With Hay Festival Winter Weekend happening 28 November – 2 December, we asked Write On! page editor Eithne Cullen to share her experience at Hay Festival earlier this year in May. Book tickets for the Winter Weekend here.

Photo (c) Adam Tatton-Reid, 2024.

The Tale Of An Adventure by Eithne Cullen

It started, as all good adventures do, with a train whistling its way from Paddington Station. There were no curious strangers lurking in shady corridors; in fact, there was no space for them. For some of us, it was standing room only.

Arriving in our glorious lodge, with views of the Brecon Beacons, hills and endless sky, we silently prayed it would stay dry.

But we weren’t there to sit still and admire the view. We hastily made our way to the festival site and the real adventure began.

What a wealth of talent awaited us: events, readings, laughter and music. We were there for just a few days of the 11-day-programme. Hay Festival is one of the world’s biggest and best literary festivals. Hay-on-Wye has been named as a book town ever since ‘King’ Richard Booth opened the first secondhand bookshop 50 years ago. The launch of Hay Festival in 1988 earned it a place on the literary and global map. What a wonderful adventure for us, the ‘Stealthy Seven.’

First stop, an audience with Clive Myrie, talking to Kirsty Lang about his life growing up in Bolton and his mum’s insistence on education. He is a child of the Windrush Generation, many of whom saw education as a key to a better life. Barrister placement or BBC? Thankfully, he chose the latter. His mum has still not forgiven him, he said!

We rushed around, seeing as many speakers as we could. Alice Roberts was on the global stage bringing us together with her new book Crypt, and Maggie Aderin-Pocock spoke about the art of stargazing from her brilliant book explaining the sky at night, to name just two.

Late evening Book Club with Robin Ince was a funny, manic, quirky, great chat with Stephen Mangan, Laura Bates, gender and equality campaigner, as well as Benji Kusi, Tik Tok creator, about their reading lives.

Tired after our day of fun and travel, we headed back for lashings of lemonade (or gin in a tin, as Mary called it!).

The rest of the days were filled with activity. As well as playing an adventurous game of ‘Hunt the Write On! magazines’ which we successfully won on the third day, we packed in as many events as we could.

In no particular order, our highlights included: John Boyne, speaking about his new series of books: Fire, Water, Earth and Air – dealing with stories of abuse, presenting gritty and complex narratives exploring guilt, shame and facing the consequences of one’s actions.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author Jeanette Winterson interviewed her MA student Rose Wilding about what Winterson called her ‘Fearsome, frightening, chilling, gripping, feminist’ debut novel, Speak Of The Devil, which begins with seven angry women in a hotel room, standing around the severed head of a man – nothing to do with these seven women! Jeanette Winterson enthralled by reading one of the stories from her ghostly new short story anthology Night Side Of The River. Winterson has recently had experience of a ghostly presence in her old house in Spitalfields. This and mysterious occurrences in childhood has led her to explore death and the possibility of what is on the other side.

I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was is Ruby Wax’s current one-woman show, based on her book and recent experiences with descending back into mental illness.

Marian Keyes spoke to Kirsty Lang about writing her book, My Favourite Mistake. She writes with humour about serious subjects: alcoholism, divorce and abuse, and left us howling with laughter.

Two great Michaels: Michael Rosen and Michael Morpurgo were engaging and amusing. Michael Rosen showed in one minute that kids ‘get’ poetry and write poems without the aid of AI or a tablet. He was captivating, funny and introduced his new book, The Incredible Adventures Of Gaston Le Dog.

Author of War Horse, Morpurgo discussed his new book All Around The Year, a new edition of his 1979 novel about the charity Farms For City Children, which has enabled over 100,000 city children to spend a week in the countryside living and working on a farm. He finished with a song, John Barleycorn, in a very touching rendition.

On a more serious note, a panel of academics discussed AI, concluding that AI offers both risk and opportunity.

From the political world, Former Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, spoke to Brenda Hale (the Member of the House of Lords who is more famous for being the one to rule against Boris Johnson in the Supreme Court) about her latest book, Another England. Wes Streeting spoke about his childhood and his autobiographical One Boy, Two Bills And A Fry Up: A Memoir Of Growing Up And Getting On. And Ed Miliband spoke to David King (UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, 2000–07 and Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, 2013–17), taking a deep dive into the pivotal moments of the climate crisis.

Much enjoyment came from Helen Lederer and Doon Mackichan, as they spoke about being pioneering women in comedy from the late 70s and through the 80s and 90s, up until now. Lederer said the 80s stand-up comedy scene was a hostile environment for women, as was the theatre and TV scene for Mackichan, where not only was there little opportunity to play parts other than wife, girlfriend or ditsy secretary, you were also liable to be sexually assaulted by your male co-stars. In order to survive, these 80s women in comedy had to create their own shows, or rely on individual men who would champion them.

Speaking of comedy, Sara Pascoe entertained in two events: in her question-and-answer session, she talked about her first novel, Weirdo, which aims to reveal all the honest thoughts and feelings we all have, if only we would admit to them. The event was surprisingly moving, and she ended the session quite tearful. She’s recently had two children, which posed a challenge with sleep and deadlines looming. She made a plan, at 14, to be an actress, to write books at 40 and, at 50, to be Prime Minister. Now she’s a successful performer and author in her 40s. We should watch this space! The most moving moment was when a member of the audience asked her what she would say to her 14-year-old self. Later, she performed a stand-up set. The bulk of the show, though, was about the changes and lows in Pascoe’s life now she’s a mother. We’re proud to say we were able to connect with Sara at the festival and she was our cover star and lead interview for Write On! magazine, issue 22, available to read online here.

Historian Bettany Hughes’s talk was meant to take us through each of The Seven Wonders Of The World but we only made it to the fourth before time ran out; she had so much to say. Apparently, there is the (spoiler alert) tentative possibility of a The Seven Wonders Of The World TV documentary series (presumably in seven parts?), and I look forward to learning more about the three we didn’t get to hear about this time.

Later, while we seven adventurers were treating ourselves to lashings of hot chocolate and cake, one of our number accosted Bettany in the walkway, involving her in a chat about Pen to Print. She was very interested in the work of Pen to Print and Write On! and was happy to give us her email to contact her for a possible interview or writer’s tips. We also took a great photo which she tweeted on her page.

A real treat to finish off the festival was hearing composer Anaiis Mitchell talk about her epic journey to get the musical Hades Town from Canada to the West End. This was interspersed with the cast performing excerpts from the show. The music was fantastic, with gospel, soul and jazz rhythms telling the tale of Orpheus and Persephone.

So, after all the adventures, events and excitement, the ‘Serendipitous Seven’ faced their journeys home to east London – sad to say goodbye, but buzzing with the excitement of what we’d seen, heard, read and sampled.

Hay, we loved every moment and can’t wait to do it again!

Hay’s Winter Weekend: 28 November – 1 December is open for booking. Guests include David Olusuga, Carol Verderman, Matt Frei,  Jenny Eclair and David Spiegelhalter. You can find out more here:   hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home

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Connect with Eithne on X: @eithne_cullen and Instagram: @eithnecullen57

Eithne’s books are available on Amazon:The Ogress Of Reading, Never Not In My Thoughts  Pencils And Other Stories

You can hear great new ideas, creative work and writing tips on Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo, or find us on Podcasters.Spotify.com.

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