Hay Festival 2014

What are rubber ducks made of? How do we turn trees into paper? And what is the link between gorillas and mobile phones? Join us for a mind-boggling workshop as you find out How we make stuff by exploring the different themes of Christiane Dorion's book. The Royal Society award-winning author who works with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation will take you on an exciting exploration of how everyday materials are used and re-used. Have fun exploring!

Christiane is an expert on sustainability and young education. She was responsible for environmental education guidelines for the National Curriculum, and her amazing pop-up books have seen her shortlisted for numerous books awards, including the Blue Peter book award, as well as winning the Royal Society Young People’s Book Award in 2011.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, pioneering the circular economy concept globally, has worked on the book How we make stuff with Christiane to explore further how we can learn from living systems and rethink the way we design, make and use our stuff. The book aims to encourage children and teachers to explore the concept of a circular economy and to provide fun activities to stimulate debate.

More info

www.christianedorion.com

www.made2bmadeagain.org

6–10 years

The story of the most important woman in Chinese history. Under the Empress’s rule, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation, and embarked on the path to introducing parliamentary elections to China.

Economics, A User’s Guide

What is economics? How does the global economy work? Many economic theories, from classical to Keynesian, have their strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. By ignoring received wisdom and exposing the myriad forces that shape our financial fate, Chang provides the tools that every responsible citizen needs to understand – and address – our current economic woes.

The writer joins two container ships, travelling in the company of their crews and captains. Together they experience unforgettable journeys: the first, from East to West (Felixstowe to Los Angeles, via Suez) is rich with Mediterranean history, torn with typhoon nights and gilded with an unearthly Pacific peace; the second northerly passage, from Antwerp to Montreal, reeks of diesel, wuthers with gales and goes to frozen regions of the North Atlantic, in deep winter, where the sea itself seems haunted.

In 1993–4 abandoned watchtowers dotted the coast line. The huge fields of the Lenin collective farm were lying fallow, waiting for claims from former owners, fleeing war and Soviet and Nazi occupation. The anthropologist reflects on history, political repression, and the story of the minority Swedes in the area.

A conversation with the two greatest contemporary Spanish-language novelists of their respective generations. Cercas’ The Outlaws is a powerful novel of love and hate, of loyalty and betrayal, that explores true integrity and the prison that celebrity can become. Alternately narrated by a mother, father and son, Neuman’s Talking To Ourselves is a story about how we are transformed by loss, and how words and sex can serve as powerful modes of resistance. They talk to Daniel Hahn.

The economics journalist offers a wake-up call, and an illuminating defence of a system under severe global threat, a system that in Churchill’s words ‘is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others that have been tried’. Chaired by Oliver Balch.

Mike Mackenzie is a former RN Officer (Submarine Service) and has helped to set up three businesses.

FREE BUT TICKETED

Hay Festival illustrator, wordsmith and eternal optimist, Rachel Bright will share Love Monster stories, drawing and some crafty fun.
5+ years

Radio 3’s cabaret of the word features the best poetry, new writing and performances, and is presented by Ian McMillan. For The Verb at Hay Ian will be talking to the novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard ( who’s been described as ‘The Norwegian Proust’) about his writing process, to children’s author Philip Ardagh about the language and literature of ‘beards’, and there’ll be live music from Emmy the Great. The Welsh-Gujarti writer, poet and dancer Tishani Doshi will be reading from her reworking of the Welsh epic The Mabinogion. Broadcast Fridays, 10pm–10.45pm.

The author of What Matters in Jane Austen celebrates the bicentenary of the publication of Austen’s most politically engaged masterpiece.

In this second volume of memoirs the author of An Education takes us from her early years as a journalist at Penthouse – where she started out interviewing foot fetishists, voyeurs, dominatrices and men who liked wearing nappies – to her later, more eminent role, interrogating a huge cross-section of celebrities ranging from politicians to film stars, comedians, writers, artists and musicians.

An interview with the iconic designer and manufacturer whose cheerfully distinctive kitchen pottery ­– manufactured and traditionally hand-decorated in the Staffordshire Potteries, just as it would have been 200 years ago – has found its way onto the dresser shelves and kitchen tables of homes all over Britain and beyond.

The great Dutch novelist and journalist has been reporting from Berlin since 1963. We celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of The Wall with his eyewitness account of the pivotal events of 1989 and a perceptive appreciation of its difficult passage to reunification. Chaired by Rosie Goldsmith.

Editors and contributors to this anthology of contemporary Syrian writing lead a discussion about the explosion of free expression among the Syrian people and the power of art and cultural engagement as resistance during times of conflict.

We want children, young people and the organisations connected with them to build a sustainable community together and find solutions to how we can live in a future that is becoming more and more uncertain and unpredictable ecologically, economically and socially. 

FREE BUT TICKETED

Animals have adapted to life all over the planet, from the freezing poles to the hottest deserts. Christiane Dorion explores the extraordinary diversity in animal life, and encourages us to reflect on how a tiny change can have a huge impact on a whole habitat and beyond.

7+ years

Meet Ava and her mischievous invisible cat, Squishy McFluff. During this interactive event children will help create the ultimate imaginary pet and hear some of Ava and Squishy’s adventures.
5+ years