Don’t miss some far-out fun with Olaf Falafel! Join the award-winning comedian, author and illustrator for a fun, interactive session inspired by his new graphic novel The Far-Out Five: Snot Jelly Island. Olaf will be telling jokes, sharing tips on creating funny comics and guiding you through drawing one of his wonderfully weird characters. Warning: this event will contain art, farts and bum-faced woodlice!
7+ years
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.
An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. The theme for today is rivers, with support from The Rivers Trust. Get messy and creative in these interactive sessions delivered by artists and discover that your imagination is the only limit.
Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.
Step inside Hay Castle – a border stronghold shaped by myth, power and reinvention. Visit the current BorderLands exhibition delivered in partnership with Meadow Arts, and enjoy full access to the castle, from cellar to rooftop. Explore rooms layered with stories, including Matilda’s room, the Richard Booth space, historic costumes and the castle cellar.
Visit the dungeon and climb to the viewing platform for wide views across the Wye Valley. Your ticket also includes unlimited return visits for a full year, so you can come back as the seasons – and the castle – change.
This ticket allows you to visit the castle at a time of your choice on the day selected, and also gives you entry into the Meadow Arts BorderLands exhibition.
Guided Walk Around Hay-on-Wye: A Historic Landscape
With Sarah Price
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Meeting Point on Festival Site
Step away from the Festival site and into the rich border landscape that surrounds Hay-on-Wye on this gentle circular guided walk of around four miles, led by local professional walking guide Sarah Price. The route takes in the border-defining Dulas Brook and the hamlet of Cusop, encompassing St Mary’s Church and the ancient Cusop Castle mound, as well as a section of Offa’s Dyke Path.
Throughout the walk, Sarah brings the landscape to life with stories drawn from local history, lived experience, and years of guiding in the area. This is an ideal walk for anyone who enjoys history, place and thoughtful walking — a chance to explore the wider landscape that has long inspired writers, thinkers and wanderers.
Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear. Walk level: easy.
Step inside Hay Castle during Hay Festival 2026 and explore a place shaped by power, survival and reinvention. Led by an expert volunteer guide, this tour traces 800 years of life inside the castle – from medieval plots and royal whispers to its rescue, restoration and reimagining as a place for ideas today. You’ll move through rooms, stairways and towers, hearing stories of the people who lived, schemed, dreamed and partied here. Along the way, take in sweeping views across the Wye Valley – a reminder that this is a border castle, built to watch and be watched.
Guided tours run daily at 11am and 2pm. Tour price includes entry into the Castle for a year including the current exhibition: BorderLands.
Discover the miraculous and often misunderstood world of hormones in this lively and engaging conversation. Leading endocrinologist Dr Saira Hameed, author of Signals, speaks to comedian Sara Pascoe about how hormones write life’s masterplan, as well as control our minute-to-minute experiences, from appetite to mood.
Combining science, history and patient stories, this informative and accessible event will have you thinking differently about hormones, and provide a deeper understanding of how health and happiness depends on their power. Hameed is a consultant endocrinologist for the NHS, a senior tutor and an honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College London.
Imani Erriu, Hazel McBride and Rachel Winterbottom talk to Jess Bacon.
Romantasy Rules
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Meadow Stage
Are you obsessed with romantasy yet? Book sales are growing faster than in any other genre – it’s a booming market and its fan base is passionate and loyal. Here a panel of experts explain why it’s so successful and consider what we should learn about the huge appeal of worlds where women are in control. Imani Erriu is author of the Heavenly Bodies romance fantasy series, Hazel McBride writes the Bonded to Beasts series, and Rachel Winterbottom is publishing director for bespoke romantasy imprint Wayward TxF.
Erriu’s latest book Fallen Stars continues the story of Elara and Enzo, first introduced in Heavenly Bodies. A third book, Holy Monsters, is expected next year. McBride’s A Queen Crowned in Flames is the searing conclusion to her Celtic-inspired duology that began with A Fate Forged in Fire. Winterbottom and Wayward TxF have published Sable Sorenson’s Direbound, among others. They talk to author, journalist and creator Jess Bacon.
