Hay Festival 2012: day two as it happened

Highlights and pictures from the second day at the Telegraph Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.

Chris Evans and David Walliams.
Chris Evans and David Walliams. Credit: Photo: Clara Molden

The Hay Festival 2012 in Hay-on-Wye takes place between Thursday 31 May and Sunday 10 June. For reviews, news and pictures from the event see our

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Day Two: Friday 1 June

• Chris Evans's wife Natasha has had a baby boy, meaning that he had to miss his live Radio 2 broadcast from Hay this morning. David Walliams and Alex Jones stepped into the breach for the radio show
• Tim Minchin performed comedy rock tunes with his band last night - check out our pictures below, and read our review. He'll be repeating the trick later
• Will Young says he loves the Hay countryside (see below)
• War Horse author Michael Morpurgo appears twice
• Former Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle brings her Brit-hop to the valleys tonight

Latest:

21.08 Phew! So that's it from our live blogging of day two of the Hay Festival. Thanks to all of you who helped with tweets, blogs, pictures. We'll see you tomorrow morning for the third day in Hay-on-Wye.

21.01 Plus Harry Belafonte will be talking to David Lammy at 5.30pm, while a screening of the new documentary about him will take place at 8.30pm in the big tent.

Don't forget Simon Armitage at 4pm for those poets among you.

20.55 So we'll begin winding down the blog with an overview of what to expect tomorrow. There's Hilary Mantel at 1pm in conversation with Peter Florence in the Barclays Pavilion. The Telegraph ran extracts of her new book Bring up the Bodies and she talked to Thomas Penn about it too.

Mariella Frostrup will be recording her show for Sky Arts at the Festival with Philipa Gregory as a guest, among others. Sarah Crompton gets to interview comedian Tim Minchin at 10am (!) where he'll talk about his superb stage version of Matilda.

Lauren Child the children's author will be talking as part of Hay Fever at 9am for the early birds. Salman Rushdie will be taking part in an even for Hay 25 with Niklas Frank, Elif Shafak and Jum Al-Khalili at 7pm in the Barclays Pavilion

20.45 Louise Gray's news story on her encounter with Dr Love Paul Zak is now up online. It's intriguing stuff:

Dr ‘Love’ as the Professor of ‘Neuroeconomic at Claremont Graduate University is known, even went to Papa New Guinea to prove that people outside western society also bond with strangers.

He explained that oxytocin has developed over evolution to help humans work together in society. It is released when we need to live alongside one another and increases our capacity to trust, feel empathy and commits acts of kindness. It also makes people feel good.

So shouldn’t we just bottle the stuff?

20.40 We may have found the person who wrote in the Telegraph Tent about Catherine Tate:

@laurenmenday: @Abba_Lou I served Catherine Tate today! She's much skinner in real life #hayfestival

See below for the declaration:

A fan of Catherine Tate at the Hay Festival

The Telegraph Tent allows people to express their emotions

20.31 People particularly enjoying talks by Michael Morpurgo, it seems:

@contraryjones Lovely day at #hayfestival - Michael Morpurgo was awesome. I've rediscovered my love of stories. http://t.co/yFJptUUJ

Here's her picture - the infamous 'town of books':

Hay -on-Wye

At Hay-on-Wye for the Hay Festival

RT @midaspr: "close down a library and you cut children off from the oxygen of enlightenment" Michael Morpurgo on importance of libraries @hayfestival

20.21 People are getting ready for tonight's two gigs - Tim Minchin and Speech Debelle:

@laughablefellow Off to steward in the barclays pavillion for Tim Minchin @hayfestival #fb

@adampie86 Sat outside @hayfestival eating burgers listening to @timminchin sound check.loud. #goodbook appropriate song for a book festival!

20.11 Could Only Fools and Horses return to our screens? Marleeen?! Rodders! Etc etc. Neil Midgley has the scoop:

Neil Midgley

Thought that Only Fools and Horses was over for good? You plonker!

John Challis, who played Boycie in the long-running BBC One sitcom, told the Telegraph Hay Festival that there is still an outside chance of an on-screen reunion for Del Boy, Rodney and their friends.

To be fair, Challis said that the show's return is now "pretty unlikely", given that its creator John Sullivan died last year. But, pointed out Challis, John's son Jim wrote a number of episodes of the Boycie-centred spin-off series, The Green Green Grass. "So Jim might pick something up and run with it," said Challis. "It's unlikely there would ever be another full series though. We'd all be doing it on Zimmer frames."

Sir David Jason, who played Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, says growing political correctness is no laughing matter.

The Only Fools and Horses crew

19.55 The multi-linguist David Bellos has been at Hay today, talking about interpretation with Daniel Hahn. Louise Gray our Science/Environment guru went to listen:

Louise Gray

Lost in translation with David Bellos [Event16]

If someone asked you for a shot in the dark, what would you think? They want you to to shoot them? To pass them an alcoholic drink in a darkened room? Tell a joke? In fact they want an Americano coffee with a shot of expresso in it. A common request in US coffee shops apparently, but an unknown concept in Europe.

The multi-linguist David Bellos used this article to demonstrate the trickiness of translation.

