Hay Festival 2019 Programme

Helly talks about her one-woman battle to revolutionise the delivery of sex education in primary and secondary schools in the UK. Armed with Mike the Sperm, Helly will bring sex education into the 21st century.

The Funny Fingers are an unusual family but they love to have fun. Join them for storytelling, giggles, adventure and the chance to make your own Funny Finger!
Duration 45 minutes
4+ years

Mungo, a cheeky monkey, and Claude, a rather stylish dog, are brought to life alongside a host of colourful characters in this live drawing session with two of our favourite illustrators. Paper and pencils provided so everyone can join in.
5+ years

Come and discover the secret world that lives in your garden with the RSPB. Grab a net and see what amazing creatures are hiding in the leaves and lurking underwater. Make a Bee and Bug B&B to take home and give nature a home in your garden.

4–12 years

The journalist and historian examines the ways in which women’s lives changed during WWI and what the impact has been for women in the hundred years since. Chaired by Jesse Norman.

A Life in Biology

In 2001 Sir Tim Hunt FRS was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H Hartwell for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division of cells. He talks with Roger Highfield about his Nobel Prize-winning work and his life in biology.

The media reporting of the Ethiopian Famine in 1984–5 was an iconic news event. It is widely believed to have had an unprecedented impact, challenging perceptions of Africa and mobilising public opinion and philanthropic action in a dramatic new way. The Professor of Journalism scrutinises and challenges the facts and the impacts, in discussion with the Head of Oxfam. Chaired by Nik Gowing.

Artist Harriet Burden, consumed by fury at the lack of recognition she has received from the New York art establishment, embarks on an experiment: she hides her identity behind three male fronts, who exhibit her work as their own. And yet, even after she has unmasked herself, there are those who refuse to believe she is the woman behind the men. The author of What I Loved introduces her new novel – an intricately conceived, diabolical puzzle that explores the way prejudice, fame, money and desire influence our perceptions of one another.

The mesmerising true story of two ruthless adversaries and the wartime killing by a British policeman of Avraham Stern, leader of The Stern Gang – an event that shook the modern world.

Come to an interactive drawing workshop with the one and only Barroux, fresh from Paris! Explore Paris with his taxi driver character Mr Leon, watch him draw live, and learn how you can draw like Barroux.
8+ years

Irving Finkel is an expert in the history of board games and an Assistant Keeper at the British Museum where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions. He will share the amazing story of the 12th-century Lewis Chessmen, from their discovery on a Scottish beach long ago to the present day.
Duration 45 minutes
9+ years

Meet Cedric Thatchbottom, knight in training, serving Sir Percival the Proud – a knight famed throughout the land for his glorious deeds. But life at Castle Bombast isn’t quite what Cedric was expecting.
Duration 45 minutes
7+ years

Occasional series bringing fresh insight into lives through literature, in which guest presenters pick readings from their favourite pieces of poetry and prose. Broadcast Monday at 4pm.

Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult over 18.

FREE BUT TICKETED

A central bond, a cherished value, a unique relationship, a profound human need, a type of love. What is the nature of friendship, and what is its significance in our lives? How has friendship changed since the ancient Greeks began to analyse it, and how has modern technology altered its very definition?

At QI’s very core is ‘the astonishing fact’: painstakingly researched and distilled to a brilliant and shocking clarity. Pigs suffer from anorexia. Wagner always wore pink silk underwear. Rugby School’s first official rugby kit in 1871 included a bow tie. Lord Kitchener had four spaniels called Shot, Bang, Miss and Damn. It is impossible to whistle in a spacesuit. Join in the fun with the QI writing team.

Women Today, Women Tomorrow
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, a college for women, recently surveyed its alumnae over its 60-year existence. The 1,000 respondents were women from all backgrounds but with a common University experience. The women described the biggest challenge in their careers, whether they were in their twenties or fifties, to be an unsupportive work environment. The college President and several alumnae will explore what women are experiencing, and most of all what changes are needed and what young women need to face the challenges in the workplace. She is joined by Telegraph fashion journalist Ellie Pithers (matriculated 2008), singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma (1994) and the author and comms expert Frances Edmonds (1970).

Mengestu’s All Our Names switches back and forth between Uganda and America: it is a taut, searing novel that blazes with insights about the physical and emotional geographies that circumscribe our lives. It is also a transfixing portrait of love and grace, of self-determination, of the names we are given and the names we earn. Sharma’s Family Life is a vivid and wrenching portrait of sibling relationships and the impact of tragedy on one family displaced from Delhi to America. They talk to Gaby Wood.

What happens when you find yourself being taken seriously as an entrepreneur and how does our culture perceive entrepreneurialism?