Hay Festival Anytime - Listen and watch writers and thinkers from Hay Festivals around the world

Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho is joined by fellow authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Patron of The Reader Organisation) and Cressida Cowell (Children’s Laureate 2019–22) as they delve into the history of children’s literature, taking us on a whistle stop tour of some of their own all-time favourite books. They discuss the benefits of reading through childhood and consider the impact their own works may have had on the young, developing brain, while acclaimed film and stage actor Freddie Fox (The Crown, House of the Dragon) performs readings from some much-loved children’s classics.

Brought to you by The Queen’s Reading Room, the literary charity set up by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, which is on a mission to spread the joy of reading.

One growing elephant. One smallish lifeboat. One big dream… Join award-winning author/illustrator Ed Vere for a salty story-time session celebrating his new picture book The Elephant and the Sea – a lyrical tale about big elephants in small boats, large waves… and big pinches of bravery and determination. Ed will bring his crayons to show you how to draw his character Gabriel. You can join in with him and see how easy it is to draw a seafaring elephant! Ed’s award-winning picture books include How to be a Lion and Max the Brave.

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

Dive into this interactive quiz-tastic, puzzling mystery event for code-cracking families and skilful young super sleuths. Hartigan Browne is arguably Britain’s greatest detective, having solved hundreds of complex crimes including robberies, murders, accidental deaths, fraud and at least one case of handling a salmon suspiciously. Hartigan’s success, however, means he is now overwhelmed with people requiring his help, and he can’t keep up with the demand for his services. A great believer that everyone has a brilliant mind, Hartigan is keen to mentor those who have the perseverance, resilience and curiosity required to join the Hartigan Browne Detective Agency. Join us to see if you have what it takes to work out this brain teasing cluedunnit?

Discover how to make your garden successful, whatever your abilities, and how to combine colours and pots for instant impact, from gardeners Sue Kent and Sarah Raven. Gardeners’ World presenter Kent is an RHS disability ambassador and RHS award-winning garden designer. Her book Sue Kent Garden Notes provides tips and tricks to successful gardening for all abilities. Gardener, cook and podcaster Sarah Raven’s A Year Full of Pots: Container Flowers for All Seasons demonstrates how accessible and satisfying growing flowers in pots can be. In conversation with Tamsin Westhorpe, editor of the Horticultural Trade Association magazine and curator and gardener of Stockton Bury Gardens, Herefordshire. Tamsin is also an RHS Chelsea Flower Show Judge and author of Grasping the Nettle and Diary of a Modern Country Gardener.

Two of the best young British novelists of 2023, as selected by Granta magazine, discuss their recent books. Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience is about a woman who moves from the place of her birth to the remote northern country of her ancestors, to be housekeeper to her recently divorced brother. There, a strange series of unfortunate events begin to occur and she is put under suspicion by the locals. Eley Williams’ Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good, due in June, is a forth-coming collection of stories from the award-winning author of The Liar’s Dictionary and Attrib. and Other Stories. The stories explore uncertainty and how we grapple with it, as well as misunderstandings and confusions in a world that appears bound by rules and codes, both spoken and unspoken. The authors speak to writer Max Liu.

Can the peace efforts of ordinary citizens impact a world engulfed in war? One hundred years ago the women of Wales dared to imagine a world without war and took steps to achieve it: nearly 400,000 signed a petition appealing to the women of America to support their call for peace. Join Mererid Hopwood and Jenny Mathers, editors of Yr Apêl/The Appeal 1923–24, as they discuss the remarkable story of the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition with Welsh journalist Betsan Powys, and seek inspiration for a new generation of peacemakers.

What’s the opposite of a kettle? Why is the sky blue? Who invented cheese? Following last year’s triumphant Hay Festival debut, the Nincompoops return to bring some much-needed intellijments to the Festival! Join Andy Stanton (Mr Gum) and Carrie Quinlan (John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme) for a special live version of their family podcast, answering your questions with their unique mixture of wisdumb, nollidge and outright fibs. Madness, mayhem and mirth guaranteed!

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada’s oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. It was a multi-billion-dollar disaster that drove 88,000 people from their homes. Canadian writer and journalist John Vaillant talks to author Katherine Rundell about how we must prepare for a hotter, more flammable world. In Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023) Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern wildfires and the lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant is a best-selling author and freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and the Guardian, among others. As well as the Baillie Gifford Prize, Fire Weather also won Canada's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize, and was a finalist the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. A #1 bestseller in Canada, Fire Weather was also named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The New York Times, among many other prominent publications in Europe and North America.

Two experts on green capitalism discuss its limits and possibilities with Bronwyn Wake, Editor in Chief of Nature Climate Change. Rathi is an award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News and host of climate podcast Zero. In Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions he looks at stories that bring people, policy and technology together, suggesting that the green economy is not only possible, but profitable. Dr Ritchie is senior researcher in the Programme for Global Development at the University of Oxford, as well as deputy editor and lead researcher at the highly influential online publication Our World in Data, which brings together the latest data and research on the world’s largest problems and makes it accessible for a general audience. Her latest book is Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet.

