Telegraph Hay Festival 2013: our highlights You can also book tickets by calling 01497 822 629 Cressida Cowell: Programme for Primary Schools For the third year running, the festival opens with two days of free events for schools. Aimed at complementing curriculum work, the events are nevertheless hosted by writers closer to children's hearts than the word "curriculum" suggests. The celebrated author of How to Train Your Dragon opens proceedings. Venue: Wales Stage, Free but ticketed Event: 2. Molly Scott Cato and Polly Higgins Creating a Resilient World Is it possible to manage resources fairly and equitably? How self-reliant can a local economy be? What part should the law play in creating a resilient environment for all, and preventing over-exploitation by a few? A thoughtful event to open the festival. Venue: Hay on Earth, £5 1pm Lauren Child Programme for Primary Schools The much-loved author and illustrator of Charlie and Lola and the Ruby Redfort series shares tips on how to write stories, draw faces, and solve one or two mysteries in between. She joins Cressida Cowell (above), Korky Paul and Jeremy Strong, among others, for two days of free events for primary school children. Venue: Digital Stage, Free but ticketed Event 4. Quentin Blake The Hay Library Lecture: The Uses of Illustration The work of Quentin Blake is as instantly recognisable as that of the other illustrator Blake, and he has also been an energetic creator of the texts. But, as his talk will make clear, his interests - and his work - go well beyond books. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £5 (or free to holders of a library card) Event: 5. Sandy Black The Sustainable Fashion Handbook One of the world's leading authorities in the field explores important questions about the fashion industry. Can it ever be truly sustainable? 7pm Event: 9. Jane Davidson Literature and Sustainability For this year's lecture, the INSPIRE director asks how literary scholarship can engage with the sustainability debate. Venue:Hay on Earth, £3 9pm Event:10. Noah and The Whale Heart of Nowhere The band release their fourth studio album in five years on May 6. Since their breakthrough single, "Five Years Time," in 2008, they have won over critics and fans with their catchy, pop-infused folk rock. Their previous album, Last Night On Earth, went platinum. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £18.50 Event:13. John Bulmer talks to Revel Guest The North The photo-journalist and pioneer of colour photography shows and discusses his seminal 1960s reportage. Bulmer's black and white and colour photography offers a glimpse into the industrial heartlands untouched by the Swinging Sixties. Venue: Starlight Stage, £5 Event:12. Antony McDonald, David Pountney, Tom Service Wagner 200 - Lohengrin The day after the premiere, the WNO creative team and members of the cast discuss their bi-centenary production of Wagner's great opera. With Welsh National Opera Venue: Digital Stage, £6 4pm Event: 14. John McCarthy talks to Sandi Toksvig You Can't Hide the Sun: A Journey Through Israel and Palestine The journalist travels from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Bedouin encampments of the Negev desert, and asks how humanity can endure in the face of relentless oppression. McCarthy will be able to draw on his own experience of five years in captivity in Lebanon with Brian Keenan between 1986 and 1991. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £8 Event: 16. Dave Goulson A Sting in the Tale Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee now only exists in the wilds of New Zealand, the descendants of a few queen bees shipped over in the nineteenth century. The conversationalist describes his drive to reintroduce it to its native land and the consequences of extinction. Venue: Digital Stage, £5.50 Event:17. Elizabeth Day and Margaret Evison Death of a Soldier A session examining writing about the human experience of warfare. Evison discusses her award-winning account of the impact of the death of her young lieutenant son, Mark who had been serving in Afghanistan. Day's novel Home Fires is a fictional account of two generations of a family dealing with the reality of war. Venue: Starlight, £5 Event 18. Nick Robinson The Inside Story The BBC star political editor and author of Live from Downing Street focuses on Churchill, Thatcher and Blair in his examination of the fraught relationship between the media and the politicians. Neither feral nor beastly, but a subtle historian and a killer mimic. Sponsored by Mr and Mrs Robin Herbert Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £7 Event 19. Coming Up Roses: Cath Kidston talks to Lisa Armstrong Cath Kidston's designs might be called retro, except that they have so come to define the look of our kitchens, our curtains and the bedrooms of our children that they have made a lasting mark on at least two new generations. In her books, such as Sew! and Patch!, she has shared the secrets of her craft. She has called her business "a glorified junk shop"; she will be in conversation with Lisa Armstrong about how she built an empire on shabby chic and turned car boot sales into a source of inspiration. Lisa is the fashion editor of The Daily Telegraph and the author of four novels, as well as the brains behind the invaluable Harper's Bazaar Fashion: Your Guide to Personal Style, which not only fits perfectly into your bag, but will also tell you how to choose it. Venue: Google Big Tent, £7 Event: 20. Robin Hanbury-Tenison Echoes of a Vanished World: A Traveller's Lifetime in Pictures The explorer and founder and president of Survival International, the world's leading organisation supporting tribal peoples, has been a tireless champion of their cause. He showcases his photographs, focusing on their homelands, which