Hay Festival 2026

The Five is a YA novel with a difference. It follows a year in the interconnected lives of five very diverse teenagers who forge a singular bond at their secondary school in north-west Wales. As they navigate the joys and tribulations of what makes them different as individuals, their newfound community is both tested and strengthened.

The Welsh language edition, Y Pump, has won multiple awards. English language editor Elgan Rhys and translator Mared Roberts discuss the book’s innovative authorship process, which paired established authors with emerging young writers who brought lived experience to the characters, creating a distinctive and relatable depiction of young adult life in Wales today.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. 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.

Enjoy this 20-minute open-air performance between events. Got 2 Sing Choir perform uplifting songs from top of the charts to golden oldies, with plenty of fun and laughter.

The former Foreign Secretary and one-time Labour leadership contender shares his assessment of what’s going on in the world and what the future might hold at home and abroad. David Miliband was at the heart of New Labour and served in both the Blair and Brown governments. Since 2013, he’s been based in Washington as head of the International Rescue Committee, which works with people whose lives have been shattered by conflict or disaster.

He talks to journalist Martha Kearney in this compelling conversation from a key global player with intimate knowledge of Westminster politics and the international stage.

Writer Siri Hustvedt discusses her most personal work yet, an intimate meditation on love and grief about the 40 years she spent with her husband, the late writer Paul Auster. Speaking to broadcaster Razia Iqbal, Hustvedt discusses Ghost Stories, which weaves together journal entries she wrote between Auster’s lung cancer diagnosis and his funeral, emails they exchanged during his cancer treatment, and three love letters she wrote when Auster briefly left her to return to his first wife and son.

The book also contains Auster’s last ever piece of writing: the first 35 pages of what he hoped would be a small book of letters to his and Hustvedt’s grandson, born just months before his death.

Best-selling author and former White House staffer Cass Sunstein presents an urgent and timely defence of liberalism – what it is, why it is under threat and why we need it more than ever. Besieged from both the right – who hold it responsible for the collapse of traditional values – and the left – who think it lacks the will to tackle entrenched issues of inequality and corporate power – liberalism is facing a crisis moment.

Moving the conversation well beyond reductive political sound bites, the former advisor to Presidents Obama and Biden puts liberalism into context, and argues that we need it more than ever, as the foundation of freedom and self-government.

Sunstein is a professor at Harvard University, and former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has been awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the US Department of Homeland Security’s highest civilian honour.

Book your seat at the Honey & Co. demo for a flavour of delicious Middle Eastern food that’s as quick and easy to prepare as it is to eat. After a taster on arrival, settle down to see Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer showcase their laid-back approach to cooking, with dishes that celebrate the everyday.

This is the same ethos they’ve folded into the pages of new cookbook Honey & Co. Daily, which draws on the menu they serve at their always-bustling Store Street café in London. Recipes include everyday eggs, ideas for ‘in or on bread’, nourishing salads, ‘daily nightly’ dinner ideas, and speedy cocktails and desserts. Seasonal, wholesome, relaxed recipes designed to be the reference point for daily joy.

A screening of Whit Stillman’s elegant adaptation of Jane Austen’s lesser-known novella. American sophisticate Stillman followed his comeback Damsels in Distress with a film at once unexpected and oh-so-fitting. With this delicious adaptation of Austen, he proves as adroit at chronicling the wry social scheming of the Regency as he did young Manhattanites and disco revellers.

In Love & Friendship, young widow Susan Vernon visits her in-laws’ estate while waiting for social chatter about her personal indiscretions to pass. While there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and her reluctant daughter. Enlisting the help of an old friend, she attracts the attention of many interesting men.

Bolivian writer Liliana Colanzi discusses the ideas of collapse, language, kinship and memory that show up in her works, with literary journalist and translator Ángel Gurría-Quintana.

Colanzi’s short stories (You Glow in the Dark, Our Dead World) build eerie dystopian landscapes out of the decimated ruins of post-nuclear Latin America, in a style that feels both very real and completely otherworldly.

The BBC’s Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent delves into the world of conspiracy theories and their impact on society.

Danny Robins is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and journalist. He created hit BBC podcasts The Battersea Poltergeist, Uncanny and The Witch Farm, as well as the Olivier Award-nominated West End play 2:22 – A Ghost Story​. He has written various shows for TV and radio, including the BAFTA-nominated series Young Dracula for BBC1​ and the TV series of Uncanny ​for BBC2.