Spanning 3,000 years, from the birth of Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It is a new history of the ancient world told, for the very first time, through women. For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women, aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins. In The Missing Thread, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the centre of the narrative.

Dr Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author. Her previous book, Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars, was selected for Radio 4’s Open Book and longlisted for the Runciman Award. Her In The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times and a book of the year in several outlets.

Discover how the much-loved Dame Jacqueline Wilson started her writing career, how she created some of her best-loved characters and hear all about her new book The Girl Who Wasn’t There – a story about siblings and friendship, with a hint of ghostliness! Former Children’s Laureate and author of over 100 books, Dame Jacqueline Wilson is one of Britain’s bestselling children’s authors. Best-known for characters such as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather, she has legions of loyal fans in the UK and throughout the world.

There will be no signing after this event but printed signed bookplates will be available.

The Booker Prize-winning author of The Finkler Question interrogates the power of love to change your life, and vice versa, in his 17th novel What Will Survive of Us. Lily and Sam, both highly successful in their careers but marking time in relationships that have quietly expired, find a connection that makes them come alive again. As they begin to work together on the page and on screen, an affair takes hold that they are powerless to resist. Arriving in mid-life, their relationship opens unexpected new worlds. But what will happen to them when familiarity, illness and age begin to take their toll? Jacobson talks to the Monocle Radio Books Editor

Birmingham-born performance poet, musician, professor, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was ‘a hero to millions’ and a much-loved and respected performer at the Festival, counting among his many awards and accolades the Hay Festival Medal for poetry in 2021.

We assemble in memory of his life and his work. Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, Welsh poet and Professor at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies Mererid Hopwood, poet, playwright and author of Living by Troubled Waters Roy McFarlane and friends together, through reading works by Benjamin Zephaniah and their own works in response, create a tribute to this exceptional and much-missed poet.

Bring your magnifying glasses to help Robin Stevens celebrate 10 years of her iconic Murder Most Unladylike series. Whether you’re part of the Detective Society, a Ministry Member or just want to join the party, come and hear all about Daisy and Hazel with Robin, and take a look forward to what’s next in the Ministry of Unladylike Activity.

Welcome to the Tokyo Ghost Café! Get your sketchbooks at the ready as author Julian Sedgwick and Manga artist Chie Kutsuwada take you on an incredible journey, introducing the weird and wonderful Japanese spirits, or yokai. Learn about their unique collaboration style, the influence of Japanese culture on their books and join in with live Manga drawing with Chie.

Politics can often seem devoid of compassion, with the focus on systems over people, on making money over the needs of the vulnerable. With voter distrust of politics at an all-time high, it’s clear that our existing political systems are failing to deliver solutions to the multiple interlocking crises that our world faces. In this event, our panel members talk to journalist and founder of cross party Think Tank, Compassion in Politics Jennifer Nadel about everything from the refugee crisis to wars across the world, how we can renew support for democratic ideals and what role compassion can play in creating a new political settlement that is inclusive, cooperative and effective in improving the lives of us all.

Dorling is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford. Grayling is a philosopher and principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and Matharu is the Editor of the independent investigative news site and monthly print news magazine Byline Times. Price is a Member of the Senedd and former Leader of Plaid Cymru.

Daisy Goodwin brings to life a woman whose extraordinary talent, unremitting drive and natural chic made her a legend: Maria Callas. Goodwin’s new novel Diva draws on Callas’ life growing up in Nazi-occupied Greece, her fame as a soprano and her relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who then abandoned her to marry former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Writer and television producer Goodwin is author of My Last Duchess and The Fortune Hunter. She wrote the screenplay for Victoria, the eight-part ITV series about the early life of Queen Victoria. Goodwin talks to The Bookseller’s programme director Miriam Robinson.

Two multiple Booker-nominated authors discuss their new novels with the Monocle 24 Books Editor. Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies won huge acclaim and has been adapted as an award-winning BBC drama. His latest, Caledonian Road, is a state-of-the-nation novel – the story of one man’s epic fall from grace. The writer introduces us to art historian and celebrity intellectual Campbell Flynn, whose web of crimes, secrets and scandals risk being revealed, leading to the shattering exposure of all that his privilege really involves.

Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways and China Room received major accolades. His most recent novel, The Spoiled Heart, is a moving family mystery. Nayan, a bereaved father now dedicated to his work and running for leadership of his union, is powerfully drawn to a woman who has returned to the area. As they grow closer, the possibility arises that their pasts may have been connected.

Join writers and editors of the Times Literary Supplement along with special guests for a live recording of their weekly podcast on books and culture.

