Hay Festival 2015

What’s your favourite long word? Peter the Cat, a favourite character from Zeb Soanes’ Gaspard the Fox picture book series, always has the right one for any particular situation. Bring your thinking cap to join the author and Classic FM broadcaster as he introduces his feline friend and explains some of Peter’s favourite ‘big words’.

Please bring your own notebook and pen or pencil to this event.

Rotoscope and remix! Leave your mark – help reanimate, reimagine and remix short films with visual artists MASH Cinema. During the workshop you’ll experiment with techniques pioneered by animator Max Fleischer to produce new moving image artwork in this fun, hands-on collaborative creative project. Completed animations will be available to view online.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the 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.

The front-bench Labour MP grew up on a council estate in Stepney, East London, the son of teenage parents. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner. He brings to life the struggle and heartache of his parents’ and grandparents’ lives in poverty; the choices they had to make between feeding the meter and feeding the family. He is also passionate about the life-changing power of education. Encouraged by a series of inspirational teachers, he won a place at Cambridge, and later became head of education at Stonewall. He talks to BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed about his journey to become an elected MP in 2015 and now Shadow Health Secretary.

Propaganda, fake news and the fight for the narrative define contemporary and past wars and society. How do we identify and combat propaganda, and how should we move forward from it? Our panel discuss how to deal with biased and misleading communication with Oliver Bullough, author of Butler to the World.

Peter Pomerantsev is author of How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist who Outwitted Hitler. A Soviet-born British journalist and TV producer, he is Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics’ Institute of Global Affairs. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Maria Ressa is author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future. Co-founder and CEO of the Filippino online news site Rappler, she is a Fellow at Columbia’s new Institute of Global Politics.

The Indiana Jones of the botanical world recounts his quest to find and save Rafflesia, the world’s largest flowers, from extinction. Talking to writer, photographer and broadcaster Robert Penn, botanist Chris Thorogood offers a fantastic glimpse into the world of extreme fieldwork, with local guides and foresters, braving leeches, kidnap, monitor lizards and lethal forest swamps.

Finding Rafflesia completes Thorogood’s childhood obsession with these plants. From the age of eight he was growing vines up his curtain pole. Today that boy is a world specialist on parasitic plants, Deputy Director of Science at the Oxford Botanic Gardens and a regular panellist on Gardeners’ Question Time.

The American and British novelists discuss their latest work. Téa Obreht won the Orange Prize in 2011 for The Tiger’s Wife. Her new novel The Morningside follows Silvia and her mother, expelled from their ancestral home, to a crumbling luxury tower in a dystopian future. Silvia knows nothing about why she and her mother came to be here, but an aunt offers glimpses of her demolished homeland. Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment is a story of love and astronomy told over the course of 20 years through the lives of two improbable best friends, torn between their commitment to religion and their desire for more. They develop an obsession with the 19th-century female astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor. Could astronomy offer as much wonder as divine or earthly love? Perry’s previous novels include The Essex Serpent, which was adapted into an Apple TV series starring Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes. Obreht and Perry talk to publisher and writer John Mitchinson.

Well known to Hay Music audiences and acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances. In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in recognition of outstanding achievement. In the fine setting of St Mary’s Church, Hammond plays a programme comprising: Clara Schumann: Three Romances Op. 21; Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight’; Samy Moussa: Al’assaut des jardins; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata in D major, K. 311 and Cécile Chaminade: ‘Impromptu’ Étude de Concert, Op. 35 No. 5 and Étude Romantique, Op. 132.

Opening Lines is the weekly programme in which producer and writer John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the books and stories adapted for Radio 4's weekend dramas. In this special event for Hay, he explores the work of two of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century: George Orwell, whose Nineteen Eighty-Four was published 75 years ago and Franz Kafka, who died 100 years ago. Why do their dark ideas about the individual and society – the Orwellian and the Kafkaesque - still resonate so powerfully with us today?
Joining John Yorke on stage to discuss these essential writers are award-winning playwright Ed Harris, who has adapted Kafka’s The Trial and The Man Who Disappeared in new dramatisations for Radio 4 broadcasting in June, as well as a brand new play about Kafka called Franz and Felice. And Robin Brooks, one of the most experienced radio dramatists in the business, who has recently abridged a special reading of Nineteen Eighty-Four for Radio 4 and who was responsible for a day-long version of James Joyce’s Ulysses, as well as versions of classics like Boccaccio’s Decameron, Robert Graves’ I Claudius, the novels of Raymond Chandler, and many others.

Are you a fan of Norse myths? Have you ever wondered what Loki, the mischievous shape-shifter and cunning trickster god would be like if they were banished to Earth in the form of an 11-year-old? Well, look no further – this is the event for you! Join author and Norse myth super fan Louie Stowell to hear all about her bestselling series Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to… Discover how to draw Loki and even create your own Norse gods in this interactive event packed full of humour and cool facts.