are fast being eroded by the modern world. Sponsored by Mostlymaps.com Venue: Digital Stage, £6 Event: 23. John Whaite, Tom and Henry Herbert Bake On The 2012 Great British Bake Off champion is joined on stage by The Fabulous Baker Brothers. They share their experiences, celebrate the national obsession with all things doughy and design a 26th birthday cake for the festival. Chaired by Sarah Crompton. Venue: Digital Stage, £7 8pm Event: 26. Rokia Traore Beautiful Africa The Malian world music superstar, who found fame under the guidance of Ali Farka Toure in the late Nineties, performs at Hay before heading to the Glastonbury and Womad festivals. Expect tracks off her latest album, Beautiful Africa, as well as classics. The first of three concerts this week honouring the people of Hay's twin town of Timbuktu. Venue: Wales Stage, £15 Event: 27. Christy Moore in concert The 67-year-old Irish singer and songwriter, once named the country's greatest living musician, plays Hay and celebrates his 2011 album Folk Tale, the latest in his long and fruitful musical collaboration with Declan Sinnott. A compilation of old classics, it includes his famous rendition of "On Morecambe Bay" (christymoore.com). Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £28.50 Event: 30. Elizabeth Chapman The LSE Lecture - 100 Years and Counting In 2013 The Women's Library joins forces with the LSE library to create an archive of the history of campaigning women. The Library Director explores some of the stories featured. Chaired by Gaby Wood. With the London School of Economics Venue: Google Big Tent, £5.50 Event: 31. Rebecca Solnit The Faraway Nearby One summer, the author was bequeathed a hundred pounds of apricots from a neglected tree that her mother could no longer tend to. From this unexpected inheritance came stories, invitations and adventures. Chaired by Rosie Goldsmith. Venue: Digital Stage, £6 Event: 33. Mariella Frostrup and Guests Mariella's Book Show at Hay Mariella Frostrup interviews an exciting line up of authors and special guests at the festival in this exclusive recording by Sky Arts. Watch Mariella's Book Show on Sky Arts 1 HD 8pm 30th May Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £7 Event: 35. Sarah Churchwell talks to Sarah Crompton Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of the Great Gatsby The American-born academic tells the inside story of F Scott Fitzgerald's New York of 1922. With its speakeasies, high society and organised crime, it set the backdrop for the creation of Fitzgerald's great American novel. Venue: Wales Stage, £6 Event 39. Eric Schmidt: The New Digital Age In his book The New Digital Age - written with Jared Cohen, Google's Head of Ideas - the co-founder of Google tackles the big questions about the world his work has transformed. Schmidt peers into the future of education, global security and the individual. If, as they say, "the internet is among the few things humans have built that they don't truly understand," this pioneer is our best hope of grasping its implications. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £10 Event: 40. Will Self talks to Sarfraz Manzoor Fictions - Experiment The super-verbal and brilliantly inventive journalist and author discusses his Booker-shortlisted novel Umbrella, films of his work and the possibilities of the digital form. Venue: Wales Stage, £7 Event: 45. Melvyn Bragg Fictions - Grace and Mary Visiting his ageing mother Mary in her nursing home by the sea, the protagonist of this new novel sets out to recreate their buried family history, delving into the secrets and silences of Mary's fractured childhood as he imagines the life of her spirited mother, Grace. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £7 Event: 46. Anne Applebaum Iron Curtain - The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 The Pulitzer-prize winning author of Gulag mines new archive material to chronicle Stalin's brutal evisceration of the civil societies newly liberated from Nazi occupation. Chaired by Oliver Bullough. Sponsored by RPC Venue: Wales Stage, £7 Event: 50. Hugh Dennis talks to Marcus Brigstocke Britty Britty Bang Bang The Now Show and Outnumbered star muses on a self-confident, pluralist Olympic Britain - a country where a politician can dangle helplessly from a zip wire and gain in popularity and whose Jubilee Queen can send herself up and then descend by parachute. Venue: Wales Stage, £9 Event: 56. In Conversation: Caitlin Moran talks to India Knight The Times columnist, and author of the fabulous How To Be A Woman and the Moranthology collection, shoots the breeze. It promises to be impassioned and political as well as tremendously funny. Sponsored by Soho House Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £8 Event: 57. Oscar Guardiola Rivera, Joanna Bourke, Patricia Tutt, Costas Douzinas The Eric Hobsbawm Lecture: The Age of Anxieties In this first lecture honouring Birkbeck College's late President, who died last October, four historians and political thinkers discuss the nature of his legacy and the writing of modern history. In association with Birkbeck College Venue: Wales Stage, £6 Event: 71. Phil Jupitus You're Probably Wondering Why I've Asked You Here U-boat Captain, Welsh pornstar, Dutch roadie or noted broadcaster and comedian? Adult content delivered very childishly. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £13 Event 79. Telegraph Question Time The Telegraph's Question Time was a huge success at Hay last year. This year's event achieves what the BBC almost never does: by accident as much as design, all its members are women, including Jenny Abramsky (who was, until her retirement in 2008, the BBC's most senior woman employee). She joins the Telegraph's columnist Allison Pearson; the historian Lucy Worsley, and Joan Bakewell. Sarah Crompton chairs the debate. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £6 Event: 82. Peter Stothard Alexandria - The Last Nights of Cleopatra The TLS editor, classicist and former editor of the Times - who was stranded in Alexandria in 2010 - explores his life-long fascination with Cleopatra. Amid the fracturing police state of Hosni Mubarak, before the uprising in Tahir Square, he reflects on Egyptian history. Venue: Digital Stage, £5 Event: 89. Hans Blix talks to Jon Snow The Rotblat Lecture This year's lecture is given by the Swedish politician and diplomat. As Head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspecting Commission, he led the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq between 2000 and 2003, finding none. In association with the WMD Awareness Programme Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £10 Event: 92. Colm Toibin and Nadeem Aslam Fictions - Love and Death The Testament of Mary is the Virgin's version of the life of Christ, the new novel by the author of Brooklyn. Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden is a novel set in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the months after 9/11. Venue: Google Big Tent, £5.50 Event: 96. Elif Shafak The Raymond Williams Lecture The acclaimed Turkish novelist develops her mesmerising exploration of writing and identity deriving from her fascination with the silent letter of her alphabet, The Ghost G. In association with PEN International Venue: Wales Stage, £7.50 Event: 97. Daniel Dennett Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking One of the world's most original and provocative thinkers, Dennett offers thinking tools built for the most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, consciousness and free will. Chaired by AC Grayling. Venue: Google Big Tent, £6 Event: 100. Mohammad Yunus The Hamlin Lecture The Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize-winning pioneer of microfinance and founder of the Grameen Bank talks to Nicholas Stern. Sponsored by OR-Consulting, "The Art of Seeing Differently." Event: 103. Jesse Norman Edmund Burke A compelling analysis and portrait of the eighteenth century theorist, subversive and founder of modern conservatism from the 2012 Parliamentarian of the Year. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £6 Event: 106. Carl Bernstein In Conversation The journalist who - with Bob Woodward - broke the Watergate story for The Washington Post discusses the second-term Obama administration, and the resonant American anniversaries of Gettysburg, the end of the Vietnam War and JFK's assassination. With Peter Florence. In association with Barclays Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £15 Event:107. Edna O'Brien talks to Lee Brackstone Country Girl In her acclaimed autobiography, the novelist brings us face to face with a literary life full of high drama and contemplation. Along the way there are encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, politicians and literary titans. Event: 116. George Saunders and James Salter talk to Gaby Wood Fictions - American Beauty Two of America's greatest fiction writers read and talk. Saunders introduces and reads from his wryly hilarious Tenth of December. Salter launches his novel, All That Is, which tells the story of a Second World War veteran trying to make his way as a book editor in a Manhattan on the verge of tremendous change. Event: 121. Hari Kunzru Sky Arts Ignition - Memory Palace This new exhibition brings together a piece of fiction by Kunzru with original art works by 20 international graphic designers, illustrators and typographers, exploring the power of memory. The author is joined by V&A curators to discuss how words and images interact, the power of memory and how stories are told. In association with Sky Arts and the Victoria & Albert Museum Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £6 Event: 131. Jack Straw talks to Peter Florence Last Man Standing A conversation with the plumbers-mate, lawyer, politician and memoirist, who spent 13 years at the heart of the New Labour government. He was Foreign Secretary at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War. Event: 143. Simon Sebag Montefiore Titans The historian traces his adventures in history from Stalin and the Borgias to Catherine the Great and Mrs Thatcher. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £6.50 Event: 144. Stella Rimington talks to Gaby Wood Fictions - Spooks The former MI5 chief discusses The Geneva Trap, the latest of her Liz Carlyle spy novels, and the fictions and facts of espionage. Venue: Wales Stage, £6.50 Event: 147. Lucy Boyd talks to Monty Don The Rose Gray Tabletalk - Kitchen Memories Given in the name of the River Cafe founder, this year's foodie debate includes her daughter Lucy Boyd talking to Don, the head gardener at Petersham Nurseries. Event 150. Thomas Keneally Fictions - The Great War: Thomas Keneally talks to Damian Barr Throughout a career that goes back to 1964, Thomas Keneally has brought the past to life with shrewdness and compassion, in such works as The Tyrant's Novel, which vividly imagines life under Saddam Hussein, and Schindler's Ark - the basis of Stephen Spielberg's film. He will be discussing his latest, and, many have said, best book - The Daughters of Mars, now appearing in paperback. It is written on a huge canvas as it follows two sisters who become nurses and witness the horror of Gallipoli. The Telegraph's critic, James Walton, counted "seven wholly convincing love affairs." Venue: Wales Tent, £7 Event: 152. Katherine Boo talks to Rosie Boycott Behind the Beautiful Forevers This multi-award winning investigation into the under-city of Mumbai has become the benchmark for great writing about poverty and justice in 21st century India. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £5 Event: 154. Edith Grossman Why Translation Matters The doyenne of literary translators, the English voice of Garcia Marquez, Cervantes, and Vargas Llosa, discusses her craft. Event: 149. Martin Rees A Post-Human Future? The Astronomer Royal and former Royal Society President, who retired as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge last year, discusses his hopes and fears for the future, and speculates about more distant time-horizons, and a possible post-human era. With Cambridge University Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £6.50 Event: 155. Stephanie Flanders Stephanomics From fiscal cliffs to Triple Dips and Cypriot banks, the BBC Economics editor explains everything you ever wanted to know about economics but were afraid to ask. Expect clear and concise summaries of complex issues. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £9 Event: 158. Chris Wells and Ian Ridpath Navigating by the Stars How did our mariner manage without digital GPS? Captain Wells, master of Cunard's QM2, traces the history of navigating the oceans by measuring the heavens using sextants and astrolabes. Author and broadcaster Ridpath, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, explores the mythology surrounding key constellations. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £7 Event: 157. Barbara Kingsolver talks to Ariane Koek Flight Behaviour The Orange Prize-winning author of The Lacuna, who was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for The Poisonwood Bible in 1998, discusses her suspenseful and brilliant new novel about catastrophe and denial set in the fictional town of Feathertown, in the Tennessee section of the Appalachian mountains. Google Big Tent, £5 Event: 165. Aminatta Forna and James Meek Fictions - Scale Forna's The Hired Man is a powerful novel about the indelible effects of war and the memories which stir beneath the silence of a quiet Croatian town. Meek's The Heart Broke In is a rich, ambitious family drama of love, death and money in the era of gene therapy and internet exposés. Event:16. Roger McGough As Far As I Know A reading of the new collection by the man hailed by Carol Ann Duffy as "the patron saint of poetry": "Take comfort from this / You have a book in your hand / not a loaded gun or a parking fine / or an invitation card to the wedding / of the one you should have married." Event: 169. Gareth Marsh and Victoria Broackes David Bowie is at the V&A The curators of this year's blockbuster retrospective exhibition provide an insight into the making of this innovative show, which traces Bowie's design collaborations and shifting style across five decades. See how David Jones from Brixton reinvented himself from Space Oddity to Ziggy Stardust and beyond, right up to his latest album, The Next Day. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £8 Event: 181. Barry Cunliffe Britain Begins Using archaeological and DNA evidence, Cunliffe tells the remarkable story of the origins of the British and the Irish peoples, from the retreat of the last Ice Age around 10,000BC right through to the eve of the Norman Conquest. Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £5.50 Event: 184. Andy McNab Bravo Two Zero Twenty years on from the publication of his iconic tale of disaster and endurance in the first Iraq War, the Special Forces veteran revisits the compelling story with extensive new material. McNab will be talking to Paul Blezard, ex literary editor of The Lady. Event: 190. Sarah Crompton and Lucy Moore Dance Talk: Sadlers Well and Nijinsky On the centenary of The Rite of Spring, Moore's Nijinsky captures the spirit of the great genius of 20th century ballet, his relationship with Diaghilev, the controversy of his radial choreography and his descent into madness. In Sadler's Wells Dance House, Crompton chronicles how this London theatre and its creative impulses have shaped the course of dance over the last two centuries from classical to hip hop. Venue: Google's Big Tent, £6 Event: 189. Daniel Swift Shakespeare's Common Prayers - The Book of Common Prayer and the Elizabethan Age In the prayer book's ambiguities and fierce contestations, Swift argues, William Shakespeare found the ready elements of drama. Tracing the prayer book's lines and motions through a number of plays, Swift redirects scholarly attention to the religious heart of Shakespeare's work. Event 196. Rowan Williams and Neil MacGregor Images of Faith: Help or Hindrance? The former Archbishop, now de-mob happy and ready to take up the mastership of Magdalene College, Cambridge, will discuss iconography and the role images play in religion, with Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum - another public intellectual with a happy knack for making the arcane accessible. Event: 198. Simon Horobin Does Spelling Matter? A professor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, and an expert on the language of Chaucer, Horobin offers a history of English spelling, from the Anglo-Saxons to the present day, and shows how tradition, modernity and technology have formed our language. Event: 199. Rebecca Miller talks to Gaby Wood Fictions - Past and Present Miller's is a rare and quiet talent: she has written fiction and directed films, and even directed films of her own books. In Personal Velocity, The Ballad of Jack and Rose and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, she creates characters who indelibly haunting. In her new novel, Jacob's Folly, she introduces twin tales of Paris and New York and considers the hold of the past on the present, and the collision of fate and free will. Event: 201. John Sutherland and John Crace The Two Johnnies do Sex and Marriage - from Austen to McEwan Can literature show us how to have a good sex life and