He explained that translation is not like it was in school, when pupils have to painstakingly look up every word in a language dictionary, to create rather clunky sentences.

In fact translation is a process of “reframing, re-contextualisation and re-imagination.”

Even then we do not get it quite right.

For example translations of Freud from German added different meanings to the complex world of psychoanalysis. Even today it is constantly being re-translated to try and find the true meanings of the words.

It may sound frustrating to admit that we struggle to get language exactly right but in fact it makes it even more exciting to push the boundaries of language by embracing translation as an ever evolving art.

19.44 Sarah Crompton updates us from the Owen Sheers talk:

Sarah Crompton

When

Dominic Cavendish

reviewed

at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket last year, he gave it five stars. "Powerfully affecting," he said. "The simple sight and sound of injured servicemen and women sharing their stories."

It was the same when author Owen Sheers and his cast of injured soldiers took to the stage here. They speak so powerfully and directly about what happened to them - and about how taking part in a play has helped them to come to terms with those experiences.

As former Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Hill put it: "It turned me round." He suffered brain injuries in a shrapnel attack and found the experience of performing stressful; he won't continue to perform in the play when it embarks on a tour next month. But the project released his inner bohemian: he is now writing poetry and a book.

Cassidy Little, on the other hand, thinks he may pursue the acting life - though his fiancee sitting in the audience might have other ideas. "Medical school," she shouted out.

Whatever the impact of this extraordinary drama on the participants, it has helped to change the minds of the military. The Royal British Legion, which along with Haymarket Masterclass has supported the project, has previously used sport as part of the rehabilitation process. Now it is planning to use the arts as well.

There's an Imagine on BBC on June 26 about the play and the tour starts in Birmingham on July 19. For more information www.bravo22company.com

19.36 As part of his BBC radio 2 Breakfast Show, Chris Evans was holding a short story competition for children called 500 words. He announced the winners and we present their stories online.

Here's a look at the story by Isobel Harwood, the winner of the 10-13 category:

'Where art thou, Lady Guinevere?” …

Oh no! I don’t deserve this, do I? I sighed nervously, ragged breaths following, my second week of high school about to implode! As I turned, I saw Peter, missing his old knight costume, but beautifully improvised with a paper crown and branch sword. He was surrounded by a group of smirking teens, shooting names and sarcastic arrows. Peter didn’t notice! Not really! He was too absorbed, possessed by his latest role.

In the nine and under category, the winner was Isobel Murray:

I feel odd. There’s no other word for it. My life is changing again. My brother Oscar and I had only just settled into life as evacuees and now we’re going home to a place I can hardly remember. I have heard about the war on Mrs Brisbane’s radio. I know that many of the houses have been bombed and some whole streets have been destroyed. Will I even recognise my home?

19.28 ...and Louise Gray obviously did a little more than talk to Dr Love, as her tweeting shows....

@loubgray I hugged Dr Love! @pauljzak Levels of oxytocin soaring... #hay25 @SafiaMinney

19.15 Louise Gray saw Paul Zak talk earlier today on the Digital Stage. He's also known as Dr 'Love' apparently. The neuro-economist has discovered the molecule which makes us do nice things.

Louise Gray

If you thought anyone did anything out of the goodness of their heart think again - its just biology.

Paul Zak, the neuro-economist, told Hay Festival he has discovered a 'moral molecule' called 'oxytocin'.

In a series of experiments he found that the hormone increases when people commit an act of kindness.

Louise's entire encounter with Dr Love will be up on our website in a moment.

19.07 Of course there's a bank holiday on the horizon this eveining, several happy tweeters excited about that:

@cerithmathias #HayFestival & b'day celebrations on the agenda this weekend. Good job there's a double bank holiday to fit it all in! #hopingforsun

19.00 Anita Singh has filed her review of Chris Evans's BBC radio 2 Breakfast Show. The one which he didn't turn up to. Turns out it still worked....

The Chris Evans Breakfast Show broadcast live from Hay with one minor adjustment: no Chris Evans. The Radio 2 DJ was called back to London for the birth of his second child, leaving Alex Jones and David Walliams to hold the fort. No matter, as this show was all about the kids - winners of the 500 Words short story competition, which this year had a record 74,000 entries.

The stories were a mix of sad, funny, serious and seriously off-the-wall. Cow On A Bus by Guy Rose (aged eight) contained the wonderful line: “Now, you know what terrible gossips cows can be...”

Listeners worried that the young of today lack ambition or work ethic were reassured. One girl was asked if she’d written any other bits and pieces. “Yes,” said Millie Haldane, aged 11. “I’ve done a sequel to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

18.48 A tweet just through from Lindsey Hilsum, who will be talking to David Aaronovitch at 7.45 tonight on the Wales Stage.

@Lindseyhilsum: Heading for @hayfestival. Driving through the lovely Herefordshire countryside. My gig tonight 7.45. Wish I cld stay the wkend. @FaberBooks

We wish you could too Lindsey!

18.37 There's a Catherine Tate fan hanging in the Telegraph Tent. What's more they can't surpress the need to share their passion. Should we be worried?

