Hay Festival 2014

The Bafta-winning co-creator of Gavin and Stacey, and the Richard & Judy Book Club author of Love Untold, brings her joyful and life-affirming new novel By Your Side to Hay Festival, in this conversation with journalist and former BBC correspondent Julia Wheeler.

Linda and Levi will never meet. But they’re going to change each other’s lives. Linda investigates the lives of those who’ve died alone and tracks down any living relatives. She’s been a friend to the friendless for the past 33 years, and now she’s looking forward to early retirement. But before she hangs up her lanyard, Linda must take on one last case – that of Levi, a Welshman who’d made his home on a remote Scottish island.

Nuclear war is a far greater immediate threat to humanity’s survival than climate change, yet we are in near-total denial. The environment campaigner and Six Degrees author puts the issue back to the top of the global agenda.

We are standing on a nuclear knife edge, and while climate heating threatens humanity over many decades, nuclear war could destroy civilisation in just a few hours. But the climate experience teaches us that a worldwide mobilisation can work. Lynas presents an unflinching view of the nuclear nightmare, and describes the imperatives for human civilisation to survive long term.

Meet Javier Cercas, one of Spain’s most renowned writers, as he discusses his crime trilogy Terra Alta. Cercas opens up the world of Terra Alta, and delves into the series’ final book, Fortress of Evil, where Melchor – who years before took revenge for his mother’s murder – finds his peace shattered when his teenage daughter Cosette discovers the truth behind her own mother’s death.

Cercas’ awards include the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Soldiers of Salamis, the European Book Prize for The Impostor, and the Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation for Even the Darkest Night, the first book in the Terra Alta trilogy. He talks to journalist Kirsty Lang.

A two-piano concert by husband and wife pianists Maki Sekiya and Ilya Chetverikov in the fine setting of St Mary’s Church. The programme includes Ravel, on the 150th anniversary of his death, as well as the world première of a piece by the Oxford-based composer Jeremy Arden.

Programme:

Maurice Ravel Daphne and Chloe suite

Jeremy Arden Passacaglia (world première)

György Ligeti Three pieces for two pianos: Monument, Self-portrait and Movement

Dmitri Shostakovich Concertino

Lose yourself with Tahereh Mafi in her exhilarating return to the Shatter Me universe. Watch Me is the first book in a new series set ten years after the fall of The Reestablishment. Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, it’s an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape, begging a desperate question – who are we when no one is watching?

James Anderson has infiltrated Ark Island. No outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but a win is a win. Rosabelle Wolff is tightly controlled – where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. When she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates…

Join Alex Wharton, Children’s Laureate Wales, and be transported by creative electricity, joy and mystery. In this event poetry, rap and songs dance together as one. Combining his four collections of fizzy-dizzy words, he seeks to connect us, transport us and inspire a love of playful, curious and imaginative language.

Alex Wharton is an award-winning writer and performer of poetry for adults and children. His first book of poetry for children, Daydreams and Jellybeans, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Award, the Lollies Book Awards, and was named as a National Poetry Day Recommended Read.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for some outdoor family sessions offering natural creativity for everyone. We’ll use willow and natural materials to create a collaborative piece of nature art in the Family Garden. Dress for the weather and expect to get messy! These sessions will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

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.

Enjoy a twenty-minute open air performance between events, of traditional and modern songs from the sea with big harmonies. Hay Shantymen have been performing since 2018, at international shanty festivals such as Falmouth and Port Isaac, and have raised over £15,000 for their chosen charity, the RNLI. Under a new Musical Director, Grant Olding, their arrangements and harmonies are stronger than ever – always sung with engaging wit, warmth and friendship.

Hear one of our great contemporary storytellers discuss her new book and inspirations. Elif Shafak talks to broadcaster Kirsty Lang about There Are Rivers in the Sky, the story of three lives throughout history – in Victorian London, 2014 Turkey and 2018 London – connected by a single drop of water.

Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose books include The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Her work has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize.

The sociologist, the digital literacy expert and the tech journalist discuss the interplay between digital technology and politics.

