Hay Festival Digital 2020

Dip into the animal kingdom with naturalist, wildlife cameraman and Strictly Come Dancing 2022 winner Hamza Yassin on an incredible and immersive journey. Soar through skies, dive underwater and roam the land with Hamza as he guides us through fun facts and figures, as well as eye-catching photos exploring the natural world. Hamza will share some of his own fascinating stories from adventures in the wild throughout his unique career as a conservationist and cameraman.

Hamza’s love for the natural world and animal kingdom encourages children to fall in love with the world around them. His book is accessible for all and has dyslexia-friendly formatting for readers, like Hamza, who are dyslexic.

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.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Marking 40 years of Jeanette Winterson’s explosive first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Published when she was just 25, the book is a gripping coming-of-age story, a queer romance and a modern classic. It tells the story of Jeanette’s avatar, a fiction as well as a fact. Adopted into a northern, working-class family who believe their new baby is destined to be a missionary, Jeanette falls in love with a young woman. Love, as always, changes the road ahead.

In 2011 Jeanette Winterson revisited this material in her best selling memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Read it? Let us know what you think on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram using #HFBookClub.

Further reading

Digested classics, The Guardian
“She gave me the chance that became my life”: Jeanette Winterson on her first editor, Philippa Brewster, The Guardian

About the author

Jeanette Winterson CBE, was born in Manchester. She published her first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in 1985. It was adapted by her for the BBC in 1990 and won a BAFTA for best drama. Jeanette Winterson has written numerous novels, short stories, works for children, screenplays, and non-fiction. She regularly talks to tech conferences, following her essays about AI: 12 Bytes. Her latest book is the collection of ghost stories, Night Side of the River.
She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester.

About Hay Festival Book Club

Timeless titles to offer you a break from the day to day. Can't decide what to read next? Follow your curiosity and join Hay Festival on a journey to imagine the world anew through great literature. Unconstrained by genre or form these are our monthly picks of great books worth reading (or re-reading) right now.

Throughout the month, we'll share interesting links and articles relating to our selection on social media using #HFBookClub and invite you all to get involved with your questions and comments. Each selection will also be marked with a free online event.

If you'd like to recommend a book for consideration, get in touch via bookclub@hayfestival.org.

Happy reading!

Award-winning garden designer, RHS ambassador and TV presenter Adam Frost pays tribute to the plants that have shaped his life and the music that inspired his new garden’s design, and explores what gardening means to him.

Gain tips for gardens of all kinds, as Frost shares his horticultural knowledge, and learn how the gardener used the creation of a garden at his new house to help him with his mental health.

Frost has won seven gold medals at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and is a presenter for Gardeners’ World. He has written about the link between health and gardening in Gardeners’ World magazine.

In conversation with the writer and editor, Kitty Corrigan.

Every day brings with it a new tip for how to boost our immunity, but how do we tell the myth from the fact, and learn what really helps? Join world-leading immunologist Daniel M Davis as he explains how to make informed choices when it comes to diet, supplements and exercise regimes, and warns against ‘one-size-fits-all’ cures.

Davis is head of life sciences and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London. Informative and authoritative, this event will puncture misunderstandings and leave you better understanding immune health.

Victoria Amelina was an award-winning Ukrainian writer and human rights activist who was killed by a Russian missile in July 2023. She had been documenting the war and chronicling extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance. These stories are told in Looking at Women, Looking at War, of which Amelina had completed around 60% before she was killed.

Our panel discuss Amelina’s life and work, and the impact the war has had on women in Ukraine. Graham-Harrison is the Guardian’s senior international affairs correspondent. Khromeychuk is a historian and writer, director of the Ukrainian Institute London. Sands is Professor of Law at University College London and has been involved in international cases including Pinochet, Yugoslavia, Guantanamo and the Rohingya. Blacker is Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Culture at UCL, and author of Memory, the City and the Legacy of World War II in East Central Europe.

Storyteller Ngartia Bryan examines the power of narratives and how our stories define our identity, and different mediums for telling our tales.