A fan of Catherine Tate at the Hay Festival

The Telegraph Tent allows people to express their emotions

18.21 Stop press! Literally. The Telegraph Tent has run out of interactive roll:

The Telegraph interactive roll in the Telegraph Tent

The Telegraph roll in the Telegraph Tent

18.07 Success! It makes you feel good doesn't it? Well it can even change the chemistry of the brain - so Professor of Psychology Ian Robertson discovered. Neil Midgley was at his talk:

Neil Midgley

It's official: Gordon Brown defies psychological analysis. At least, that was the conclusion of Ian Robertson, professor of psychology, in his session at the Telegraph Hay Festival about how success changes the chemistry of the brain. Success, he explained, comes from a heady blend of talent, confidence, practice, persistence and luck. Victory over strong opponents is more likely for those who have had their testosterone levels built up by previous victories over weak ones. Success is good for you: Oscar-winners live, on average, four years longer than mere nominees. And wimpy male cichlid fish physically transform into peacock alpha-males if they take over the territory of a dead alpha-male. So why, asked a quick-witted questioner in the audience, was Gordon Brown such a disaster when he took over Tony Blair's territory in Downing Street? "I could not begin," said Robertson with a self-deprecating chuckle, "to analyse Gordon Brown."

18.00 Digital culture editor Martin Chilton has been watching Conor Woodman in the Big Tent. The former City analyst talked about trading, business and the like:

Martin Chilton

Conor Woodman, whose book Unfair Trade - How Big Business Exploits the World’s Poor and Why It Doesn’t Have To was long listed for the 2012 Orwell Prize, has been in conversation with Hay's green expert Andy Fryers on the Digital Stage. Galway-born Woodman, 38, who is a television presenter and writer, said that the Internet offered the greatest hope for people to buy ethically sourced goods directly. He gave plenty of food for thought with horror stories about Nicaraguan workers who work doing scuba diving for lobsters to supply the demand of the American restaurant business.They dive far more times than is safe, and without the best equipment, and hundreds end up in wheelchairs, he said.

Asked about the problem with big corporations and monopolies, Woodman replied: "What concerns me more than monopolies is Chinese investments in parts of the developing world where they are buying up land, fishing, mineral and mining rights. The Chinese have been going round buying up the world and we ought to be concerned by that."

17.41 Now started is the talk with Owen Sheers in the Big Tent. He's talking about his experience working with wounded solders on the West End in his play The Two Worlds of Charlie F. Have you read our piece by him?

Every book I read, in however infinitesimal a way, changes my life. It’s why I read. To see through the eyes of others. To have the world made strange again. To learn. To spend time in the pages of a book filtering life through someone else’s mind and therefore, sometimes, being led to see my own more clearly. I’d argue even a badly written book changes my life. There will always be that piece of information unknown to me before; an unfamiliar perspective. It may be unnoticeable at the time but even a bad book pushes at our boundaries and therefore increases our experience of what it means to be alive.

Our theatre critic Dominic Cavendish gave the show five stars when he saw it in January. Here's some film of the event

17.30 Lucinda Dickens Hawksley obviously had a wonderful time at Hay:

@lucindahawksly Fantastic afternoon @hayfestival - what a lovely audience & long book-signing queue. Thanks to everyone at Hay.

Sarah Crompton enjoyed meeting her - see her earlier blog entry.

17.21 Now these are what we call funky. Look at them! Brilliant cushions for sale at Hay. Sent in by Clara Molden, who has obviously got her eye on the set.

Cushions for sale at the Hay Festival 2012

Special cushions on sale at Hay. Picture: Clara Molden

17.11 A lovely tweet about our Hayly:

@TelegraphBooks - great looking Hayly Telegraph today. Almost feels like I'm there. #hay25 envy

Which, if you're not there you can read on our website

16.56 Michael Morpurgo talked emotionally about his visit to Gaza with Save the Children, where he witnessed a child being shot:

I heard the shots, then the screaming, saw the kids running to help their wounded friends. Now I really was outside the comfort zone of fiction. A doctor from Medecins Sans Frontieres told me that the shots were not fired by snipers from the watchtowers on the wall, as I had supposed, but that these scavenges were routinely targeted, electronically from Tel Aviv, which was over 25 kilometres away - ‘Spot and Strike’, the Israelis call it.

“It was like a video game - a virtual shooting, only it wasn’t: there was blood, his trousers were soaked in it, the bullets were real. I saw the boy close to, saw his agony as the cart rushed by me.

Read the full story on the Telegraph website.

Michael Morpurgo at the Hay Festival

Michael Morpurgo talking at the Telegraph Hay Festival

16.43 An update from Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor about Michael Morpurgo's talk on library closures:

Michael Morpurgo has written 127 books, he informed us, but one is a little more famous than the rest.

“Would you take some advice?” he told his audience in a mock-serious tone. “Marry someone who flatters you. Because I’ve written 80 books since War Horse but when my wife reads one, all she says is, ‘It’s quite good, but it’s not as good as War Horse, is it?’”

Morpurgo, one of our most beloved children’s authors, is rather good at jokes. His audience were in stitches through the Q&A - not least when he threw a coat over the teleprompter counting down the minutes until he had to clear off the stage.