Inclusive Books for Children Award Winners Chanté Timothy, Greg Stobbs and Sophia Payne
Inclusive Storytelling
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Spring Stage
In this entertaining event for absolutely everyone, we’re celebrating inclusivity in reading in an interactive storytelling session for all the family.
We are delighted to welcome some of the winners of the 2026 IBC Awards winners: The Beautiful Layers of Me by Sophia Payne and Ruchi Mhasane; Supa Nova by Chanté Timothy; and Cloud Boy by Greg Stobbs.
Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) is a charity with a free website for families, schools and libraries to help easily choose books for a more inclusive bookshelf. IBC showcases stories that represent all types of family, featuring books with a variety of ethnicities, positive images of disabilities and different identities.
The IBC Awards celebrate the talent behind the best new inclusive children’s books published in the UK across three categories: baby and toddler books (1–3 years), picture books (3–7 years) and highly illustrated children’s fiction (5–9 years). This year IBC celebrated the inaugural IBC Children's Choice Awards, with winners chosen by children across the country.
The Hay Festival bookshop features a dedicated Inclusive Books for Children section showcasing IBC’s top-reviewed books of the year. Come along and get your books signed after the event.
Enter the dangerous, magical world of the Geomancer, as Kiran Millwood Hargrave leads us through a quest with the future of the whole world at stake. In The Ship of Strays, the thrilling third book in her epic fantasy trilogy, heroine Ysolda has unlocked the earth magic, and its powers are rising within her. With a rebel princess by her side, she is racing against the fearsome wolf queen. But they’re in for a stormy journey…
The Ship of Strays follows the first two books of the trilogy, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen and The Storm and the Sea Hawk. Kiran’s other award-winning novels include The Girl of Ink and Stars, Julia and the Shark and The Mercies. She’ll give a peek into her new tale of adventure, share insights into writing enthralling fantasy and give her top tips for world-building and letting your imagination run riot.
9+ years
Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.
In this inspiring mixed media workshop, you’ll explore the legendary Persian bird, the Simurgh, and the folklore that surrounds it. The Simurgh is a mythical creature and an ancient symbol that appears across time and cultures and in different legends, often with varying roles, qualities and names. It is sometimes depicted with a head of a dog, lion’s claws and a peacock’s body. All materials and equipment provided – just bring your imagination!
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 all young creatives.
7-11 years
Parents/carers must attend but do not need a ticket
An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. The theme for today is rivers, with support from The Rivers Trust. Get messy and creative in these interactive sessions delivered by artists and discover that your imagination is the only limit.
Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.
For the People: Fighting Authoritarianism, Saving Democracy
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Global Stage
Are we witnessing the end of democracy? The foundations of freedom and civil liberties are being eroded around the world, and once-liberal countries are turning to populism. Renowned philosopher AC Grayling investigates the forces undermining our democratic ideals, and delivers an urgent wake-up call, offering bold solutions to fix our problems. Grayling is founder and principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and is author of best-selling books including The Meaning of Things.
The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society
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Meadow Stage
We are in the midst of the most important cultural shift of our time, argues journalist James Marriott: a decline in reading. In this National Year of Reading, join the Times columnist in conversation with broadcaster Georgina Godwin as he looks at the fall in literacy and reading, and presents an impassioned defence of the written word.
In his book The New Dark Ages, Marriott draws on history and classic works of literature and theory to show that reading and writing are essential for innovation, creativity and critical thinking. As print dies, he argues, we risk returning to the chaos, tribalism and rage of a pre-literate society.
Award-winning author Claire Fuller takes us into the addictively propulsive plot of her new novel Hunger and Thirst, sharing her talent for making the ordinary extraordinary, with bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud.
