Hay Winter Festival

Posted on December 02, 2019

Last weekend was Hay Winter festival. I attended the festival as both a member of the audience and as a performer. I’d gone up the day before my event primarily to hear Bernadine Evaristo speak about her book, Girl, Woman, Other. This was early evening, and before that Nicola Davies and I read for a Letters to the Earth in the foyer of the festival, with Tara and Rosie and also with Amelie who had brought along a beautiful poster.

Before Bernadine we went to The Old Electric Shop for lunch and there I met and fell in love.

With a teapot.

Jackie made me tea in the pot, and a small piece of cake seemed to find its way onto my plate, and we talked over lunch about plans for things, then wandered off to sign books for The Poetry Bookshop and The Old Electric Shop’s new bookshop where The House Without Windows was riding a white horse. Far too many books seemed to be desired, and the day slipped away in talking and reading, until it was time to become part of the packed audience to listen as Bernadine talked about her characters, writing, being edited, a writer’s life. And more. Much more.

But don’t take my word for it, as already the event is up on line to listen to, and Hay Player costs £10 for a year. And that £10 gives you access to film and sound recordings of all the events over the years at Hay. So many that you can wander back through history and hear writers grow and develop both as writers and as public speakers. You can, in some cases, almost hear them grow up. I think Peter Florence said Owen Sheers was 12 or 15 when he first spoke at Hay.

Next day it was my turn to take the stage. You can read about the event, with the utterly wonderful Mererid Hopwood on the Hay website. And again, you can listen if you follow the links from their blog. Hay have been the most amazing champion of The Lost Words, from early days when they asked Robert and I to speak at the Winter Festival and the book was awarded Hay Festival Book of the Year. This event was a celebration of the new branch of The Lost Words, Geiriau Diflanedig, adapted/translated into Cymraeg by Mererid Hopwood.

Together we spoke a spell to conjure a Red Fox and a Cadno Cogh, using the spell first written by Robert Macfarlane.

event It costs £10 to sign up, but that gives you access to the most wonderful resource, the whole world of the Hay Player.

The foxes from Hay will be auctioned at some point to raise money for the Hay Foundation. In the meantime I still have two smaller foxes, around 20 x 27cms ish. And I am offering these for sale for the Big Green Bookshop’s campaign to buy books for Shelter.

£500 each, these were practice pieces for the BBC Prom in the Albert Hall. If you wish to have one email me before donating to the bookshop.

Home now, and I have work to do. Tomorrow there should be an announcement about The Unwinding, including a publication date. Next week we are hoping for a cover reveal of some kind. It is good to be home, with a new teapot to unwind with, and I am wondering what tales this one has to tell.

Clear skies are helping the heart and it’s good not to have to wade through water to get to the front door. Beautiful sunset last night and I hope for many more of these.

So, listen out for exciting updates on The Unwinding and from Number Seven Dulverton, who have plans for something that we hope will be wonderful. And in the meantime sign up to The Hay Player. It carries a wealth of talks from writers and illustrators, amazing people, from far and from wide.

Anyway, for now, here’s the link to the festival blog post.

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