But his lecture was a serious one, attacking the “shameful” closure of Britain’s libraries. Barring children’s access to literature, he argued with passion and conviction, is a form of child neglect.

16.26 Louise Gray has written a piece on Sir Terry Leahy's talk. The former head of Tesco gave a preview of his book which will be THE top book on business strategy and leadership:

Sir Terry Leahy, the former head of Tesco, has been accused of killing off the High Street after claiming at Hay Festival that every town centre should have a supermarket.

Hay-on-Wye is one of the few small market towns in Britain that has managed to avoid having a supermarket on the High Street.

At the moment Powys Council is considering allowing a supermarket to be built in the centre of town in return for developing a new school.

16.13 Arts Editor in Chief Sarah Crompton tells us what it was like to meet Dickens's great, great, great grandaughter:

Sarah Crompton

It is not every day that you encounter a triple great granddaughter of the even greater novelist Charles Dickens. But Lucinda Dickens Hawksley was at Hay talking about her illustrious ancestor, subject of her new book to commemorate his bicentenary.

She described it as "a labour of love" to look at the novelist from the perspective of the debt and poverty scarred childhood which shaped the man he became. She pointed out that the kind of celebrity Dickens has enjoyed is unique: he was stopped in the streets in his lifetime, yet now he is even more famous worldwide. "Very few celebrities achieve that," she said. "Will people be remembering Stephen Fry in 200 years time? And I mean no denigration to Stephen Fry when I say that."

16.07 Pictures are in from Michael Morpurgo's talk, but the nicest one is of the storyteller enjoying an ice cream in a Hay deckchair, wearing his trademark red suit.

MIchael Morpurgo at the Hay Festival

Michael Morpurgo having a blast at Hay. Picture Clara Molden

15.58 Phil Earle is not the only famous author Martin Chilton has been talking to however. Martin certainly gets around....

He's also been 'chilaxing', as Ken Clark would put it, with Boycie from Only Fools and Horses! (aka John Challis):

John Challis - aka Boycie - in the Telegraph tent

John Challis, aka Boycie from Only Fools and Horses in the Telegraph Tent

Martin Chilton

The Telegraph Tent was treated to a visit from Boycie (John Challis) from Only Fools And Horses. The actor, who will be talking at Hay later this afternoon about his biography Being Boycie, is (bonus points) a Telegraph reader and signed our interactive drawing table, putting: "Boycie and John Challis take the Telegraph! It rocks!"

The actor, who is attending Hay for the first time, is working on the second volume of his life story called Boycie And Beyond, which will deal with the years after 1985. He has also recently made a pilot for a comedy quiz show called Old Farts And Upstarts, which is chaired by Jo Brand. And, no, we didn't ask him to say 'Maaarlene!"

John left an indelible mark in the Telegraph Tent:

Message from Boycie in the Telegraph Tent

A message from John Challis in the Telegraph Tent

15.53 Martin Chilton has been listening to Phil Earle's talk on the Wales Stage:

Martin Chilton

Phil Earle, the acclaimed author of young adult novels Being Billy and Saving Daisy, entertained a packed audience of teenagers in the Wales Stage with anecdotes about his past and how to be a writer. He told them that his first (unpublished) novel, written a decade ago, was called Cotton Bud and was about a kid who was wrapped in cotton wool;. "I thought it would make me rich and my mum said it was brilliant. But strangely all the publishers thought it was crap and now it's in the bottom of a drawer destined never to come out."

Earle said: "Write about things you are passionate about." Read Martin's full story on the talk on our website.

15.48 A tweet just in from Anita Singh the Telegraph's Showbusiness Editor on Michael Morpurgo's talk that's just finished

@anitathetweeter Michael Morpurgo giving powerful, passionate, utterly brilliant speech about "shameful" closure of British libraries #hay25

Other tweets also jumping about the place about the writer's talk. It sounds like a hit:

@mardixon Listening to Michael M @hayfestival talking about #savelibraries - its everything to not tear up! Had Libarian intro him #hay25

@chongmayleng #MichaelMorpurgo #hay25 quoting Alan Bennett, the only reason we're here is to pass it on...

@chongmayleng #MichaelMorpurgo #hay25 Literacy is the oxygen of enlightenment. Stories make people think, and dream, and change...

15.41 Books Editor Gaby Wood reports on a meeting between Fashion Editor Lisa Armstrong and her fans:

The Telegraph's Fashion Editor Lisa Armstrong met some of her readers for an informal chat in the Telegraph's tent at Hay this afternoon. She explained that there are some things women wear when they are 20 that look just as good on a woman of 70. A gathering of ladies from Liverpool expressed admiration for her chic and classic sense of style, and Armstrong nodded in gratitude. "I like a stripe," she said, smiling at one of them, who happened to be wearing a navy and white striped top, and a pair of navy trousers with a black tuxedo stripe. "In fact, how long will you be here? Can I take a photo of you?"