. Decades after a tumultuous experience living in a squat with wild-child Sue, reclusive sculptor Ursula is living under a pseudonym when a true-crime documentary-maker begins digging into an unsolved disappearance. As her past catches up to her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without.
A must-attend event for literature lovers, this is a chance to hear Fuller talk about fictionalising everyday horrors and creating unsettling narratives. Fuller’s novels include the Costa Novel Award-winner Unsettled Ground, and the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning Swimming Lessons.
Colin Grant, Suzanne Harrington, Eric Ngalle Charles and Amanda Vilanova
What We Leave We Carry: Voices of Migration to Britain
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MUBI Cinema
What do we leave behind when we move to a new place – and what do we carry with us, physically and emotionally, wherever we land? Colin Grant, director of WritersMosaic, draws out candid and moving stories of migration – foundational tales of arriving in a new land, along with rarely spoken tales of love and loss. This is a chance to listen to Britain, in all its richness and complexity.
He’s joined by storytellers sharing the secrets of their migrant songs and objects: Suzanne Harrington (The Liberty Tree), an Irish writer who travelled with an ‘introductory’ sick note from her psychiatrist; Eric Ngalle Charles (Homelands), a Cameroonian poet bestowed with an ancestral charm to ward off any danger encountered in Britain; and Amanada Vilanova (Hurricane Diaries), a Puerto Rican actor gifted her mother’s jewellery to sell in an emergency.
How to Train Your Dragon School: Fight of the Flamestrike
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Discovery Stage
Batten down the hatches for the arrival of the next How to Train Your Dragon School adventure! Legendary author and illustrator Cressida Cowell is back, and she’s drawing up a storm. In this high-energy event full of chatting and sketching, Cressida will show you how Viking and Dragon Heroes are made.
In their latest exploit, Hiccup and his fellow Warriors-in-Training are learning Disastrous Lesson Number Two: Boarding-An-Enemy-Ship-At-Sea. Well, they’re supposed to be learning about enemy ships at sea. But when they come across a mysterious vessel, with a ripped sail and nobody driving it, Hiccup’s heart sinks. They really, really shouldn’t get onboard. But… as on so many occasions in Hiccup’s life, they are going to do it anyway.
7+ years
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.
Supported by the Charles & Anna Saunders Family Trust Fund at the Herefordshire Community Foundation
Step into a mystical fae world with Welsh author Anna Fiteni as she takes you on a journey through the history and fantasy that shaped her homegrown YA debut novel, The Wicked Lies of Habren Faire.
Lush, romantic and hypnotic, Fiteni’s whimsical tale finds sensible Sabrina Parry drawn into a world of disarmingly attractive faeries after her sister vanishes in the woods. Budding writers and romantasy readers will love this event, as Fiteni offers practical writing tips, imagines a snapshot of Wales’s enchanting history, and takes a deep dive into the global influence of Welsh fantasy.
13+ years
Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.
In this inspiring mixed media workshop, you’ll explore the legendary Persian bird, the Simurgh, and the folklore that surrounds it. The Simurgh is a mythical creature and an ancient symbol that appears across time and cultures and in different legends, often with varying roles, qualities and names. It is sometimes depicted with a head of a dog, lion’s claws and a peacock’s body. All materials and equipment provided – just bring your imagination!
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 all young creatives.
Step inside Hay Castle during Hay Festival 2026 and explore a place shaped by power, survival and reinvention. Led by an expert volunteer guide, this tour traces 800 years of life inside the castle – from medieval plots and royal whispers to its rescue, restoration and reimagining as a place for ideas today. You’ll move through rooms, stairways and towers, hearing stories of the people who lived, schemed, dreamed and partied here. Along the way, take in sweeping views across the Wye Valley – a reminder that this is a border castle, built to watch and be watched.
Guided tours run daily at 11am and 2pm. Tour price includes entry into the Castle for a year including the current exhibition: BorderLands.