Please bring your own sketchbook and pencils to draw along in this event.

Rotoscope and remix! Leave your mark – help reanimate, reimagine and remix short films with visual artists MASH Cinema. During the workshop you’ll experiment with techniques pioneered by animator Max Fleischer to produce new moving image artwork in this fun, hands-on collaborative creative project. Completed animations will be available to view online.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and the UK’s first and only Green Party MP, delves into our literary heritage to explore what it can teach us about the most pressing issues of our time, from the toxic legacy of Empire to the struggle for constitutional reform and the accelerating climate emergency. Today the dominant story of English nationhood is told by cheerleaders for Brexit, exceptionalism and imperial nostalgia. Focusing on stories of the English people’s radical inclusivity, their deep-rooted commitment to the natural world, their long struggle to win rights for all, Lucas sketches out an alternative Englishness: one that we can all embrace to build a greener, fairer future. In conversation with Brenda Hale, judge and former President of the Supreme Court.

Join the novelist for a discussion of writing and their latest book. Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz takes place in 1922, in an America that never was, when two detectives find a body on a roof. A delicate peace holds in the city of Cahokia, but that body is about to spark off a week that will spill the city’s secrets and bring it either to destruction or rebirth. Spufford talks to writer Tiffany Murray.

Watch the professional at work in this cooking demonstration and tasting session as chef and farmer Julius Roberts shares simple, seasonal recipes and tales from his Dorset smallholding. After a year at London’s Noble Rot, he longed for a simpler life and to grow his own food. Four piglets were soon joined by chickens, goats, sheep and an extensive vegetable patch. Three years later, his debut cookbook The Farm Table contains 100 recipes using affordable, seasonal ingredients. Each chapter has a mix of smaller plates, veggie dishes, fish and meat, with a few easy puddings to finish.

Award-winning scientist and BBC broadcaster Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock returns to Hay Festival with more of her fabulous facts, mind-blowing insights and engaging explanations. Dr Maggie’s new book Am I Made of Stardust? addresses such questions as whether there are rainbows on other planets, and what dinner tastes like on the International Space Station…

Take a fresh look at chivalry with activist and bestselling feminist writer Laura Bates. She introduces her new YA fantasy Sisters of Sword and Shadow, a reimagining of the tales of the Arthurian Round Table through a feminist lens. Discover the Sisterhood of Silk Knights who live in a world of ancient feuds and glorious battles and who are determined to protect their community and right the wrongs of men. Laura shares her original inspiration, her action-packed research at Knight school and why she hopes this novel will energise and bring joy to feminists young and old.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the 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.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available

Rotoscope and remix! Leave your mark – help reanimate, reimagine and remix short films with visual artists MASH Cinema. During the workshop you’ll experiment with techniques pioneered by animator Max Fleischer to produce new moving image artwork in this fun, hands-on collaborative creative project. Completed animations will be available to view online.

Facing a minor mid-life crisis, Anna packs in her high-powered life in New York – complete with beautiful apartment, well-meaning partner, and excellent job – to head back to Ireland for a PR job at a super-high-end coastal resort. Even though the locals hate the resort, there’s no wrinkle Anna can’t smooth over… apart from her own mistakes, which have followed her from New York. Much-loved author and literary phenomenon Marian Keyes introduces Anna, the star of her newest book My Favourite Mistake, discusses her writing career and perhaps even shares a few of her own favourite mistakes.

The two writers discuss the history and future of food. Taras Grescoe argues that the key to sustainable eating lies in looking back to the foods, many almost extinct, that have sustained us throughout existence. His The Lost Supper reveals the flavours captivating gastronomes today: ancient sourdough bread last baked by Egyptian pharaohs; raw-milk farmhouse cheese from endangered British cattle; ham from Spanish pata negra pigs foraging on acorns. To save these foods, we have to eat them, or face famine and ecological collapse. Pen Vogler tells the stories of foods at the centre of social upheaval: the medieval inns boosted by the plague; the Enclosures that finished off the roast goose; the post-war supermarkets luring customers with strawberries. Her book Stuffed draws on cookbooks, literature and social records, to tell a tale of feast and famine. In times of plenty, we stuff ourselves. When the food runs out, we’re stuffed too. In conversation with writer, photographer and broadcaster Robert Penn.

Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad (The Bookseller of Kabul, Angel of Grozny) introduces us to three people whose lives have been shaped by the fall and rise of the Taliban – Jamila, Bashir and Ariana – as well their families, friends, foes and co-fighters. Jamila is a prominent women’s rights activist; Bashi is a Taliban commander; Ariana is a law student who had one semester left when the Taliban came to power.