As the conversation went on, Armstrong offered an intrigued critique of the uniforms worn by the staff at her hotel ("They wear little black dresses with white aprons that are very very short, and they seem to bend over rather a lot"), then reminisced about her first job in journalism. She was employed, she said, on "Fitness" magazine, which was owned by Richard Desmond, then a budding media emperor. Desmond's magazines were all housed in the same office, and the 'Fitness' desk was next to the 'Penthouse' desk. "I didn't actually work at Penthouse, but if they were at lunch I would answer the phone," Armstrong laughed. Our editor's admirers wanted to know more about her - where else she had worked (though they had followed her, of course, at Vogue and the Times before now), and whether she had a family. "Oh, yes," she said, "I have a 19 year-old and a - " she was unable to finish the sentence. There was so much incredulous cooing in the room about how young she looked that the conversation abruptly stopped. "I think we've had enough of you," one of her fans said, affectionately.

15.34 We mentioned earlier on that Lucinda Dickens Hawksley was slightly nervous about her upcoming talk. Well don't worry, she came out on top and beaming. Here's the great-great-great-grandaughter of Dickens...

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley at Hay Festival

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley at Hay. Picture: Clara Molden

15.30 Pictures have just come in of the Hay festival bus stop. It's a beaut! It's been specially designed for this year's festival. The ladies in the picture are looking slightly wary of the gentleman, who looks as though he wants their programme.... but hopefully he's just admiring the bus stop.

The Hay festival bus stop

The Hay Festival bust stop. Pictue: Jay Williams

15.18 The British Council will be streaming Salman Rushdie's Hay Festival session live on Sunday at 2.30. He'll be talking to Hay Festival director Peter Florence in the Barclay's Pavilion about Midnight's Children, The Enchantress of Florence and his other fictions. For those of you can only make Hay virtually.

15.15 A particularly special tweet we've noticed... Ice cream anyone?

@DotSeven: And for anyone going to #hayfestival, make sure you get one of these. #shepherds http://t.co/wW9CJHKp

Ice cream at Hay Festival

Yum. Ice cream courtesy of @dotseven

15.05 As we said yesterday, Hay isn't all about books. It's also about music! Last night Tim Minchin played in the Barclay's Pavilion, tonight he's treating Hay to another gig and following him will be Speech Debelle.

Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle will be performing at The Sound Castle at the 2012 Telegraph Hay Festival

Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle. Photo: Samuel Hicks

For those of you who want to know more about the music at Hay, Martin Chilton wrote about what's on offer.

Martin Chilton

Music will again be one of the night-time delights of the Telegraph Hay Festival - and this year there will even be an atmospheric off-site venue with concerts in the castle grounds.

The town’s beautiful landmark castle, which is 800 years old and in the process of a £5million renovation, will be the setting for a special club, The Sound Castle, holding around 500 people and showcasing a range of talent from jazz artists to hip-hop acts.

Acclaimed singer Cerys Matthews will perform a special Woody Guthrie concert to celebrate the groundbreaking American folk singer’s 100th anniversary.

15.00 It's time to see more lovely eco fashion isn't it? Here's a fantastic piece modelled by Alice Hughes. She's obviously fish-mad. We like the handbag. And the crab of course.

Alice Hughes at the Hay Festival

Alice Hughes at the Hay Festival. Picture: Clara Molden

14.51 Our Environment Correspondent Louise Gray has written a piece about the environment issues being debated at Hay this year. Yesterday was an eco-themed day and Louise was there listening to them all. Recconecting with nature is a major theme of the festival now, but dragging writers to a field in the middle of nowhere was harder back when Hay started:

Louise Gray

When Peter Florence decided to invite authors to the remote town in 1988, he realised that a key attraction was the rolling green farmland on the northernmost tip of Brecon Beacons National Park.

Ignoring warnings that authors “don’t do wellies” and their publishers “don’t do real ale”, he decided to make the historic market town and surrounding countryside a major attraction. It paid off, and now reconnecting with nature has become a major theme.

14.35 it also looks like today is the day that people are packing to travel down to Hay - lots of packing-related tweets:

@flungfar Seriously tempted to forget all the packing I have to do and head to Hay https://t.co/vnuyC3lR @meardaba & I enjoyed ourselves last year.

@sjpickering

Packed for #hayfestival , cycled & on train 1 of 3. Packing divided 60%summer 40%winter clothes - it is only June after all.

What to wear is the question! Pay heed people to what Sarah Crompton has said about the weather. Wellies probably should be on the agenda if you're sensible.

14.30 We've just seen a tweet from one of the writers about to go onstage for her talk on Charles Dickens:

@lucindahawksley Waiting backstage at the Big Tent @hayfestival #nerves #excitement

It's Lucinda Dickens Hawksley! She's Dickens' great-great-great granddaughter and she'll be giving an intimate portrait of the writer and showing some personal memorabilia.

For those of you who have been in a hole for the large part of the year, this year is Dickens's bicentenery.

14.25 Telegraph Books Editor Gaby Wood has been watching novelist Philippa Gregory talk to a tent full of teenagers:

Speaking to a tent full of teenagers about The Changeling, the first book in her new Young Adult series, The best selling historical novelist Philippa Gregory mentioned a strange fact she'd stumbled across in the course of her research. "Did you know," she said, "there are more registered alchemists today than there were in the 15th century?" A few members of the audience perked up visibly. "It's called kitchen-top alchemy," Gregory went on, "you can get books that tell you how to turn things into gold". She paused, realising what she might have set in motion. "No one's managed it yet," she added, and then, more firmly: "Don't try it at home without asking your mother!"