An incredible opportunity to hear from one of the most accomplished and successful actors of our times, as Emma Thompson reveals the books that have shaped her life. The conversation spans her early memories of childhood stories, the authors who’ve inspired her and the novels that have left a lasting impact. Expect a funny, moving and intensely personal conversation with best-selling author and podcaster Elizabeth Day.
Hay Festival is proud to support the National Year of Reading
The Emperor of Gladness: Unexpected Friendship and Healing
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Discovery Stage
One of literature’s most exciting names, Ocean Vuong, comes to Hay Festival for the first time to discuss his achingly beautiful novel The Emperor of Gladness. Exploring chosen family and unexpected friendship, the novel tells the story of 19-year-old Hai, who’s stopped from jumping off a bridge by the voice of Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. The pair form a life-altering bond, and each find ways to heal through their extraordinary friendship. Join an unmissable conversation with the author who set the literary world alight with his best-selling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Vuong talks to Keshia Hannam, global editor-in-chief of Service95.
What does it mean to be a child today? And what will the future of Britain look like if we don’t care for those who will shape it? Join author and Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce as he talks to Observer literary editor Tom Gatti, casting a glaring new light on childhood in the 21st century. Cottrell-Boyce will share stories about the children and young people he has met during his work, and assess what the impact of successive crises – from the Covid pandemic to austerity and the pressures on the care system – mean for those growing up today.
This illuminating session is a call to arms to us all, to care for the children of today. Cottrell-Boyce is a multi-award-winning children’s book author and screenwriter, and began his two-year term as Children’s Laureate in 2024.
Hay Festival is proud to support the National Year of Reading
In partnership with The Observer. Hay Festival is proud to support the National Year of Reading
Experience evocative storytelling that bridges page and screen, in this screening of BAFTA award-winning actor and writer Reece Shearsmith’s narration of Robert Louis Stevenson’s defining Gothic horror.
Who is the real monster? Shearsmith explores alter-egos, drawing us into the strange and eerie world of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with a captivating narration that reimagines the nineteenth-century classic.
The Read is a series of outstanding performance readings of iconic British novels. Each episode offers a richly immersive celebration of literature.
Free but ticketed - please note this is a film screening, the actor will not be present
A Rural Studios production for BBC Four and BBC iPlayer
Spend the afternoon in the company of Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, as she performs a series of reflective new tracks composed for her 13-year-old self. Finch’s Notes to Self is her first album of solo compositions in a decade, and contains accompanying letters that underscore her personal journey and experiences as a gay woman, a cancer survivor, a sister, daughter and mother.
Following her performance Finch, who served as Royal Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales in her early 20s, will discuss the creative process and the realisation of her new work with actor, singer and writer Carys Eleri.
Creative Industry Insights: Paterson Joseph talks to Cariad Lloyd
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Spring Stage
Paterson Joseph is an actor and author. He is known for extensive theatre work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and acclaimed screen roles in Peep Show, Vigil and Wonka. Paterson will draw on his extensive experience to offer invaluable insights and advice for anyone interested in a career in performance. He talks to comedian and actress Cariad Lloyd.
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.
14+ years
Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.
With financial assistance from The Elmley Foundation
Author and illustrator Jim Smith brings friendship, fun and toilet jokes galore to this event.
Join best friends Pedro, Olga and Ozzy – otherwise known as the Poopies – on a series of fun adventure stories, inspired by his laugh-out-loud graphic novel series My Big Fat Smelly Poo Diary!
In between author/illustrating, Jim Smith is a kids’ book spellchecker, and also designs cards and gifts under the name Waldo Pancake. As well as spellchecking, Jim offers a free smellchecking service with every book – these ones stink.
7+ years
Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to this event.
An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. The theme for today is rivers, with support from The Rivers Trust. Get messy and creative in these interactive sessions delivered by artists and discover that your imagination is the only limit.
Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 1.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.