a successful marriage? Professor Sutherland, author of Is Heathcliff a Murderer?, and Digested Reads satirist John Crace, romp through the multiple bedrooms and letters of literature. Event: 202. Con Coughlin Churchill's First War - Young Winston and the Fight against the Taliban The young cavalry lieutenant wrote a vivid account of his experiences fighting Pashtun tribesmen - the great-great grandfathers of today's insurgents - on the North West Frontier. The Telegraph's defence editor gives an insight into nineteenth-century military history but also throws light on a modern conflict that has lasted longer than the Second World War. Chaired by Mark Skipworth. Event: 203. Jenny Uglow The Pinecone The story of Sarah Losh - forgotton Romantic heroine, antiquarian, architect and visionary. Her masterpiece is the church in Wreay which is a dramatic rendering of the power of myth and the great natural cycles of life and death. Event: 206 Simon Thurley Men from The Ministry Between 1900 and 1950 the British state amassed an impressive collection of more than 800 historic buildings, monuments and historic sites and opened them to the public, thus establishing a modern state on deep historical and rural roots. Event: 212. Jonathan Steinberg Bismarck A prize-winning portrait by an eminent historian of Prussia's charismatic and authoritarian Iron Chancellor. Bismarck dominated 19th Century Europe, uniting Germany between 1862 and 1890, and causing Kaiser Wilhelm to observe that "it was hard being Emperor under a man like Bismarck." Event: 216. Hay2Timbuktu What Happens When Your Twin Goes AWOL? How did a small town in the Welsh borders come to be twinned with an ancient seat of learning on the edge of the Sahara? Members of the Welsh and Malian twinning teams discuss the challenges of last year and explore the possibilities of the future. Venue: Hay on Earth, Free but ticketed Event: 222. Mary Fulbrook talks to Philippe Sands A Small Town near Auschwitz The town of Bedzin lies 25 miles from Auschwitz. The principal civilian administrator there, Udo Klausa, was a happily married family man. He was also responsible for implementing Nazi policies towards the Jews, yet he later claimed that he had "known nothing about it." His case is so important because it is so typical. Venue: Wales Stage, £5.50 Event: 224. Maggie O'Farrell and Rupert Thompson talk to Stephanie Merritt FIctions - Secrets and Lies Instructions for a Heatwave, the stunning new novel from Costa Novel Award winning writer O'Farrell, is a mystery portrait of an Irish family in crisis during the legendary heat wave of 1976. When Robert Riordan goes missing, it precipitates the return of his children to their family home. Thomson's Secrecy, meanwhile, is set in Florence in 1961. It is a love story, a murder mystery, and a portrait of a famous city in an age of austerity, but it is also an exercise in concealment and revelation. Event: 229. Kevin Maher, Taiye Selasi and Gavin Extence chaired by Chris White Fictions - Watertsones 11 Debut novelists give us the freshest glimpses of a world in change. Taiye Selasi coined the term "Afropolitan"; her Ghanaian-Nigerian heritage, together with her American upbringing, helps to explain this vision, of an optimistic Africa looking forwards and outwards. Her novel, Ghana Must Go, traces a man's life from Massachusetts back to his roots in West Africa. The wry columnist Kevin Maher depicts an Ireland more able to confront its dark past in The Field, and Gavin Extence will talk about his own splendidly unpredictable world, as portrayed in The Universe Versus Alex Woods. Event: 233. Kathleen Taylor The Brain Supremacy - Notes from the Frontiers of Neuroscience Research funds are pouring into brain research but what does this relatively new science mean for us? Taylor looks at the promise of drugs that could boost our brainpower, at the potential for subtler marketing techniques and even at the prospect of machines that could read our minds, whilst analysing the science behind these claims. Venue: Google's Big Tent, £7 Events 247 and 281 respectively. Kate Humble The broadcaster and farmer is the affable star of two events today. At 5:30, Humble, who has presented a number of wildlife and nature programmes for the BBC and written for this newspaper, tells the story of her relocation to a Welsh farm in order to realise a lifelong dream. Earlier in the day, she joins maths genius Marcus du Sautoy and environmentalist Mark Lynas to discuss how we might all power the UK. The title of the event? Powering the Country: Marcus and Kate Try to Keep the Lights On. It should be an entertianing - not to say enlightening - struggle. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £8 and £6 Event: 237. Andrew Williams talks to Ed Vulliamy In Our Name Williams, who wrote A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa, talks to Vulliamy, author of Bosnia - The Reckoning, about the grotesque misconduct of war and the insidious moral corruption of everyone involved. With Cambridge University Venue: Wales Stage, £7 Event: 242. Mark Price talks to Kamal Ahmed Super Markets After an annus horribilis for the major supermarkets, where questions about food sourcing and integrity have been continually raised, here is your opportunity to come and quiz the Waitrose MD on food and farming, ethical and essential consumption, partnership and price. Chaired by Kamal Ahmed, a Telegraph business editor. Event: 243. John Guy The Children of Henry VIII Henry fathered four living children, each by a different mother. Their inter-relationships were often scarred by jealousy, mutual distrust, sibling rivalry and even hatred. Possessed of quick wits and strong wills, their characters were defined partly by the educations they received, and partly by events over which they had no control. Event: 256. Nikki Gemmell, Brooke Magnanti, Jojo Moyes and Linda Kelsey Good Housekeeping Debate: Sex Changes Everything Is erotica changing the literary landscape? Nikki Gemmell (The Bride Stripped Bare), Brooke Magnanti (Belle du Jour series) and Jojo Moyes (Me Before You) talk to Linda Kelsey, Good Housekeeping contributor and ex-editor of Cosmopolitan. In association with Good Housekeeping Venue: Sky Arts Studio, £8 Event: 261. Dara O'Briain The comedian and champion of popular science brings his fabulous stand up show, Craic Dealer, to Hay. O'Briain has proved his ability to mix it with comedy's leading talents, hosting the panel show, Mock the Week. More recently he has presented Stargazing Live with Professor Brian Cox. You might just learn something whilst you laugh. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £26 Event: 268. Guy Walters The Real Great Escape Roger Bushell masterminded an audacious attempt to smuggle hundreds of POWs down a tunnel right under the noses of the guards of Stalag Luft III, a top-security prisoner-of-war camp in Lower Silesia. Event: 274. Michael Vaughan Blowing on the Ashes As a formidable opening batsman, Ashes winning England Test captain, Telegraph columnist and author, Vaughan is well qualified to preview the Ashes series. Sponsored by Grant Thornton. Event: 287. Owen Sheers in conversation with Carolyn Hitt Calon - A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby This year's Hay Festival International Fellow spent the last two years as "Artist in Residence" with the World Rugby Union, producing this astonishing book about sport, myth, nationhood and identity. Sheers is joined in conversation by the author of Wales Play in Red. Expect Wales" Six Nations triumph, in particular their 30-3 drubbing of England, to come up at some stage. Event: 288. TJ Clark Picasso and Truth - From Cubism to Guernica The eminent art historian explores the battle between intimacy and monstrosity in Picasso's art of the 1920s and 1930s from The Blue Room to Guernica, possibly his most turbulent and creative period. Event: 286. Simon Schama and teachers Our Children, Our History What kind of past is it that Michael Gove's proposed history curriculum offers to schoolchildren and their teachers? Can it be taught? Should it be taught? And what are the consequences for our national culture and identity? Free for teachers. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £5 Event: 294. The Earl of March The Goodwood Festival of Speed: The Earl of March talks to Mark Skipworth For those with petrol flowing through their veins, Charles Gordon-Lennox, known better as Lord March, has nothing short of hero status. In 1993, he brought the roar of racing engines back to his Goodwood estate with the inaugural Festival of Speed. Back then 30,000 people turned up to what was in effect a garden party mixed with motorsport. In July this year, that garden party celebrates its 20th anniversary, and will play host to 185,000 visitors. Knitting together the many and varied businesses on his estate - horseracing, organic farming, a hotel - is a daunting task. As Lord March described in The Aristocrats, a Channel 4 documentary screened over the winter: "The idea of us sitting here nicely in the library every day and reading the papers, just forget it; that's just not happening. If I'm sleeping fine every night then I'm not doing the job properly. Venue: Google Big Tent £8 Event: 293. Ed Stourton Cruel Crossing - Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees This is the shocking history of the hundreds of men, women and children who, despite malnutrition and exhaustion, made the arduous and desperate climb through the Pyrenees during the Second World War to escape the Nazis. Event: 297. Marcus du Sautoy The Irrational, The Chaotic and the Incomplete The brilliantly entertaining and inspiring Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science explores the mathematical limits of science. With the Royal Society Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £7 Event: 298. Oliver James Office Politics The psychologist and author of Affluenza offers a fascinating exposé of modern office life and suggestions on "How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing and Dirty Tricks." Event: 300. Glyn Maxwell talks to Simon Armitage On Poetry The poet discusses his literary philosophy - that the greatest verse arises from a harmony of mind and body, and that poetic forms originate in human necessities: breath, heartbeat, footstep and posture. Event: 308. David Crystal Spell It Out: the Singular Story of English Spelling Why is there an "h" in ghost? William Caxton and his Flemish employees are to blame: in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears. The linguistics professor takes us on an epic journey to unearth the stories behind the rogue words that confound us. Sponsored by the Society of Indexers. Event: 314. Sebastian Faulks talks to Gaby Wood Fictions - A Possible Life Faulks's dazzling new novel journeys across continents and time to explore the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. In this open workshop he describes how he came to write it this way, and discusses his search for the language and form. Having written as Ian Fleming, and now working on a new Jeeves & Wooster book, Faulks is expert at finding other voices, as well as his own. Event: 313. Tom Holland The London Library Lecture - Decline and Fall? The historian, author of Rubicon and Persian Fire, explores whether the Romans had any comprehension that their empire could possibly fall. He attempts to identify a moment in history when the Roman Empire could be said definitively to have come to an end. In association with the London Library Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £7 Event: 315. Rhianna