Philippa Gregory talked to our writer Philip Womack about what her novel:

The Changeling is set in 15th-century Italy, when the Ottoman Empire was flexing its muscles and the Christian Church was convinced that the world was about to end. It features a good-looking young monk who is sent out by the mysterious Order of Darkness to investigate strange phenomena – nuns having visions, rumours of werewolves – to map out what people fear. Even now, “we have a hunger for the miraculous,” says Gregory. Barely a year goes by without “statues moving or bleeding or crying or giving milk”.

14.10 Our Arts Editor-in-chief Sarah Crompton has turned weather girl. Here's your lunchtime report, straight from the Telegraph Tent, beamed worldwide into your computer boxes:

Sarah Crompton

Changeable: Some sun, some showers, and quite a lot of grey cloud. But temperatures are up on yesterday. Almost warm.

Watch out Prince Charles!

14.00 Lindsey Hilsum will be talking to David Aaronovitch about her experiences at 7.45pm tonight. It promises to be life-affirming stuff. Here's an extract from the piece she wrote for the Hayly Telegraph:

After 42 years [of Gaddafi, the Libyan people] were desperate to talk. I tell the story of Wanise Elisawi, incarcerated for 19 years in the notorious Abu Salim prison, and an eyewitness to the 1996 massacre in which 1,270 prisoners were killed. Women told me how, out of sight of TV cameras, they had run secret hospitals, or spied for the rebels during the uprising – they had lost their fear not only of Gaddafi but of men who might want to restrict them. One woman who had been close to Gaddafi told me why she still loved 'The Guide’.

13.58 If you fancy a good lunchtime read, try one of these excellent articles in today's Hayly Telegraph, our bespoke newspaper being published down at the festival: Foreign affairs journalist Lindsey Hilsum on witnessing the fall of Gaddafi, and an extract from David Bellos's book Is That a Fish in Your Ear? about translations.

13.50 Today's Hay Festival weather update: cloudy, rainy, cloudy. But mild until the late evening, hooray!

13.42 Poet, author and playwright Owen Sheers will be appearing at Hay at 5.15pm today, alongside wounded soldiers who appeared in his West End play The Two Worlds of Charlie F - which Sheers based on the experiences of the soldiers themselves. They'll all be talking to Alan Yentob about their experiences. In the meantime, Sheers wrote a column in today's Hayly Telegraph about how RS Thomas inspired him.

13.32 Children's author Phil Earle, who wrote Saving Daisy and Being Billy, has been snapped having a little sit down after he appeared at this morning's 'Programme for schools' event, alongside Francesca Simon and Andrew Hammond.

Children's author Phil Earle, having a wee sit down. Credit: Clara Molden

13.18 And here's the Tim Minchin review in full, with another pic of the be-suited Antipodean funnyman performing below.

Tim Minchin: 'profane, anti-religious' and full of 'schoolboy irreverence'. Credit: Clara Molden

13.04 Our critic Neil Midgley was at the Tim Minchin show last night. Here's a tantalising taster of his review, which will be up in full shortly:

Neil Midgley

In the closing number of Minchin's cabaret show, Woody Allen Jesus, Minchin compares our saviour not only to Mr Allen, but also to Derren Brown, a lizard, a vampire and a zombie. Schoolboy irreverence flecked through the whole show, with Minchin taking infectious delight in certain swearwords and sexual practices that are, perhaps, best not repeated in a family newspaper.

12.57 Our Arts Editor-in-chief, Sarah Crompton, was at the 'Programme for Schools' event this morning, where Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon was speaking. Here's her take on what Simon had to say:

Sarah Crompton

Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon, talking to a packed schools event, observed that most writers "ask ourselves so many questons and often the answer is a book." Her most recent set of questions was about the Lewis chessman, the 12th century Scandinavian chess pieces discovered in 1831 and now in the British Museum. The result was a book The Sleeping Army, for children over five, in which the chess pieces come to life.

She said it is her favourite of her books because it unites so many of her interests - she did Old English at Oxford and is facinated by Norse mythology. She also enjoyed creating a pagan version of the modern British state where Christianity had not happened and the official religion is Wodenism.

In the book, her heroine Freya is swept up to the kingdom of the gods. In its sequel, which she is now writing, the gods will come to stay with her in her modern home "which is no fun for anyone because they have only got one toilet."

12.43 Last year it was Rob Lowe, and this year it seems John Barrowman's pearly white smile and year-round tan are proving popular with the ladies at Hay. Telegraph Books maestro Sameer Rahim brings news of messages left on the desk in the Telegraph Tent. He thinks the first two were from schoolchildren, though he has his suspicions that a certain Telegraph correspondent may have left the last one:

"Today I was sick but Hay helped me"

"This is a very beautifully decorated space :)"

"Today I met John Barrowman and I got completely tongue-tied!! Love him!!!"

