expect strong language and adult content!

Marking two decades of Hay Festival in Latin America, this special conversation celebrates the region’s vibrant and diverse literature.

Authors Carlos Fonseca and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera join Cristina Fuentes La Roche, international director of Hay Festival, to discuss their own writing and the wider horizon of Latin American and Latinx literature published in English, considering the joyful and changing landscape of the last 20 years of the region’s literary scene.

Expect to leave this event with a host of expertly curated new book recommendations, and a desire to learn more about Latin America through its stories.

Fonseca is a Costa Rican novelist, essayist, and academic whose works explore art, history, exile, and the fragility of identity. He was included in Bogotá39 – Hay Festival’s selection of the best young Latin American authors – in both 2007 and 2017.

Guardiola-Rivera is professor of philosophy and human rights at Birkbeck, University of London, and an award-winning writer. The launch of his latest book, A Hopeful Political Imagination, coincides with the Festival.

Folklore and dark history are brought to life under the vaulted ceiling of Hay Castle’s Great Hall by the performance group Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk.

As the darkness settles over Hay-on-Wye, this is an unrivalled chance to see the innovative Herefordshire group tell stories through dance, song, music, customs and ceremonies in the most magical of settings.

Ahead of Hollie Starling’s event on working-class folk horror stories, let Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk get you in the mood for the mythical and mystical.

Comedy power couple Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke are joined by top comedian Mark Watson for an evening of conversation, chaos and plenty of laughs.

Spend Saturday night in the company of three of the UK’s sharpest and most acclaimed voices in comedy as they discuss life’s highs and lows and share their honest ratings on everything (yes, everything) from tinned fish to trips to the tip.

Parris and Brigstocke are the hosts of the podcast How Was It For You? and for this live recording they are joined by Watson who has won numerous accolades for his comedy, including Chortle awards and Time Out Comedian of the Year, and has been one of the biggest-selling acts at the Edinburgh Fringe over the past 20 years. He is also a novelist, and his latest book is One Minute Away, about a delivery driver who forms an instant connection with a customer.

A panel of literary stars take us on a lively tour of the year in books, as we get ready to crown the 2025 Hay Festival Book of the Year.

Oyinkan Braithwaite, Mick Herron, Natalie Haynes together with chair Adam Rutherford celebrate the books on the shortlist for the award. They'll discuss the books they have read, their favourite books of the year, those they raced through, the ones that languished unread, the ones they wished they had read and the ones as authors they wish they had written.

You can nominate your favourite titles now for the Book of the Year award; visit https://www.hayfestival.com/book-of-the-year/ and submit your titles by Wednesday 5 November.

Previous winners have included Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and The Five by Hallie Rubenhold – but who will triumph in 2025?

Prepare for a high-octane celebratory evening of all things books.

Author Hollie Starling speaks to poet Nikita Gill about the uncanny and unsettling, as she introduces a rousing and riotous anthology of folk horror tales by some of Britain’s best-loved working-class writers.

Hear tales of the wyrd and wonderful from Bog People, as Starling and Gill celebrate working-class culture and history. Our land might be green and pleasant, but the monsters that lurk beneath will send shivers down your spine.

Bog People’s contributors include A.K. Blakemore, Mark Stafford, Natasha Carthew and Salena Godden. Starling runs the page Folk Horror Magpie on social media. For more dark tales from folklore, drop in to see Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk, performing in the Great Hall of Hay Castle before and after this event.

Folklore and dark history are brought to life under the vaulted ceiling of Hay Castle’s Great Hall by the performance group Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk.

As the darkness settles over Hay-on-Wye, this is an unrivalled chance to see the innovative Herefordshire group tell stories through dance, song, music, customs and ceremonies in the most magical of settings.

Following Hollie Starling’s event on working-class folk horror stories, let Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk help you sink further into the world of the mythical and mystical.

A rare chance to hear from the author whose generation-defining book offered readers an essential understanding of China’s recent history, and whose follow-up promises to do the same again.

