Hay Festival unveils free schools events with Horowitz, Cowell and more

Hay Festival has revealed the spring edition’s free Programme for Schools, with headlining writers including Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell and Alex Rider creator Anthony Horowitz. 

Key Stage 2 events on 26th May will include Wales Book of the Year 2021 winner Caryl Lewis introducing her new novel, Seed (Henry Holt & Company), and Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell presenting Wizards and Magic (Hodder). 

Anthony Horowitz will discuss The Diamond Brother Detectives: Where Seagulls Dare (Walker Books), TV scientist Ben Garrod will launch Extinct (Zephyr) and Maz Evans his VI Spy: Never Say Whatever Again (Chicken House). BBC Radio 4’s Rich Knight will discuss If I Ran the Country (Wren & Rook).

Iszi Lawrence, engineer Roma Agrawal, M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman, Piers Torday, Nadia Shireen and Elle McNicoll will also attend. 

Key Stage 3 and 4 events on 27th May will see Welsh poet and playwright Eric Ngalle Charles perform Homelands (Seren) and Nigerian-Welsh writer Natasha Bowen offer her love story infused with West African mythology, Skin of the Sea (Penguin). 

Jacqueline Wilson will discuss Baby Love (Penguin), presenter of “Most Haunted” Yvette Fielding, The House in the Woods (Anderson Press), novelist Alex Wheatle, Kemosha of the Caribbean (Anderson Press), Christine Pillainayagam will debut her novel, Ellie Pillai is Brown (Faber & Faber), and Femi Fadugba will present his debut title, The Upper World (Penguin). 

They’ll be joined by Louisa Reid, Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates, Jeffrey Boakye, Sophie McKenzie and Alexis Caught, author of Queer Up: An Uplifting Guide to LGBTQ+ Love, Life, and Mental Health (Walker Books).

All sessions will be streamed free online with closed captioning available. The last full in-person Programme for Schools at Hay Festival in 2019 saw more than 10,000 pupils from primary and secondary schools across England and Wales attend. Digital editions over the past two years have reached more than 160,000 pupils with free events online.

The festival has also opened applications to the Beacons Project, a free creative residency for budding Welsh writers aged 16-18, and unveiled a 25% reduction in ticket prices for all those in further education. Full details can be found at hayfestival.org/education.

Aine Venables, Hay Festival education manager, said: “Following two years of enormous challenges for

young people in Wales and the wider UK, we’re delighted to be back offering in-person inspiration

alongside a vibrant digital offer for 2022. With the return of our free Programme for Schools and

Beacons Project alongside our new student ticket offer, we’re on our way to making this year’s festival

our most accessible and inclusive yet.”