This certainly doesn't look like a child's handwriting to us:

John Barrowman has a secret admirer in the Telegraph Tent at Hay...

12.30 Will Young has been talking at Hay about how much he loves the bucolic environs of Hay. Anita Singh writes:

Forget rock'n'roll recording sessions. Will Young produced his new album in Hay after falling in love with the surroundings, and found the experience wonderfully relaxing. "I found myself heading back there again and again and occasionally canoeing on the river between sessions," he said. Young was at the festival to read a short story on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and started his day with a country stroll. Unfortunately, it wasn't incident-free: "My dog kept chasing after the sheep."

12.27 And here is the man himself, appropriately pictured wearing a green t-shirt.

John Barrowman, intergalactic eco warrior? Credit: Jay Williams

12.24 I mentioned we had a John Barrowman picture from Hay, didn't I? Well, uncannily on cue, our Environment Correspondent Louise Gray has some news on the man himself. Apparently, the star of Torchwood could be chasing aliens in future in an electric buggy:

Louise Gray

Actor John Barrowman, who plays Captain John Harkness in the popular series, took a shine to Renault Twizy after appearing at the Telegraph Hay Festival to read out a short shory on the Chris Evan’s show.

The ‘b-bugs’ are being offered to visitors to the Brecon Beacons National Park to promote more sustainable ways of travel as part of the Eco Travel Network, funded by the Brecon Beacons Sustainable Development Fund. The electric vehicles use much less energy as they are lightweight and are being run on renewable energy from solar and hydro. A single set of domestic PV panels generates enough electricity in a year to keep 5 Twizy-like vehicles on the road.

Today’s visitors to the National Park drive an average of 50 miles a day during their stay, producing 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. By offering a zero carbon alternative, the Eco Travel Network plans to reduce that substantially.The vehicles are also much more quiet and will go up to 50mph, depending on the terrain.

Lets just hope Captain Harkness can keep up with the aliens….

12.18 Here is the splendid Will Young, appearing at the aforementioned Radio 2 show this morning in Hay.

Will Young Picture: Jay Williams

12.11 Pictures coming up from this morning's Radio 2 broadcast. None of Chris Evans, of course, but Will Young and John Barrowman more than make up for that.

12.01 Here's another great shot of the Minch. Goodness, he's not wearing any shoes!

Tim Minchin performs at Hay Festival 2012.

Tim Minchin: "Anyone know where my shoes are?" Credit: Clara Molden

11.53 The Tim Minchin pictures are in, and they're fabulous. Have a gander at this, taken during his all-singing, all-dancing (and all-swearing, apparently) show last night with a full live band:

Australian comedian Tim Minchin.

Tim Minchin performing at Hay Festival 2012. Credit: Clara Molden

11.45 Good news! The gremlins have been fixed, meaning I can now bring you the full story about Chris Evans being airlifted out of Hay from our Showbusiness Correspondent Anita Singh

Here's an excerpt:

He planned to stay overnight and present his Radio 2 breakfast show, where he was due to introduce the young winners of the 500 Words short story competition. But around 9pm he received word that Natasha, 32, had gone into labour.

Evans tweeted: “Was at Hay. No longer. Back in the air. On the way to Baby Drop! Good luck with the show guys and well done to all the 500 Words finalists x.”

11.39 Don't forget to follow Sarah, along with @martinchilton, @anitathetweeter, @loubgray, @sameerahim, and @telegraphbooks for more regular Twitter updates from Hay than I am able to furnish you with.

11.32 Tim Minchin pictures coming up shortly, and I promise you'll hear about Chris Evans just as soon as the gremlins are bored. In the meantime, our Culture editor-in-chief Sarah Crompton has been tweeting from today's first Hay event, the 'Programme for schools', which features writers and experts talking to children.

@Sarahc_k: Francesca Simon @hayfestival: "We authors ask ourselves so many questions and often the answer is a book." #hay25 #hay

11.20 Internet gremlins are currently preventing me from bringing you the full story of Chris Evans's emergency evacuation from Hay Festival to see the birth of his son, Eli Alfred Michael Evans.

But in the meantime, the little birds in and around the Hay Festival have also been singing - and can elaborate a bit on Evans being quizzed about his impending birth during his talk last night. Our source writes:

In last night's conversation with David Walliams a worried member of the audience asked Walliams: "Do you think Chris should have left his wife at home so close to having another baby?" As it turrns out, she was right on the money. But Evans did not appear worried. "This is showbusiness," he protested jokily. "Sometimes we have to be away. It's like war." He reassured his interrogator that he had contingency plans in place which involve racing home if he gets a call to say the baby is on its way. Not to worry, he said, "I've got a fast car."

11.00 Reports of Chris Evans's madcap dash to the hospital are causing a stir at Hay today. Our Showbusiness Editor Anita Singh can reveal:

Eli Alfred Michael Evans was born weighing 7lb 13 oz and made a speedy arrival - labour lasted only 52 minutes and Evans said the “two-push birth” was so quick that the obstetrician didn’t have time to make it to the hospital.

We'll have more to follow very shortly on the whole incident.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Evans in conversation with David Walliams yesterday at Hay.

Chris Evans and David Walliams.

