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.