Quentin Blake

The illustrator and writer, whose collaboration with Roald Dahl and his own work, which includes Clown, Zagazoo, Mrs Armitage and the recent Beyond The Page, will give this years’s Hay Library lecture.

John McCarthy talks to Sandi Toksvig

McCarthy was kidnapped and held hostage in the Lebanon for five years. In the years since his ordeal, he has travelled through Israel and East Jerusalem, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the the Negev Desert. He will discuss his book “You Can’t Hide the Sun; A Journey Through Israel and Palestine.”

Christy Moore

The singer songwriter will play from his Folk Tale album, the latest in his long musical collaboration with Declan Sinnott.

Hans Blix

The Swedish politician and diplomat and former  Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency led the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq between 2000 and 2003.  He will be interviewed by Jon Snow.

Elif Shafak

The author of Honour, The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love will talk amongst other things about her fascination with the silent letter of her Turkish alphabet – the ‘Ghost G’.

Muhammad Yunus

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning pioneer of microfinance and founder of the Grameen Bank will talk to Nicholas Stern.

Carl Bernstein

The journalist who broke the Watergate story discusses the second-term Obama administration, the end of the Vietnam War and JFK’s assassination.

Mary Robinson talks to Helena Kennedy

The former President of Ireland and UN Human Rights Commissioner runs the Climate Justice foundation, which works for the millions of poor across the world who are most affected by climate change.

Rowan Williams and Neil MacGregor

A conversation about religion and imagery with the former Archbishop of Cantebury and the Director of the British Museum, and author and presenter of A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Amadou & Mariam

The legendary Malian duo bring their ‘exquisite, intergalactic Afro-pop’ (Time Out) to Hay.

Dara Ó Briain

The Irish comedian and presnter brings his Craic Dealer show to the 2013 Hay Festival.

John le Carré

The creator of George Smiley and author of spy thrillers The Constant Gardener and The Honourable Schoolboy makes his first appearance at the Hay Festival and talks about his work to Philippe Sands.   A new novel A Delicate Truth is out in May.

Philip Glass

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.   The composer will discuss this his new work and will be joined by ENO Artistic Director John Berry and members of the production team. The opera is directed by Phelim McDermott.  Glass will also give a solo piano recital featuring music from his classic repertoire.

A raft of new events have been announced in the last 24 hours for this years’s Hay Festival.  They include appearances by actor Rupert Everett and comedian Dawn French, although both are entertainers, actors and successful writers.  Everett’s first memoir ‘Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins’, his first hilarious and charming memoir which details his accounts of filming with stars such as Madonna, Sharon Stone and Julia Roberts, was a bestseller. He will be talking to Paul Blezard about volume two, ‘Vanished Years’ which documents a pilgrimage to Lourdes with his father, a misguided foray into reality TV and takes the reader on a journey from New York to Moscow and Phnom Penh.

Dawn French, is also a best-selling author and she will be at Hay to discuss her new comic novel, ‘Oh Dear Silvia’ as well as her bestselling memoir ‘Dear Fatty’ – “I am perfectly happy with how I look and I always have been. I’ll always be a fat girl and I am happy with that” she has said.

Music events just announced for this year’s festival will include the British premiere of Philip Glass’s new opera, The Perfect American, and a concert by Noah and The Whale.

Tickets for the new shows are on sale now to Friends of the Hay Festival and will go on sale to the general public from tomorrow; Wednesday 27 February.

The appearance forms part of their UK tour which will follow the release of a new album, Heart of Nowhere, on May 6th.  The album is the band’s fourth record and follows 2011’s platinum-selling Last Night On Earth.  The band’s full line up is Charlie Fink on vocals and guitar, Tom Hobden on violin,  Urby Whale on bass, Fred Abbott on guitar and Michael Petulla on drums.

The first names confirmed for the Kells Hay Festival are Booker prize winners John Banville and DBC Pierre.   The 25 year old Hay Festival has now spawned 15 literary festivals around the globe.

Kells Chamber of Commerce President Ger Gaughran said: “Kells Heritage Festival is a similar event and could draw on the wealth of speakers that hit Hay each year”.  She added “we sent over a submission asking organisers to consider Kells as a location for a festival”. Members of the chamber visited Hay last year.  ”During our visit we met with founders and directors of the festival and found that they had great interest and knowledge of Kells and were very positive towards our idea. Aside from the festival, we think Kells would be the perfect location to develop an Irish ‘town of books,’ as a national centre for all genres of literature, old and new.”

Mary Portas was appointed by Steve Hilton in David Cameron’s office, to look at how we might revive the British high street.  Most of the country is desperate to regenerate the high street, she believes and she’s speaking in a town where feelings are running high on that subject. The people of Hay, perhaps as many as 85% are opposed to the arrival of a new supermarket, which Portas was careful not to name, but is known to be Tesco.

She has spoken to the campaigners leading ‘Plan B for Hay’ and is clearly sympathetic and supportive.  Her views nationally and their’s locally are clearly aligned.  She does however express some concern as to whether ultimately the people of Hay can have an effect.

Portas turns to the question of manufacturing and acknowledges that we will never match the capacity of India and China to produce low cost high volume clothing but she points out that designer manufacturing has also moved offshore from the UK.  She believes that with the right strategy we could bring as much as 30% of fashion manufacturing back to the UK, but we only have 10 years in which to do it before we lose our native skills.  She tells us how delighted she was to hire a former seamstress for her Kinky Knickers project who had been stacking shelves for Tesco.

Internet has replaced mediocre retailers and for many chains has reduced their need to be in as many places.   We need to better define what the high street is for.  Last year’s rioters were people with no sense of belonging, we need to create community by turning high streets into multi functional civic places.

Portas shows us a short film about Margate, which shows just how far decline of the high street can go – she will be working with Margate to attempt to arrest that decline an involve the retailers are the core “decision making should be the responsibility of the people of that town”.

She believes she is making inroads with the government but some of her more radical proposals are “still under review”.  The scale of her task is brought into sharp relief when she mentions that on her visits to number 10 she is “always bumping into the head of publicity and marketing for Tesco”.

She finishes with a  quote from Gandhi relayed to her by David who drove her to Hay “be the change you want to see”.