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Richard Armitage talks to Alex Clark

The Cut

Hay Festival 2026, 

Enjoy an afternoon with award-winning stage, screen and voice actor Richard Armitage, best known for his roles in North & South, The Hobbit trilogy and Oceans 8. Armitage turned author with his first novel Geneva in 2023, and now comes to introduce his second – psychological thriller The Cut.

The book is set in a village where, 30 years previously, one of Ben Knott’s school friends was murdered and another was convicted of the crime. The village has tried to move on, but as a movie is filmed in the area, Ben begins to recognise the storyline from his own past, and it becomes clear the killer is back.

Armitage discusses writing the book with literary journalist Alex Clark, revealing which film experiences he used as inspiration, and shares the difference between writing and acting.