Writer, actor and director Bryan is a Kenyan storyteller with interest in different media, and one of the founders of Kenyan multi-award-winning storytelling theatre group Too Early For Birds. Brazilian philosopher and writer Djamila Ribeiro discusses her work, particularly her book Where We Stand, in which she presents a compelling perspective on power and identity through the concept of the “speaking place.” In conversation with the writer and development consultant Ayisha Osori.Brazilian philosopher and writer Djamila Ribeiro discusses her work, particularly her book Where We Stand, in which she presents a compelling perspective on power and identity through the concept of the “speaking place.” Both in conversations with the writer and development consultant Ayisha Osori.

Settle into your seats to hear the illustrator of The Gruffalo and author of the Pip and Posy books read stories all about kindness. Axel will read his book Kind and The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson, and you’ll also be treated to a sneak preview of his forthcoming book, Welcome. Axel will do some live drawing and you’ll have a chance to ask him some questions.

Join us for an exclusive guided tour led by one of our passionate volunteer guides during Hay Festival 2025. Our knowledgeable guides will take you on a captivating journey through the castle, revealing tales of medieval knights, royal intrigue and the castle’s remarkable restoration. As you explore the castle you’ll gain unique insights into the lives of those who once called this place home. The tour also offers breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside, providing the perfect backdrop for your visit.

Guided tours run daily at 11am and 2pm. Tour price includes entry into the Castle for a year including the current exhibition: 20th Century Welsh Artists.

One of the best-known figures in British politics opens up about her life and history-making career. Diane Abbott, who was the first elected Black female MP in the UK, grew up as a child of the Windrush generation, and her working-class family and community shapes her to this day. Abbott is the longest-serving Black MP in the House of Commons and now holds the title of Mother of the House.

Join Abbott as she discusses how it felt to be the first Black woman MP to walk through the House of Commons, the hostility she has faced and why she continues to fight for the causes she cares about.

A revolution is taking place: around the world, ordinary people are turning to courts seeking justice for environmental damage. Join journalist and activist Nicola Cutcher, pioneering barrister Mónica Feria Tinta, lawyer Paul Powlesland and international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands as they discuss whether the planet can have legal rights, and how to defend those in a court of law. Could recognising the Rights of Nature and making ecocide a crime in the UK transform the future of the River Wye?

Cutcher is an investigative journalist, writer and documentary producer. Feria Tinta is author of A Barrister for the Earth, and advocates not only for the people fighting for their homes and livelihoods, but also for those with no voice: rivers, forests and endangered species. Powlesland, founder of Lawyers for Nature, fights for justice on behalf of those threatened by people with more wealth and power. Sands is Professor of Law at University College London, author of East West Street and co-Chair of Stop Ecocide.

After the life-threatening acid-attack that left Katie Piper physically and visibly scarred at just 24, her approach to ageing was irrevocably changed. Now, instead of dreading old age, she sees each passing year as a reminder of the privilege of being alive.

In this confidence-boosting event, Piper reflects on what it means to age well in a world that too often makes women feel irrelevant or invisible for going through the natural ageing process.

Piper is a bestselling author, inspirational speaker, TV presenter and charity campaigner. She is a regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women and a presenter for BBC Radio 2.

A Room Above a Shop is set in South Wales during the decade of Section 28. Against the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS crisis and all its accompanying moral judgement, this is a resonant love story about two men working together in an ironmonger’s shop and sharing a room upstairs. It’s a life they’d never imagined possible and one that risks everything if their public performance were to slip.

Anthony Shapland grew up in the Rhymney Valley. A writer, artist and filmmaker who blends documentary and fiction, he is co-founder of g39, an artist-led space in Cardiff. He talks to Welsh author Cynan Jones about his debut novel and his short fiction Feathertongue, broadcast by Radio 4 this spring.

Academic Simon Baron-Cohen and journalist John Harris discuss the science of neurodivergence, what it means in theory and in practice, and delve into their personal and professional experiences of autism. They look at the ongoing revolutions in our understanding of neurodivergence, and neurodivergence’s deep links to human creativity.

Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. Baron-Cohen’s current research is testing the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism at the neural, endocrine and genetic levels.

