you can listen now to our preview Haycast, in which Sarfraz talks to Claire Armitstead, Clare Purcell of the Hay festival office and me(!) about what's coming up at this year's festival. from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Listen to our Haycast preview programme
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Catching the train from Paddington to Hereford at the end of May is definitely one of the highlights of my year: those of you who've been up there in years past will know that unless you're a rigorous upholder of the Derridean view that il n'ya pas de hors-texte, there really is nowhere better for a book lover to be than Hay.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hooray! We're off to Hay
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In these few quiet moments before the crowds descend, the festival site feels oddly unconvincing - like a school without children, or a film set without actors. The walkways, food stalls, picnic tables and deck chairs are all in place, but nothing comes to life until the people are here to fill them.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: Settling in
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The festival is also taking its role as a pioneer of ethical, organic, locally-sourced eco-tasticness more seriously then ever: there are stand-pipes from which to fill your water bottles, solar panels dotted about the place and bins for all your different rubbish needs.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: stand back, it's all kicking off
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Sarfraz [Manzoor] talks to Beryl Bainbridge and her documentary film-maker grandson Charlie Russell about Beryl's Last Year. Beryl superstitiously believed she was going to die at the age of 71 and Charlie followed her for the year as she contemplated her own death. And books editor Sarah Crown talks to Steven Hall about his debut novel The Raw Shark Texts.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast: Beryl Bainbridge on death and Steven Hall on memory
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They have a board up outside the event decorated with dozens of words chosen by festivalgoers - from the sublime (freedom, peace, passion) to the ridiculous (gobbledigook, gallivanting), and even (philofocus, dodihendron) the made-up.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: the power of words
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Education Action, one of the festival's official charities, is using the 'Words for the World' campaign to draw attention to their support for education for children in conflict zones. Festival visitors are being asked to donate £1 to add their favourite word to a pinboard outside the charities' tent, and Education Action is calling on everyone from authors and journalists to politicians and members of the public to visit the website and add their own favourite words.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Hay snorkles for top words
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Anxiety-inducing as it undeniably is, however, I'm finding the podcasting side of this year's festival deeply enjoyable, and even managed a Guardian scoop of sorts when talking yesterday to David Mitchell, who revealed--exclusively, ladies and gentleman!--that his next book will be (and I quote) "a historical, Dutch-Japanese novel set in the Napoleonic war". Bring it on.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: I'm anxious, it's pouring, they're dancing
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Literary editor Claire Armitstead talked to Kiran Desai about her Booker-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss and Sarah Crown asks David Mitchell, author of Black Swan Green, what is was like writing a conventional novel.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 02: Gordon Brown, Kiran Desai and David Mitchell
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The pounding rain and tent-bowing wind were the perfect sound effects for this wild, natural poem: when [Simon] Armitage stood at the front of the darkened stage, lit up like an oracle, words and weather came together in a moment of symbiosis the equal of which I haven't seen at this festival or any other.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: A dark and stormy Simon Armitage
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Spotted
AA Gill, in a pinny, serving almond tart at the River Cafe event.
Dara O'Brian picking up where AC Grayling left off, on the dance floor at the Sky party.
A teenager picking her way through the mud, muttering, "This is worse than Glastonbury."
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: Why is AA Gill in a pinny?
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Sarfraz Manzoor talks to Dave Eggers about his latest book What is the What, a memoir of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee separated from his family during the Sudanese civil war.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 03: Dave Eggers, Ian Rankin and a gastronomic tour of Hay
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Sarfraz Manzoor takes a look at what poetry is on offer at Hay. He talks to Sarah Crown about the Poetry Gala, which finds seven poets reading their work, then Gillian Clarke takes us on a tour of the Poetry Bookshop.
from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 04: Poetry Gala, Gillian Clarke, Richard Dawkins and Clive James
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