Drawing on her thought-provoking new book The Afghans: Three Lives Through War, Love and Revolt, Seierstad shows us their stories – encompassing love, loss, revolution and war as well as the everyday rhythms of family life. Experience the lead up to the Taliban retaking power in 2021, how the first year of their rule unfolded, and where this leaves Afghans today and tomorrow. Seierstad talks to writer and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor.

An exciting new voice in fiction presents his latest book. McKenzie’s debut An Olive Grove in Ends was Guardian Novel of the Year 2022. Fast by the Horns is set in Bristol, 1980, in the tight-knit neighbourhood of St Pauls. Fourteen-year-old Jabari is proud of his position as the only son of revered Community leader Ras Levi. Raised in a world of sus laws and council neglect, Jabari finds hope in his Rastafari faith, with the comforting vision that one day believers will at last be free from oppression and prejudice. But a local firebrand activist has been arrested, and violence soon overflows, pulling father and son into its maelstrom. A chance encounter with a young Black child gives Jabari an opportunity for justice – or is it revenge? McKenzie talks to writer and TikTok creator Ben Mercer.

The online world can be a breeding ground for hate. But why do some people behave the way they do on social media? In this event, the BBC's first ever Disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring discusses what she's learned about finding understanding and forgiveness in the middle of these conflicts and casts ahead to the US edition of her Why Do You Hate Me podcast.

Who should I love? Can I love more than one person? Is jealousy good or bad? Will I ever love again? From singlehood to happily ever after, internationally renowned comic artist Alex Norris explores nuanced ideas on love in their fresh signature style in How to Love: A Guide to Feelings & Relationships for Everyone. Alex answers these questions, shares how they create their hit comics and reveals why a bright, silly and wonderful book all about love is just the thing you’re looking for.

Please bring your own notebook and pen or pencil to this event.

Come to the Family Garden for a pizza masterclass with Kitchen Garden Pizza. In this one-hour session your imagination and creativity will be fed along with your belly! You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, make and top your own dough and observe the pizzaioli at work at the wood-fired oven. And while you wait for your pizza to cook, you can decorate your own pizza box!
Dairy-free and gluten-free options available

Brexit: who is responsible, how did it all go wrong and what can we do? As more and more people discover that the Brexit they were sold was based on falsehoods, FT public policy editor Peter Foster’s What Went Wrong With Brexit dispels the myths. Most importantly, he shows what a better future for Britain might look like.

Bold and incisive as ever, LBC’s James O’Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has made the UK a country of strikes, shortages and scandals in How They Broke Britain. He maps the web that connects dark think tanks to Downing Street, journalists complicit in misleading the public, and media bosses pushing their own agenda. The journalists discuss what Brexit promised but failed to deliver, with journalist Emma Graham-Harrison.

There is a prescription for whatever might be your poetic need or desire, from verses to soothe your soul and brighten your day to poems that offer comfort in times of trouble. The creator and editor of The Poetry Pharmacy is joined by special guests including writer and actress Lisa Dwan (TopBoy, Blackshore), actress Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Luther), and Dominic West (Brassic, The Wire) for an event of connection, imagination and inspiration.

It has now been more than two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the conflict is still ongoing, even though it garners fewer headlines than it used to. Writers Sofia Cheliak, Sasha Dovzhyk and Olesya Khromeychuk discuss what is happening currently in Ukraine, how to keep documenting the war and how to combat propaganda that undermines the war effort. Cheliak, Dovzhyk and Khromeychuk are all contributors to the book Ukraine Lab: Global Security, Environment, Disinformation through the Prism of Ukraine: 39 (Ukrainian Voices). They talk to journalist and author Peter Pomerantsev.

Drifting and directionless in her twenties, Marina Gibson escaped from the city to the country, where she picked up a fishing rod for the first time in years. It was a return to a childhood pursuit and a passion passed on by her mother. Through fishing, Gibson – founder of the Northern Fishing School at the Swinton Estate and an ambassador for Orvis, Costa and Angling IQ – found a source of serenity, refuge from a failing marriage and a connection to a tradition of female anglers stretching back generations. In Cast, Catch and Release Gibson follows the journey of the migrating salmon, and shares her own journey back to herself. Gibson talks to writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare.

Kaliane Bradley, a British-Cambodian writer and editor, talks to the author of Cahokia Jazz about her first novel, set in the near future. A disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test the limits of time-travel. Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as ‘1847’ – a man supposed to have died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic. As the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, both have to confront their past choices.

Bring your best ideas to this solutions-focused workshop session. Facilitated by sustainability entrepreneur Andy Middleton and joined by key speakers to be announced, we’ll look at the key issue of food production, discussing the scale of the issue and a range of solutions.

Speakers include remarkable individuals leading climate and biodiversity resilience projects, igniting hope and progress in their neighbourhoods and the wider community. We want you to share your ideas and to be inspired by those making a difference. Be part of the change in this two-hour thought laboratory.