Harris, a columnist at the Guardian, is author of Maybe I’m Amazed, a book about his autistic son James, and how music and songs became their most precious source of connection. Harris writes regularly for music magazine Mojo and has won awards including the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism and the UK Press Award for Political Commentator of the Year.

Lean back against the headrest and journey through two centuries of British railway history with expert Simon Bradley. On rail’s 200th anniversary, he delves into its beginnings in 1825 with the Stockton & Darlington company, who opened the world’s first public steam railway. Revealing how lives and landscapes were transformed by this new method of transport, he tells entertaining stories on everything from dining saloons to the Rail Alphabet.

Bradley is editor of the World Famous Buildings of England series, founded by Nikolaus Pevsner, to which he has contributed a number of notable revised volumes.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

“Hello to you, I am with news. I have a new book: I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You. I know – what an intriguing title!”

Comedian Miranda Hart has been keeping a secret or two, but she’s ready to reveal all now. From surprising joys to challenging lows, via love and chronic illness, Hart shares the values and practical tools that led her to a sense of freedom, joy and physical recovery she never would have thought possible. Life now, amazingly, with what she will share, is – SUCH FUN!

Hart is a writer, comedian and actor. She is best known for her much-loved and multi-award-winning sitcom Miranda, as well as her BAFTA-nominated role of Chummy in Call the Midwife. She is the first female comedian to do an arena stand-up tour with her ‘My, What I Call, Live Show’.

Race against time with the linguist and co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, in his effort to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history: contemporary New York.

Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century – and many have never been recorded. Perlin recounts the unique history of immigration that shaped New York City, and follows six remarkable speakers of endangered languages into their communities, taking us on a fascinating tour of unusual grammars, rare sounds and powerful cultural histories from around the world. Language City was the winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2024.

Rob Rinder takes us into the world of his latest crime novel, set in the glamorous world of art. At a star-studded opening night for the Royal Academy’s celebration of renowned artist Max Bruce, the occasion takes a shocking turn when a protester runs from the crowd and sprays the artist with blue paint.

Jennie Godfrey's The List of Suspicious Things lands us in Yorkshire in 1979. Maggie Thatcher is Prime Minister, drainpipe jeans are in and Miv is convinced her dad wants to move their family down south - because of the murders. But what if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?

Rinder is a barrister turned broadcaster and author. He started his broadcast career with Judge Rinder, and is now a regular host on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. His novels The Trial and The Suspect are inspired by his experiences as a barrister. Godfrey is a writer and part-time bookseller. The List of Suspicious Things is her highly acclaimed debut novel.

Spend a stylish afternoon in the company of two of Britain’s most dynamic lovers of art. Journalist Lynn Barber, whose memoir An Education inspired a Nick Hornby film starring Carey Mulligan, and whose new book is A Little Art Education, shares stories of how she went from a curious outsider to finding her place among some of the most admired artists of the last 100 years.

Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes shares her life story for the first time in her memoir Iconic: My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects. She talks about the stories behind some of the mementos she’s collected over the years. Rhodes has been a leading figure of the fashion industry for over five decades, celebrating her 50th year in fashion in September 2019 with a retrospective exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, which she founded.

Writer Michael Malay tells the story of making a home for himself in England as an Indonesian Australian, and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines.

In his new book Late Light, through four ‘unloved’ animals – eels, moths, crickets and mussels – Malay looks at the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain. Late Light is a rich blend of memoir, natural history, nature writing and a meditation on being and belonging.

The latest film from iconic writer-director Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette), Priscilla is a moving, nuanced and visually ravishing exploration of the dark side of celebrity, delicately retelling and re-examining one of history’s most complicated love stories.

West Germany, late 1950s. Teenage Priscilla Beaulieu (Golden Globe nominee Cailee Spaeny) receives an invitation to a party with Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn). Already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar at this time, Elvis becomes someone entirely unexpected in their private moments together: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a gentle best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Coppola presents the unseen story of their long courtship and turbulent marriage: a great American myth spanning decades and oceans, from the army base where they met to his dream-world estate at Graceland.