Mikael Klintman explains how the framing of information influences the way we see the world, revealing how canny communicators mislead us without relying on overt deception; Dr Kaitlyn Regehr questions how the relationship between tech and politics should work to protect us all in the digital space; and Carl Miller leads us into the deep heart of digital and explains how its lawlessness could be a threat to democracy.

Klintman is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Lund and a former Fellow of Environment and Sustainability at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His most recent book is Framing. Dr Regehr is an associate professor at UCL, and is a consultant to MPs and to the Metropolitan Police. Miller is a founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos.

We live in a manufactured world, and all of us are constantly in contact with multiple manufactured products. But how do all these things – from the clothes we wear to the smartphones we use – get to us?

Tim Minshall, head of the Institute for Manufacturing, traces the journeys of manufactured goods from mega-factory floors, engineering laboratories and seaports to distribution hubs, supermarkets and into our homes. And he takes a look at how manufacturing could offer a path to a truly sustainable future.

Minshall is the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, and author of Your Life is Manufactured.

From celebrated filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics), Dahomey is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution. Set in November 2021, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin: the present-day Republic of Benin.

Using multiple perspectives Diop questions how these artifacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at the 2024 Berlinale, Dahomey is an affecting though altogether singular conversation piece that is as spellbinding as it is essential.

“Invigorating and enlivening… An interrogative reverie about colonialism, culture, the past and the present” – The Guardian

Spend a special afternoon with author Michael Morpurgo and musician and actor Ben Murray, as they retell War Horse in this moving concert.

First published in 1982, War Horse is one of Morpurgo’s best known and most beloved books. It has gone on to be adapted for the stage in an award-winning production by the National Theatre and for the screen in a Steven Spielberg film.

Told from the perspective of a young farm horse Joey, it follows his story as he is taken from the fields of Devon to the Western Front after being sold to the British Army in 1914. With his officer, Joey charges towards the enemy, witnessing the horror of the frontline.

In this event, Morpurgo retells an abridged version of War Horse accompanied by music and songs from Murray, who previously played the Songman in the National Theatre production of the book.

How do you create world-changing television that resonates across generations? How do you bring ambitious, complex stories to life for global audiences? Join Jane Tranter, CEO of Bad Wolf and executive producer of award-winning television shows such as His Dark Materials, Industry and Succession, as she shares the journey behind her career – from navigating an ever-evolving television landscape, to setting up her own production company.

In this workshop-style event, Jane will draw on her extensive experience to offer invaluable insights and advice for aspiring storytellers looking to make their mark in the television industry.

This event is one of a Hay Festival series of sessions delivered by inspiring producers and practitioners from the creative industries, giving their insights, experience and advice on progression in their field.

Please bring your own notebook and pen to this event.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for some outdoor family sessions offering natural creativity for everyone. We’ll use willow and natural materials to create a collaborative piece of nature art in the Family Garden. Dress for the weather and expect to get messy! These sessions will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

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.

Gone are the days when just one bad guy ran an autocracy; now, sophisticated networks prop up autocratic leaders and encourage a move away from democracy. Pulitzer-winning historian and journalist Anne Applebaum (Gulag) has tracked the slide away from democracy for decades.

From Russia to North Korea and Syria, she takes us on a tour of The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, and explains how autocracies operate like giant companies, relying on financial structures, security services and technological experts providing surveillance, propaganda and disinformation. An essential event if you’re interested in what the future looks like for our governments.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be remembered for being the first woman in the role in that country’s history, but even more so for her misogyny speech to parliament, in which she called out politician Tony Abbott for his hypocrisy and sexism.

This event will be recorded live for Julia Gillard’s podcast, A Podcast of One’s Own.

Whet your appetite ahead of dinner as Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi introduce their new cookbook. A bowl of pasta becomes Caramelised Onion Orecchiette with Hazelnuts & Crispy Sage and a plate of mash is transformed into Garlicky Aligot Potato with Leeks & Thyme, as the pair discuss what makes comfort food so reassuring and how to elevate classics but still deliver the taste of home.

