Hay Festival

Chapter 1

Peter Florence on Hay Festival around the world

Peter Florence founded Hay Festival with his father, Norman Florence, in 1988; since then he has taken it abroad, forming relationships with multiple book industries, and now it’s one of the most celebrated literary events in the world. We meet Peter to discuss how he’s taken the festival – and its market town in the Brecon Beacons – worldwide. Plus: Marcos Aguilar Vega, mayor of Querétaro City, and Cristina Fuentes, Hay’s Americas director, discuss the Mexican city’s upcoming Hay event.

Chapter 2

Caroline Michel on the business of book festivals

Before this year’s Hay Festival it was announced that Nielsen BookScan would be tracking sales at the event for the first time. But why now? And does a book festival mean as much business as a book fair such as Frankfurt? Holly Fisher meets with the chair of Hay Festival and Caroline Michel, CEO of literary agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop.

Chapter 3

Hay-on-Wye’s local talent

Hay-on-Wye’s rolling hills are an attractive source of inspiration for writers and artists and therefore the town has a rather arty population. We meet the duo behind ‘The Keep’, a new magazine based in Hay-on-Wye that showcases local talent, and talk to one those writers, Oliver Balch. Balch moved here after stints in Buenos Aires and London and tells us why this small market town ended up being the source of his new book ‘Under the Tump’.

Chapter 4

The publisher to know: Cassava Republic

Cassava Republic was established in 2006 in Nigeria and represents exciting new African authors. Last year the company branched out and opened a London office, which is now headed up by the company’s founder, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, while Brit Emma Shercliff runs the the Nigerian office in Abuja. Emma talks about the company and some of its authors.