In this inspiring arts workshop, supporting neurodivergent participants, you’ll use DIY print-making processes, recycled materials and mixed media to produce a portrait of yourself, or of somebody or something that you love. All materials and equipment provided – just bring your imagination!
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 all young creatives.
All ages welcome
Ages 11 and under – parents/carers must attend but do not need a ticket
Who better to tell us about plant superstars – and how we can make them into delicious dishes – than River Cottage founder Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall? He makes heroes of ordinary vegetables, celebrating cabbage, leeks, carrots and tinned beans, among others, and showing how we can get the best out of these humble ingredients.
He’s passionate about the vital importance of fibre in helping society tackle the crisis of diet-related illness, and here he has the recipes and cooking tips to go with it. Come and feel inspired to change the way you shop, cook and eat. He talks to broadcaster and author Jules Hudson.
A candid conversation about a high-profile career played out in the glare of the public gaze. Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon talks to journalist, Francine Stock, about what she’s proud of and what she regrets. Together they look back on her life, from her working-class roots in Ayrshire to becoming the most significant figure in Scottish politics. As well as an insider’s view of some of the key political moments of the recent past, Sturgeon talks about the private battles she’s faced behind closed doors. An honest and insightful conversation.
Cristina Bendek and Shon Faye talk to Georgina Godwin
Literary Pairs: From Colombia to the UK
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Meadow Stage
Community, culture and compassion are at the heart of this discussion between Colombian writer Cristina Bendek and British author Shon Faye, in conversation with broadcaster Georgina Godwin. They convene as part of the Literary Pairs series from Hay Festival and the British Council, which brings together writers to discuss creativity, partnerships and their latest work.
In Salt Crystals, Bendek explores the histories and diasporas that bind together the island of San Andrés and its cultures, and proposes new ways of understanding the Indigenous Raizal people. Faye’s Love in Exile explores our collective ideas of love and worthiness, the boundaries of consumer capitalism, and how to love in more compassionate, healthy ways.
Part of the Literary Pairs series produced by Hay Festival and supported by the British Council
Prepare to be transported into the looming Welsh mountains with this major new literary voice. Liam Higginson, who was born and raised in rural North Wales, speaks to award-winning writer Claire Fuller about his debut novel The Hill in the Dark Grove.
Embedded in Welsh folklore, the book tells the story of Carwyn and Rhian, the last in a long family line of sheep farmers. When Carwyn stumbles across a stone circle and some sort of burial mound in one of the fields on their land, he quickly develops an obsession, while his wife, Rhian, is confronted with the growing realisation that the man with whom she shares her life and home is slowly becoming a frightening stranger.
Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish horror/romance was adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his 2004 novel. Oskar, a bullied 12-year-old, strikes up a friendship with his new neighbour, the mysterious and moody Eli. Initially reserved, a sweet romance blossoms between them. But a dark, macabre secret revealing Eli’s connection to a string of bloody local murders threatens everything.
15+ years
Directed by Tomas Alfredson (2008). Film duration: 1 hour 55 minutes. Certificate 15.
Join Bea Fitzgerald, Tiktok star and Sunday Times best-selling author of Girl, Goddess, Queen, as she talks about her latest novel A Beautiful Evil – a romantic reimagining of the myth of Pandora, the first ever woman, in which love may very well be the end of the world.
Bea, along with author, journalist and creator Jess Bacon will discuss our favourite romantasy tropes, reimagine myths for a young adult audience and connect with feminist themes in ancient tales. This event is for myth lovers and newbies alike, although vendettas against Zeus are highly encouraged.
Miriam Margolyes, Larry Lamb, Paterson Joseph, Cressida Cowell and Joanna Pickering with Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Speaking Up for Success: A Spoken Word Gala
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Global Stage
A star-studded celebration of the spoken word, with artists from across our festival programme each performing pieces personal to them. The inimitable Miriam Margolyes takes to the stage alongside Larry Lamb from Gavin and Stacey, star of Wonka and the Royal Shakespeare Company, Paterson Joseph, the children's author, Cressida Cowell, and the actress and playwright, Joanna Pickering. Your host for the gala is the author and children's laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce. He'll also introduce local school children who will perform poems they've learned off by heart especially for Hay Festival.