Pratchett BAFTA presents Writing Games The representation of women, both in games and the games industry, has been changing over the last few years, as more women become involved in the industry and audience expectations evolve. Come and meet Pratchett, the lead writer on the new Tomb Raider game. She played a key role in the re-imagination of the character, Lara Croft, long associated with stereotypical male fantasies. In association with BAFTA Venue: Google Big Tent, £8 Event: 320. Nick Harkaway The Blind Giant Is an age of isolation, warped communication and disintegrating communication destroying what it means to be human., or are we in an age of marvels? Ultimately the choice is ours: engage with the machines that we have created, or risk creating a world designed for corporations and computers rather than people. Event 324. John le Carré John le Carré talks to Philippe Sands Opportunities to hear John le Carré speak are rare, but his eloquence is utterly captivating. This is his first visit to the Hay Festival, and he comes not only with his remarkable back-catalogue, including A Murder of Quality and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but also a new novel, A Delicate Truth, about the intrigues within Whitehall and beyond surrounding a counter-terrorism operation. Telegraph readers will have an early chance to enjoy the whole of the first chapter on April 6. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £30 Event: 331. John Boyne talks to Sarfraz Manzoor This House is Haunted The bestselling Irishman, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Absolutist introduces his new novel. Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk as governess at Gaudlin Hall on a dark and chilling night... This Dickensian ghost story channels the spirit of Henry James" The Turn of the Screw and will linger long in the imagination. Event: 334. Alexander McCall Smith Happy Birthday Precious Ramotswe Join the party to celebrate fifteen years of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, which now comprises 13 novels, and catch up with favourite characters from Botswana, Scotland and beyond. A university lecturer, McCall Smith is as accomplished a speaker as he is with a pen in his hand. Event: 340. Philip Glass talks to John Berry The Perfect American An evening celebrating the UK premiere of a new opera by Philip Glass. The Perfect American imagines the final years of Walt Disney's life, including mythical imaginings of Abraham Lincoln and Andy Warhol. In part 1 the composer will discuss this groundbreaking new work and will be joined by the Director, Phelim McDermott, ENO Artistic DIrector John Berry and members of the production team. The opera is designed by Dan Potra with video design by 59 Ltd. Chaired by Clemency Burton Hill. In association with English National Opera Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £25 Barclays Pavilion Philip Glass Solo Piano A solo piano recital from the American composer featuring music from his classic repertoire. Event: 361. Deborah Moggach talks to Peter Florence The novelist discusses her recent projects, including the film adaptation of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the screenplay for Joe Wright's Anna Karenina and her new novel, Heartbreak Hotel. Event: 363. Robert MacFarlane Holloway In his new book, the acclaimed Cambridge academic and explorer uses a trip with Roger Deakin in 2005 as a starting point for a fresh examination of South Dorset's sandstone holloways. Event: 367. Steve Jones The Joy of Sects The geneticist, author of The Serpent's Promise: the Bible Retold, looks beyond the "believers vs non-believers" debate to explore the shared mysteries of science and religion. Event: 374. Rolf Heuer, Frank Close and Tara Shears This year's keynote science lecture will be given by the Director General of the Cern laboratory, which announced the discovery of the Higgs Boson on July 4 last year. Followed by a discussion with physicists Frank Close and Tara Shears. Event: 373. Robert Lindsay talks to Fiona Lindsay Other People The actor discusses the influences on his craft from sitcom to Broadway. Event: 376. Roy Strong talks to Peter Florence Self Portrait as a Young Man The makings of the man - from a North London suburb to one of the most charismatic sensibilities of the 20th century arts world. Event: 379. William Dalrymple The Return of a King The historian tells the story of British forces as they invade Afghanistan in 1839 and re-establish Shah Shuia ul-Mulk on the throne. After early successes, the British started to suffer as Afghan jihadis fought back, and were eventually forced into their most humiliating retreat of the 19th century. Sponsored by Lawrence & Elizabeth Banks Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £9 Event: 380. Rose Tremain talks to John Mullan Fictions - Merivel The novelist discusses her new book, in which she brings back the hero of Restoration, Sir Robert Merivel. The physician, and courtier to Charles II, faces up to the anxieties and agitations of middle age. Part of the British Council Series Venue: Wales Stage, £6 Event: 385. Antonia Fraser talks to Simon Jenkins Perilous Question The historian's new book explores the period between 1830 and 1832, when the most landed Cabinet in history undertook a series of sweeping reforms to bring liberty to Britain, culminating in the Great Reform Act. Event: 392 Rupert Everett Vanished Years: Rupert Everett talks to Paul Blezard For those who watched the early phases of Rupert Everett's career wondering if he had talent or taste (neither of which explain what he was doing in films with Jennifer Aniston or Madonna) his books bring the answer. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and The Vanished Years have won him a reputation as a writer to savour, not least for his catty, polished put-downs. However delicious the gossip, there is more to his work (even) than that: here are reflections on fame, family, moral compromise and memory, and he manages to be especially lacerating about his own meandering career. This is the most literary kind of celebrity memoir, with the sort of lush cover that somehow manages to work on a coffee table, and which would surely please the most discerning reader as a present (so long as you're not bffs with Jennifer Aniston, or Madonna). Event: 396. Robin Lustig talks to Phillipe Sands Sign-off The Veteran broadcaster, anchor of The World Tonight, reflects on his 23 years at the BBC, the management of news and the Corporation in crisis. Venue: Starlight, £6 Event: 394. Paul Theroux talks to Gaby Wood The Last Train to Zona Verde - Overland from Cape Town to Angola In what he feels will be his last African journey, Theroux sets out from Cape Town townships into the Namibian bush, to find a world increasingly removed from tourist itineraries. Venue: Wales Stage, £8 Event 399. Irvine Welsh talks to Stephanie Merritt Trainspotting At 20 The Scottish novelist celebrates the 20th anniversary of his iconic book, and discusses his recently published prequel Skagboys. Event: 404. Jo Brand The unmistakable Bafta-winning comedian and actor, star of Getting On and a firm festival favourite, returns for a live stand-up performance. Hilarity and plenty of rudeness guaranteed. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £17 Event: 406. Jonathan Dimbleby Destiny in the Desert The historian discusses the political and strategic realities that lay behind the battle of El Alamein in November 1942. Widely regarded as one of the Allies" greatest land victories of the Second World War, the battle turned the tide of the conflict in the Mediterranean and ensured Viscount Montgomery's place in British history. Sponsored by Nic & Sukie Paravicini Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £8 Event: 409. Rob Penn The Wild Woods A year ago, Rob Penn took over the job of managing Strawberry Cottage Wood, 50 acres of abandoned woodland at the entrance to Llanthony Valley in the Brecon Beacons. He discusses his experiences, looking at how we can make them pay as well as how we can value them in non-economic ways. Event: 416. NoViolet Bulawayo and Meike Ziervogel talk to Gaby Wood Fictions - Elsewhere In We Need New Names, the Zimbabwean novelist explores the process of leaving a country in dire trouble for the comforts of the West. Ziervogel's Magda looks at the relationships of Joseph Goebbels" wife. Event: 418. Monty Don The Road to Le Tholonet In his latest book and BBC series, Monty Don tours the gardens of France. He takes in everywhere from Versailles to the kitchen gardens of the Michelin-starred chef Alain Passard. Along the way he takes in potagers, back gardens and allotments. Event: 425. Vikas Swarup The Accidental Apprentice In his new novel, the author of Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Sapna Sinha, a young girl from Delhi who must pass seven tests to become the heir to one of India's biggest companies, after she is approached by a man claiming to be its CEO. Event: 427. Roy Hattersley The Devonshires Hattersley tells the story of the first eight Dukes of Devonshire. From 1381, when Sir John Cavendish was killed during the Peasants Revolt, to 1906, when the Duke's resignation brought down the Tory government, the Cavendish family's extraordinary history has mirrored the fortunes and misfortunes of the nation. Event: 426. Nick Ross Crime: How To Solve It and Why So Much of What We're Told is Wrong The broadcaster who founded the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at UCL challenges our assumptions about crime and what causes it. Event: 428. Michael Jacobs The Robber of Memories The Magdalena river is considered by some to be the most dangerous route in Colombia. On a journey down its length, Jacobs is captured by the Farc, has a chance encounter with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and reflects on memory, identity and the nature of mystery. Event: 431. Cerys Matthews Hook, Line and Singer The singer and guitarist introduces her celebratory journey exploring songs, lullabies and ballads from family life through the centuries. Presented by The Sound Castle Venue: Wales Stage, £7 Event: 434. Kevin Fong Extremes The anaesthetist and television presenter shares his experience of extreme medical practices, where human life is often held in the balance. On television he routinely uses his own body to test certain techniques, so he has a stock of experiential anecdote to draw on, as well as professional knowledge. Event 437 Miranda Hart Miranda, in conversation Miranda Hart, whose performances in Call the Midwife are revelations, is the author of Is It Just Me? in which she pinpoints the silliness she so often finds in life with top-drawer prose: the relaxed, improvised feel to her musings are likely to appeal to anyone, no matter which side of the "Is her sitcom reliably funny?" debate they're on. This is a chance to encounter the persona her most loyal fans will remember from her Radio 2 show, Miranda's Joke Shop. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £16 Event: 443. Alan Davies Life is Pain For the past ten years, the comedian and actor has stayed away from live stand-up, instead sticking to much-loved roles as the magician's assistant Jonathan Creek and the whipping boy of the other panellists on QI. He returns to the stage to close out the festival with a well-reviewed new show, in which he addresses the trials and tribulations of middle age. Venue: Barclays Pavilion, £27 To book tickets, and to read the full programme, go to hayfestival.org/boxoffice You can also book by phoning 01497 822 629