Faithfully adapting Priscilla’s own memoir, and anchored by Spaeny’s Venice Best Actress winning performance, this is a mature and masterful cinematic feast for the senses that sees Coppola at the very top of her game.

“A transportive, heartbreaking journey into the dark heart of celebrity… Sofia Coppola at her best” – Rolling Stone

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, American multimedia artist, poet and writer, discusses her debut novel Promise. Telling the story of two Black sisters growing up in small-town New England at the end of the 1950s, the novel explores their fight to protect their home, their bodies and their dreams as the civil right movement sweeps the nation. Highly praised by Man Booker Prize-winners Kiran Desai and Marlon James, it is a story that celebrates resistance and love in times of adversity.

Griffiths’ literary and visual work has been published in major magazines and newspapers including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Author of various poetry collections, her most recent is Seeing the Body. She has received fellowships from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Cave Canem Foundation.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

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.

Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

Michael Heseltine (Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001) left the political arena once, only to be called back by David Cameron to advise the government. Here he shares a potpourri of reminiscences of his youth, early adulthood and previously unexplored aspects of his political career with the BBC’s Europe editor. He recounts finding his home, creating his garden and renowned arboretum, and regenerating his village. He looks back on the fundamental changes he was able to mastermind while in power and sets out the policies that he believes are still urgently needed to unite the country.

Lord Heseltine privatised more parts of the public sector than any other minister and strongly supports the concept of an industrial strategy and a competitiveness agenda. Above all, he is determined not to give up trying to restore Britain’s position at the heart of Europe after the self-inflicted harm of Brexit. He talks to Matt Frei, Europe Editor and Presenter at Channel 4 News.

This is the story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the two geniuses behind The Beatles, as you’ve never heard it before. Ian Leslie discusses John & Paul, his biography of the pair, which begins in 1957 when the two teenagers met in suburban Liverpool and ends 23 years later, when Lennon was murdered.

Leslie, author of two acclaimed books on human behaviour, looks at how Lennon and McCartney were not just friends, rivals or collaborators, but intimates who both had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and who longed to make emotional connections. His refreshing take on two of the greatest icons in music history draws on recently released footage and recordings.

Take a trip along the A1 (no traffic, guaranteed) and learn about the history and mystery of the Great North Road, a 400-mile route that has run through Britain for the last 2,000 years. Writer and author Rob Cowen follows this road – throughout history an ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway – and takes a journey through history, place, people and time in his new book The North Road.

In conversation with Phoebe Smith, journalist and author of Wayfarer, he describes journeying along the Great North Road, and weaving his own histories and memories with the landscapes he moved through. Cowen writes on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors.

Celebrate the beauty, strength and joy of being a woman with Donna Ashworth.

The author and poet introduces her collection To the Women, which has been updated with over 70 new poems since its first publication.

Ashworth offers words of wisdom and comfort in this uplifting and empowering event, celebrating the beauty, strength and joy of being a woman. She reminds us that we are stronger when we come together and unstoppable when we accept ourselves.

Ashworth’s daily poetry has nearly 1.8 million followers on social media. Her books include Wild Hope, Love, Loss, Life and I Wish I Knew. She talks to style advisor, television presenter and author, Susannah Constantine.

Steve Crawshaw has written and worked on human rights and justice for more than thirty years, from reporting on Eastern Europe for The Independent to directing Human Rights Watch, becoming advocacy director for the UN and Amnesty International and then Director of the Office of the Secretary General. With human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, he discusses the process of bringing war criminals to justice.

Putting a country’s leader on trial once seemed unimaginable. But as Crawshaw describes in his book Prosecuting the Powerful, the possibilities of justice have been transformed. He recounts his encounters with retributive justice from Slobodan Milošević and Bashar al-Assad to the front lines in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and at The Hague.

Do the stories we tell ourselves shape our destiny? And what do stories say about us? Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and senior presenter, considers Joan Didion’s famous quote: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

Doucet explores the global shift in finding ourselves through stories, borrowing narratives from many sources, escaping from the daily bombardment of negative news and shifting to podcasts, long form narratives, to frame our own sense of self.