A rollercoaster ride through some of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed by the SAS during the Second World War. Best-selling author Damien Lewis uses verified diaries, mission reports, debriefings and letters written in the heat of danger to bring to life some of the most impressive escapes of the war. From prison camps to enemy territory, these are stories of ingenuity, courage and extraordinary resilience. He'll also discuss one of the greatest escape stories of WW2 as told in his book SAS The Great Train Raid.
A former war and conflict reporter, Lewis combines meticulous research with thriller-like pace in his books. His work has reached the screen, including The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, adapted into a 2024 film by Guy Ritchie. The perfect Hay Festival event for lovers of history at full throttle.
Samantha Shannon and Saara El-Arifi in conversation
Among the Burning Flowers: The Seduction of Fantasy Fiction
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Meadow Stage
In this exclusive and magical event, two titans of fantasy fiction dive into the rise of the genre, its huge popularity on TikTok, and the power of otherworldly narratives. Best-selling author of The Bone Season Samantha Shannon discusses her latest book – from a series inspired by the legend of George and the Dragon. She’s joined by fantasy novelist Saara El-Arifi (Faebound), whose newest book is a groundbreaking exploration of Cleopatra in her own words. Together they celebrate fantasy fiction and interrogate what fantasy reveals about us all. No dragons here, but this event will be fire.
The Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award Winner
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Spring Stage
A gripping discussion with the winner of the Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award, Jarred McGinnis. McGinnis talks about his memoir There is No Meant to Be, a family epic of love, masculinity and secrets, with British author and historian Colin Grant, who has written extensively about families in the aftermath of Empire.
In the memoir, McGinnis takes us on a journey to unearth the legends surrounding his Irish ancestors, his mother’s gift of foresight, and life as a survivor of the near-fatal accident that left him in a wheelchair. McGinnis was named one of the British Council and National Centre for Writing’s 10 best emerging writers in 2021.
Supported by the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania
Unspeakable: Stories of Survival and Transformation After Trauma
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Exchange Marquee
A moving and nuanced look at what it is to struggle in the wake of distressing and painful life events, with forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead. Calling on her expertise and long career working in the NHS, including in prisons and secure hospitals, Adshead brings to life the work of therapy, and shares stories of patients who have stepped out of the darkness of shame and fear to discover new possibilities. You’ll leave thinking in new ways about trauma, with myths about its toxicity and permanence burst.
Adshead, author of Unspeakable (co-authored with Eileen Horne), has worked as a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist in the NHS for three decades. She speaks to neuropsychology professor Catherine Loveday.
Barrel of Laughs: Life and Times of the Welsh Legend
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Global Stage
A race through Greg’s 58 years in 58 minutes. It started when he was born in St Asaph’s in Denbighshire, a good hour and 15 minutes from his home over the border in Shropshire, simply because his dad wanted him to be eligible to play rugby for Wales.
His life has been pretty absurd ever since. In conversation with Hay Festival Chair Jay Hunt, he explores his journey from secondary school teacher to one of our best-loved TV comedians.
Charlotte Cross and Mairi Kidd talk to India Ysabel
Gothic Greats: Retelling Horror Classics
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Spring Stage
Grab your garlic and prepare your pitchfork for this encounter with modern-day Gothic authors Charlotte Cross and Mairi Kidd. They discuss retelling horror classics to place women at the centre, taking the iconic stories of Dracula and Frankenstein and reimagining them from a feminist perspective.
Cross’s The Brides brings to life the three women who became the brides of Dracula – and the fourth who managed to escape. Kidd’s Poor Creatures follows a young Mary Godwin – who would go on to become Mary Shelley – as a troubled girl with a mysterious ailment.