Jung Chang’s epic personal history Wild Swans was a publishing sensation. The story of herself, her mother and her grandmother spanned the final days of the rule of China’s last emperor through the Cultural Revolution and into the late 1970s, as Jung herself emigrated to Britain, as one of the first Chinese people to leave Communist China for the West.

Chang’s follow-up, Fly, Wild Swans, has been almost 35 years in the making, and will once again change how we think about China, bringing in the story of the past few decades of Chang’s life. A love letter to Chang’s mother, and a call to the family’s losses, Fly, Wild Swans is about how the past has shaped and moulded not only Chang, but also China.

Chang will be interviewed by journalist, author and critic Erica Wagner.

Oyinkan Braithwaite caught the literary world’s attention with her first novel, the award-winning literary sensation My Sister, the Serial Killer which was a Sunday Times bestseller, longlisted for The Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Oyinkan is now at Hay Festival’s Winter Weekend to take us into the world of her glittering follow-up, Cursed Daughters.

Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation, in which Eniiyi falls in love and tries to break free of a family curse which has doomed the love lives of generations of women in her family. Don’t miss this chance to hear from one of the brightest new contemporary authors at work today as she talks to author and bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud.

Immerse yourself in the charming and comforting world of artist Charlie Mackesy’s beloved and award-winning bestseller The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, in this magical event.

Mackesy will introduce his new book Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm, while drawing live, giving an exclusive first-hand look at just how he creates his illustrations.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has reached more than 10 million readers around the world, and an animated short film adaptation was released in 2023, co-directed and co-written by Mackesy.

Mackesy began his career as a cartoonist, and his work can be found in books, prisons, and public spaces including Highgate Cemetery.

Mererid Hopwood is Professor of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University. She is a Welsh poet who won the bardic Chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and she translated The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse into the Welsh language, Y Bachgen, y Wahadden, y Llwynog a’r Ceffyl.

Ever wondered how Hay-on-Wye became known as a book town, and who was behind it?

In this session, hear the story of bookseller and entrepreneur Richard Booth, the 'King of Hay', who created the world’s largest second-hand bookshop, attracting thousands of visitors from across the globe to the town.

Author of The Bookseller of Hay, James Hanning, tells the tale of the deeply divisive Booth’s eccentric and chaotic life, including how he created the bookish backdrop which – to his frustration – allowed a rival attraction, the now world-famous Hay Festival, to flourish.

Hanning, a frequent visitor to Hay since the 1960s, interviewed dozens of local people and booksellers in the writing of The Bookseller of Hay.

A former deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday, his other books include a look at the phone hacking scandal, and Love & Deception, about Soviet mole Kim Philby's time in Beirut.

Hanning talks to Hay Festival Director of Programmes, Helen Bagnall.

Author Alison Weir uncovers the lives of five queens from the turbulent 15th century.

In the surroundings of Hay Castle – which local legend has it was built in one day by the Lady of Hay, Matilda de Braose, who carried the stones to build its walls in her apron – hear Weir talk her latest book Queens at War, about the women who stood by England's sovereigns, caught up in wars that changed the course of their lives, and the course of history.

Joan of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Wydeville and Anne Neville were formidable women who defied the limitations of their times, often living out the brutal consequences of their determination.

Weir is one of Britain’s top-selling historians and the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction. She specialises in the medieval and Tudor periods.

Calling all poetry lovers, book enthusiasts, and local heritage fans! Discover the inspiring story behind Five Seasons Press, which has published poets including Seamus Heaney and Allen Ginsberg, in the film Printing Poetry Aloud.

Made by the team behind local favourites Chewing the Cud and Stories from the Hop Yards, Printing Poetry Aloud celebrates 50 years of exquisite book-making by Glenn Storhaug, his collaborations with acclaimed poets, and the lasting legacy of his work in Herefordshire.

This is a must-see documentary for anyone who treasures the art of words and print, and is followed by a live Q&A with Storhaug and director Rick Goldsmith.