
THE ILLUSTRATION HOT SEAT | ED VERE
There’s an innocent looking field outside the small town of Hay-on-Wye, which is home to one of nature’s great events. Each year towards the end of May, from all directions and all countries, an incredible gathering of great minds…
A COMMUNITY OF WRITERS | RHYS OWAIN WILLIAMS, WRITERS AT WORK
The last time I performed on a Bank Holiday Monday, I was 14 years old and ‘first saxophonist’ in Morriston Concert Band. This lofty position as lead on the reed wasn’t based on ability (I could barely read sheet…

ENDING ADVERSITY | LAURA BATES
Sometimes, numbers are so large that they threaten to become meaningless. We can comprehend an issue that affects a hundred people, or two hundred, but hearing about adversity and injustice that impacts millions can be difficult to process. So…

A FEAST OF DEBATE | JESSICA SEATON
The village of Hay-on-Wye hunkers under the steep slopes of Hay bluff, and for a short while the hugger-mugger tents of the festival gather around the southern skirts of the town, fields co-opted for car parks, helpful yellow-jacketed volunteers at…

MYTHS OF THE BRECON BEACONS – HORATIO CLARE
I picked up a poet in Hebden Bridge and we set out for Hay on a blazing afternoon. Zaffar Kunial is the gentlest of men, his quiet voice a serum against the bank holiday traffic as we battered through…
WHERE YOUR VOICE CAN BE HEARD – BY REFUGEE AICHA
Hi to everybody. I am Aicha Diallo, I come from Guinea in West Africa. I am 35 years old. Now I live in Newport in South Wales. I am alone in this country, something which is very sad for…

LIFE IMITATING ART – ARTEMIS COOPER
Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s conversation with Claire Armistead had already begun by the time I arrived on Tuesday. Lucy was talking about her first novel, Peculiar Ground, which is all about people building walls around themselves and their properties. As she was…
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