See a different side to actor Larry Lamb as he shares anecdotes and his own personal poetry. Making you laugh and cry in equal measure, Lamb will cover the highs and lows, joys and sorrows of his career, taking us from 1983 right up to his life as it is now.
Lamb takes a journey through the years with his very personal poems, reflecting on his life at different stages from the womb to the tomb. The British actor and presenter’s career has spanned several decades, including his best-known roles in EastEnders and Gavin & Stacey. He talks to antiques expert and television presenter Kate Bliss.
Emma-Louise Howell, Flo Cornall and Vignesh Venkataramaiah
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Creative Hub
The Platform is a space for young, emerging artists to share their work with Hay Festival audiences. Spanning a diverse range of art forms it aims to help promote and develop outstanding young creative artists aged between 21 and 28 who are at the start of their careers. Artists will be sharing their work with audiences across the Festival site (Beth Lewis, Hannah Hoebeke and Scott Wearing) on 29 May and there will be three artists performing in the Creative Hub at 7pm, they are:
Emma-Louise Howell - You Told Us To Talk About the Weather
In the past 6 hours, 90% of Brits have spoken about the weather.
In the past 5 years, 7000 Brits have been arrested for speaking out about the climate crisis. Emma is here to explore this paradox. Through poems, satire and interviews with climate activists across the UK, You Told Us To Talk About the Weather unpacks our national obsession with small talk and asks how we can transform these conversations into a tool for meaningful change.
Emma is an award-winning writer from East Anglia. Spanning Theatre, Screen and Poetry, she won the Michael Ross Award from RADA for the academy’s Best New Writer and has since been shortlisted for The Stage Innovation Award, Off-West End Playwrights Award, Women in Theatre Lab and International Playwriting Prize. Described as a ‘rattling, rollicking writer’ (The Scotsman) and ‘one of our undoubted stars of the future’ (Broadway Baby), her work has been performed internationally on platforms such as BBC Introducing, Soho Theatre, Pleasance Atmos Magazine and Zebra Festival and is currently in development for screen and stage.
Flo Cornall - Mabuhay Means Welcome
“Flooding each other’s stomachs, to eat before a spoonful of speech / that is how we speak across the dining room table. / Try to savour that taste / what a filling conversation it is.”
Mabuhay Means Welcome is a live poetry performance that attempts to untangle the knotty reality of hyphenated identity. It’s a love letter to the Philippines from a formerly culturally disconnected member of the diaspora. Blending nostalgic photography and storytelling, Flo Cornall guides audiences into the vibrant bustling streets of the Philippines to explore the ripples of colonialism, good food and family.
Flo Cornall is a writer, journalist and poet from Derbyshire. Her British Filipino background has nurtured her interest in writing about diaspora and identity; her work often explores the idea of home, and what that can look or feel like. She was a Roundhouse Poetry Slam Finalist in 2025, an Associate Poet at Derby Poetry Festival 2024, and has performed across the UK. Her work as a BBC New Creative saw the release of ‘CAKE’ a short film based on a poem she wrote at 18. She’s currently writing her first novel, a satire on tabloid culture.
Vignesh Venkataramaiah - In Between Tongues
In Between Tongues is a solo spoken word performance exploring belonging, identity, and the search for home through a neurodivergent, multicultural British lens. Blending personal storytelling with rhythmic wordplay, the set moves between heritage and environment, frankness and vulnerability, capturing the complexity of living between cultures.