The lexicographer and the philosopher discuss words and their power to confuse and surprise us. Celebrated linguist and face of Countdown’s Dictionary Corner Susie Dent’s latest book is Interesting Stories About Curious Words. She explores the bizarre human histories behind the stories of sweet Fanny Adams and Jack the Lad, and answers such perplexing questions as: How did circles become vicious? Who was Hobson and what was his choice? And what did Nelson turn a blind eye to? Rebecca Roache, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, delves into the magical power of swear words in her book For F*ck’s Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude and Fun. She helps understand how swearing works – it isn’t always bad. When not used offensively, it can foster social intimacy, help people withstand pain and might even help us curb our violent impulses. They talk to publisher and writer John Mitchinson.

World-leading microbiome scientist and surgeon James Kinross shows us how everything from exercise, sleep and diet through to antibiotics and ageing are directly impacted by the state of our microbiome. He introduces us to the microbiome, a vast genetic universe of ‘dark matter’ – bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites – living inside us, which adapts with us as we age and influences how we think and feel, our sex lives and even how fast we run. Kinross is a senior lecturer in colorectal surgery and consultant surgeon at Imperial College London. He talks to neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow.

Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist transports us to early 20th-century Kyiv during the turmoil following the Russian Revolution, with his new book The Silver Bone. This mystery introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he tackles his first case, involving two murders, a long bone made of pure silver and a suit of decidedly unusual proportions tailored from fine English cloth. Inflected with Kurkov’s (Death and the Penguin) signature humour and magical realism, the novel takes inspiration from the archives of crime enforcement agencies in Kyiv, crafting a propulsive narrative with rich historical detail. Kurkov talks to writer and editor Daniel Hahn.

Award-winning poet Andrew McMillan talks to Scottish poet and playwright Jackie Kay about community, masculinity and post-industrialisation. His novel Pity is set in Northern England, in a town that was once a hub of the coal industry. Where fathers and grandfathers worked down the mines, their sons now grapple with the shifting times. Meanwhile a grandson works in a call centre, deriving passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs. Set across three generations of a Yorkshire mining family, McMillan’s short and magnificent debut is a lament for a lost way of life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

Legendary Welsh superstar Bonnie Tyler recounts how she carved out an extraordinary career that is still going strong. From her early days growing up in a tiny mining village in South Wales to her career as a club singer, which led to her accidental discovery by a talent scout, she charts her incredible rise to fame. Her memoir Straight from the Heart tells the story of how a shy, music-loving teenager called Gaynor Hopkins came to record some of the most iconic songs of all time, including ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ and ‘Holding Out for a Hero’, achieving chart success all over the world. Tyler has always determinedly followed her own path, breaking down barriers and leading the way for other female artists. Her roots remain firmly in her beloved Wales, and she’s bringing her down-to-earth, candid outlook to Hay Festival.

Literary Death Match is a groundbreaking take on the written and spoken word — it’s an electrifying, feel-good spectacle that takes place in over 70 cities around the planet. Part literary event, part comedy show, part game show, it brings together four established and emerging writers at Hay Festival to compete in an edge-of-your-seat read-off critiqued by celebrity judges and concluded by a slapstick showdown. Judges Richard Armitage (author: Geneva, actor: Peter Jackon's Hobbit Trilogy, Oceans 8, Spooks) and Viv Groskop (How to Own the Room) will preside over this hilarious, off-the-wall competition of literary merit. Readers include International Booker Prize longlisted author Andrey Kurkov (Death of a Penguin, Ukraine Diaries) Tiffany Murray (Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents) and BAFTA Award-winning comedy writer Joel Morris (Philomena Cunk, Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups, Paddington). Presented by veteran host Suzanne Azzopardi and newcomer, writer Hattie Williams (Bitter Sweet).

Australia is now facing the truth of its past – the slaughter of Indigenous peoples as the British conquered the continent with unique brutality. Two truth-tellers of today discuss how the country is reckoning with its history. Larissa Behrendt is an award-winning author, a filmmaker and host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. Journalist David Marr is author of Killing for Country, a personal reckoning with his family’s role in the slaughter.

David Baddiel discusses his new book, based on his long-running stand-up show My Family (Not the Sitcom). Like the show, the book covers the death of his mother and his turbulent relationship with his father, who suffered from an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s and died in 2022. Much of the stand-up covered his mother’s affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman – which Baddiel describes as “stuff that people don’t normally talk about with a recently departed parent”, but explained was a substantial part of her identity, “her way of saying she was not just a prim, suburban, Jewish housewife”. And the show portrayed his father as a difficult man who would aggressively criticise his sons, a trait amplified by his Pick’s disease. Baddiel talks to writer and editor Daniel Hahn.

Humans are capable of both love and hate, amazement and disgust, fun and misery. So why do we live in a world that constantly urges us to hate ourselves and others, to be repulsed by our own bodies, to be ashamed of pleasure, to be embarrassed by fun? In her new collection, the author and poet asks why we have been taught to hate, and if we might learn to love again. She won the Ted Hughes Award for Nobody Told Me, wrote the three poetry collections Plum, Cherry Pie and Papers, adapted the Greek tragedy Antigone and co-wrote the play Offside with poet Sabrina Mahfouz.