Danny will draw on his extensive experience to offer invaluable insights and advice for anyone interested in writing for radio, TV and stage – and about the paranormal. He talks to historian Janina Ramirez.

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.

Enjoy this 20-minute open-air performance between events. Minims Musical Theatre Choir performs a set full of musical theatre bangers!

The choir was founded in 2024 by opera singer Stephanie Smith, and won a gold award at the Hereford Performing Arts Festival in their first year. They have recently won gold at the Worcester Competitive Arts Festival.

Dawn French has been making us all laugh for decades. But her new novel is an emotional tearjerker – telling the story of a 68-year-old woman who unexpectedly gathers her family around her to tell them this will be her last day alive. French talks about the idea behind the book – the ultimate cure for old age – and how she writes serious subjects without sacrificing any of the comedy. All her previous books have been best-sellers, and as a comedian and actor, she’s appeared in some of the UK’s most celebrated shows, from French and Saunders and The Vicar of Dibley to her recent comedy-drama Can You Keep a Secret? She talks to parish priest turned author Richard Coles.

Join world-renowned public health expert, Devi Sridhar, for a fascinating, myth-busting conversation about what really determines how long – and how well – we live. Forget the simple eat better, move more, sleep well mantra; Sridhar argues that good health depends as much on public policy as personal choice. In conversation with best-selling science writer Professor Dan Davis, she explores how things like clean water, safe transport, and strong community health systems can transform lives. Drawing on powerful real-world examples, this lively and insightful discussion reveals how smarter policies can help us all live longer, healthier lives. Thought-provoking, hopeful and urgently relevant.

Prepare to be shocked by this alarming exposé of the plastics industry and its impact on us all. Plastic is present in every part of our daily lives, despite many of us trying to cut back on the amount we use. In this hugely thought-provoking conversation, award-winning journalist Beth Gardiner reveals why the industry is planning to increase production in years to come, despite the public’s overwhelming desire for less plastic in our lives. She talks to the Observer’s climate editor Jeevan Vasagar.

Gardiner has written for the New York Times, the Guardian and the National Geographic. She is author of Choked, a close look at air pollution. Her latest work exposing the plastics industry in Plastic Inc. is similarly disturbing and likely to provoke many to demand change.

Join Grace Murray, graduate of Penguin Random House’s fiercely competitive WriteNow mentorship programme for emerging talent, as she discusses her debut novel Blank Canvas with Scots poet Len Pennie, author of poyums annaw.

In Blank Canvas, a young woman at university learns that lying about her life back home can bring her attention, affection and even love. But the truth is always threatening to come out… Murray discusses themes of Catholic guilt and queer identity, clashing moral codes and lies, and how moving between countries and settings presents opportunities for reinvention.

Come for a little taste of Claire Thomson’s cooking, and see the chef demonstrate some delicious and nutritious recipes from her award-winning cookbook Tomato and its sister volume, Mushroom.

Known to her 250,000 Instagram followers and podcast fans as ‘The 5 O’Clock Apron’, Thomson is a constant source of family cooking inspiration. Here she discusses her journey from chef to mother to food presenter, her ‘greedy love of food writing’, and the many wonderful things you can do with mushrooms and tomatoes. Claire talks to author and cook Kathy Slack.

Sign up here for a masterclass in the art of burgers, BBQ and backyard culture with Anthony Murphy, Burger Chef of the Year 2023 and co-founder of the ultimate meat boutique, The Beefy Boys. While ‘Murf’ shares his barbecue skill and inducts you into the knack of the grill, you’ll devour a two-course tasting menu starting with an exclusive version of The Beefy Boys’ famous BBQ sharing platter.

This meaty medley will include the chef’s beef cheek, burnt ends, 12-hour smoked pork belly, 12-hour smoked brisket, hot link sausage and a slider version of the Butty Bach Burger, topped up with portions of BBQ beans, mac & cheese and creamy coleslaw. To round off the feast, sample a decadent, homemade brownie. A must for all griddled food fans and cookout converts!

How does fiction rewire the brain? Claudia Hammond explores the range of imaginative experiences that fiction readers have, how novels can deepen our capacity for empathy and the therapeutic effect of reading on our minds.

She is joined by leading experts in psychology and the literary world: award-winning novelist, essayist and travel writer Joanna Kavenna; Dr Paula Byrne, Jane Austen biographer, writer and founder of ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation and Ben Alderson-Day, Professor in Psychology at Durham University and lead researcher on ReaderBank, an ambitious ongoing research project studying reading, imagination and wellbeing.