The chefs share their own memories of childhood, travel, home and food in this event celebrating the connections made during cooking, and the passing on of food from generation to generation.

Ottolenghi is a restaurateur, and chef-patron of the seven Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. Goh is a recipe developer and the co-author of Ottolenghi Sweet and Ottolenghi Comfort.

How prepared for food shocks is the UK? A new national report launched in February 2025 sets out a challenge: the need to take food shocks more seriously and to improve civil food resilience. Join the report’s author and the crisis expert in conversation with Executive Director of the Food Foundation Anna Taylor, to hear about the future of our national and global food systems, the threats, and how we ensure everyone gets the food they need.

Lang (Feeding Britain) is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London’s Centre for Food Policy, and has consulted for the WHO. Professor Sir David Omand was the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator and, before that, Director of GCHQ. His book How to Survive a Crisis uses intelligence strategies to explore how to spot crises early.

Philosopher Agnes Callard presents a new and vibrant understanding of the life and work of Socrates and his unique approach to learning. In Open Socrates, Callard recovers the radical energy at the centre of Socrates’ thought, drawing attention to his startling discovery that we don’t know how to ask ourselves the most important questions about how we should live, and how we might change.

Callard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago, specialising in ancient philosophy and ethics. Having applied Socratic teachings to her own life, she lives in what the Guardian terms “a kind of ideal philosophical throuple”, married to a graduate student while living platonically with her ex-husband, also a philosopher.

Fashion and sustainability pioneer Kate Fletcher explores interrelationships between clothing and the natural world. She sees nature not as the scenery against which fashion stories unfold, but as the main event. For her, the connection of fashion and nature is the story.

A Professor at the Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen and at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, Fletcher’s work on systems change, post-growth fashion, fashion localism and Earth Logic, both defines and challenges the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability. She is a co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion.

Join Fletcher for a visionary take on fashion, not as the mouthpiece of capitalism, but as the language of the Earth.

Join our celebrated pizzaioli for an entertaining, hands-on workshop that will teach you everything that you knead to know about how to make pizzas. Since nothing complements pizza quite like a perfect glass of wine, let us pair and enjoy Italian wine together with your pizza creations.

This 90-minute session includes snacks, a 12” pizza of your own creation and complementary wine throughout. Dairy-free and gluten-free options available.

The former Supreme Court judge and author of Divided Houses (winner of the 2009 Wolfson History Prize) cuts through the political noise with his acute analysis of the state of democracy today. How did all this happen, and where do we go from here?

In this timely and incisive event, Sumption uses his provocative essays in The Challenges of Democracy: And the Rule of Law as a springboard to discuss issues from the vulnerabilities of international law to the deepening suppression of democracy activism, and from the complexities of human rights legislation to the defence of freedom of speech.

Many years ago, farmer and writer James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made people rich, but had long been in decline.

Years later, he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island. The Place of Tides is his account of that season – the story of a woman in a unique and ancient landscape, and his slow realisation that she and her world were not what he had previously thought.

Kate Summerscale (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher) brings her groundbreaking form of novelistic non-fiction writing to bear on the murders at 10 Rillington Place – a sensational true crime story from 1950s London, followed relentlessly by tabloids and public alike. The bodies of multiple young women are discovered hidden in a dingy terrace house, and a nationwide manhunt is launched for the tenant of the ground-floor flat, a former policeman named Reg Christie.

Summerscale’s research uncovers the lives of the victims, and sheds fascinating light both on what happened inside the house and the origins of our fixation with true crime.

Join the novelist and screenwriter as she launches her haunting new novel. A boundary-pushing thriller told through the lens of a lyrical family drama, The House of Water is both unsettling and thought-provoking.

Placing that key in the lock was the last ordinary moment of her life. Iona returns home one evening to find her family murdered and her father missing. Her home is entirely submerged in water. An unnamed girl lies dead in her bed. As the police declare her father the main suspect, Iona is forced to confront how much she really knew about the man who raised her. Hidden in the fragments of her father’s final manuscript, recovered from the flood, an unimaginable secret slowly rises to the surface.