Drawing on past work including Bangalore to Britain, It’s Just A Flag and Recipe for a Perfect Dad - it weaves chant, fragmentation, and performance into an immersive experience. Honest and emotionally resonant, In Between Tongues invites audiences to reflect on identity, challenge assumptions, and reconsider what it truly means to feel at home
Vig aka Vig’s Poetry a Birmingham-based multidisciplinary freelancer, slam-winning spoken word poet, script/screenwriter, host, facilitator and producer. He has featured at major festivals, art exhibitions and on the BBC. He is regional Producer of Poets Palace Brum, part of the Birmingham Poetry Network, Good Company Brum and BBC Asian Network Represents. He’s on Punch Records’ and Young Minds Youth Advisory Boards, and a finalist for the IYA Arts and Culture Award and a supporting act for Solfull Poetry in New York.
Free but ticketed
Supported by The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and The Garrick Charitable Trust
Join us for a surprise screening of an acclaimed book-to-screen adaptation, hand-picked by MUBI’s team of curators. Encounter a celebrated work of literature through its cinematic transformation – without prior knowledge, expectation or title. What unfolds is a rare opportunity to experience adaptation as discovery, where language gives way to image and narrative is met afresh. Come curious. Leave surprised.
It’s Not a Cult & The Amazing Devil: Book Talk and Live Music
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St Mary’s Church
Join musician, actor and author Joey Batey for an evening of music and eerie folklore, diving into his new novel It’s Not a Cult before taking to the stage with his band The Amazing Devil for a special acoustic performance – their first live show in ten years.
In conversation with fellow musician, actor and artist Madeleine Hyland and framed by the Gothic arches of St Mary’s Church, Joey takes us into the darkly comic Northumbrian folk‑horror tale. We follow the story of a hopeless band who find their gigs taking on a terrifying new significance when they start to sing about Northern gods of mishap and mayhem.
After a brief interval, The Amazing Devil will sweep us into an exclusive set, bringing their lyrical alt‑folk sound and emotionally charged storytelling to the stage. Atmospheric and otherworldly, spend your Friday night with the creative forces of Joey Batey and Madeleine Hyland.
The signing for this event will take place in the Bookshop on site at 12.30pm
Lyse Doucet, Maryam Alemzadeh, Jon Lee Anderson in conversation with David Shariatmadari
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Discovery Stage
Bringing together complementary perspectives on Iran and the wider Middle East is Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent whose decades of frontline reporting across Iran, Afghanistan and the region bring both rare human insight and global authority. She is joined by Maryam Alemzadeh, Professor in the History and Politics of Iran, whose insight into the country’s internal political dynamics and state–society relations is unparalleled, and Jon Lee Anderson, one of the world’s foremost frontline chroniclers of conflict and power. Chaired by The Guardian journalist David Shariatmadari, this discussion takes the audience behind the headlines to understand what is really at stake.
Experience a powerful 20-minute one-woman play in the open air. Don’t Harm the Animals tells the story of a woman isolated at the top of a mountain, and deals with issues of PTSD in the aftermath of sexual assault. It shines a light on the lack of understanding given to victims and addresses the impact of secondary revictimisation. The play premiered at the Chain Theatre, New York, and has been described as “Scorching writing” and “A powerhouse of a performance”.
Joanna Pickering is a multi-award-winning British actress and playwright whose work focuses on strong female narrative and advocacy for women’s rights. Her play Lara’s Journey recently live-streamed from New York City to over one million viewers to raise awareness for Ukrainian refugees. Pickering recently secured a three-play deal for 2026, to be produced by a Broadway award-winning team. These initmate shows at Hay Festival will be directed by the award-winning Welsh writer and director, Philip John.
The play contains no graphic or explicit language but discusses themes on sexual assault which some audience members may find triggering.
The celebrated poet talks about and performs from her new collection exploring dyke counterculture and the queer underground. Through a cast of characters who meet in the Maryville butch bar over the course of many decades, Joelle Taylor examines queer class politics, the pain of oppression and the beauty and intimacy of community
This is a chance to see one of our best contemporary poets talking about and performing her work. Taylor is author of four collections of poetry and one novel. She won the TS Eliot Prize and the Polar Book Prize for her collection C+NTO & Othered Poems.