Daddy, daddy cool: "The baby will be roughly this big, Chris"

10.45 Remember that snippet of Louise Gray's review of The Island President we posted earlier? Well, now you can read the whole thing. When not reviewing or writing stellar environmental articles, Louise is a keen celebrity spotter:

@Loubgray: Just spotted John Barrowman @bbcdrwho Hot damn he's handsome! #hay25

10.33 Michael Morpurgo is appearing twice at Hay today. Firstly he'll be talking children's rights and the importance of libraries in the inaugural Libray Lecture at 2.30pm. Then, he and author Maggie Fergusson will be talking to Hay Festival director Peter Florence about War Horse and various other things at 6.30pm. Did anyone not cry at War Horse? Show yourselves, oh heartless ones! In the meantime, have a look at Morpurgo discussing what gave him the inspiration to write.

10.30 More Twitter action. Our woman on the environmental front line, Louise Gray, has this to offer:

@Loubgray: Terry Leahy former CEO of @UKTesco @hayfestival #hay25 later Looking fwd to qs about supermarkets in small towns... @TownsAlive @PlanBforHay

She's referring, of course, to former Tesco head honcho Terry Leahy's talk on 'Management in 10 Words', taking place in the Barclays Pavilion at 1pm today.

10.21 If you missed it yesterday evening, here's Telegraph Books whiz and recent opera convert Sameer Ramin on Sir Simon Rattle, who spoke to author Tom Service about 'Music as Alchemy':

Sameer Rahim

, who has been the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2002, has plenty of experience in dealing with talented yet strong-minded characters. The German orchestra is fiercely independent: every new player is auditioned in front of the other musicians. "I have one vote, like every else," said Rattle. But unlike the legendary Herbert von Karajan, he added with a twinkle, "I can speak at the auditions". In conversation with music critic Tom Service, Rattle said that managing the orchestra was like dealing with "128 Dustin Hoffmans and no William H Macys" -- in other words, plenty of leading men and no support acts.

Berliners take music seriously. In a city that, he said, has been technically bankrupt for years there has never been a question of their funding being cut. Rattle drew a comparison with our politicians' attitude: "In this country, if they're seen at a high art event, it's almost a question of 'Should we apologise?'"

Rattle, who at 57 shows tremendous energy and enthusiasm, said that he had first caught the musical bug in Liverpool listening to Mahler 2. When an audience member asked how he would advise an amateur conductor tackling Bartok -- whom Rattle revealed was the first civilian to be given penicillin -- he advised him to go slowly and to allow the players to listen to one another.

My ideal state is to disappear into the music. At some moment we become the music, that's what all of us are trying to do. - Sir Simon Rattle

10.15 Important information for anyone down at Hay today, courtesy of Telegraph man Neil Midgeley (and his iPhone).

Hay Festival venue changes - day two

Today's venue changes at Hay Festival.

10.06 Anita Singh has the low-down on Chris Evans's baby situation. His wife has given birth to a boy:

@anitathetweeter: Congrats to R2's Chris Evans. Wife Natasha has given birth to 7lb 13oz baby Eli. It was a 52 min labour and "2-push birth" #hayfestival

She adds: Should have said that Chris Evans has had a baby BOY. Made mad dash from Hay back to London. Birth so quick baby arrived before the doc did

Our warmest congrats to Mr Evans and his wife Natasha. Maybe he could give the baby a Hay Festival-themed name? Tweet your ideas to @telegraphbooks or using #hay25

09.52 Our crack team of journos down in Hay are rumbling into action, bringing with them news, views and reviews from the festival. Our environmental correspondent Louise Gray has news of The Island President, a film about Mohamed Nasheed, the former President of the Maldives, which was intoduced at Hay Festival last night by Farah Faizal, former High Commissioner to the lowest lying region in the world. Here's an excerpt of her review in today's Halyly Telegraph:

Louise Gray

This film tracks his journey from freedom fighter (he was arrested 12 times in 20 years and tortured twice) battling to bring democracy to the Maldives, to climate campaigner struggling to save the whole planet from global warming. If you are in a fight, you want this man on your side. He is charismatic, brave and most of all entirely believes in what he is what he is doing. I'm not sure he know the meaning of the word compromise.

Stirring stuff! President Nasheed also did some words for our Freedom of Speech column, which is published every day in the Hayly Telegraph.

09.48 The tweets are flooding in already today. This one's rather keen on kohl-eyed comic Tim Minchin, who apparently got a bit sweary last night:

@super_donkey: @timminchin's intelligence & musical brilliance is only matched by his own ability for swearing. Fantastic show, must see!

09.40 This morning's BIG NEWS is that Chris Evans has been jetted back to London, presumably in a flurry of action which recreated classic scenes from the A-Team, because his wife has gone into Labour. However, our Showbusiness Correspondent Anita Singh reliably informs us that the show will go on - Evans's Radio 2 Breakfast show, that is - without him. It's broadcasting live from Hay.

09.28 If you hover over the picture at the top of this blog - taken, incidentally, of the Telegraph's tent down in Hay - you'll be able to scroll through some of the best pictures from yesterday. This one, of David Walliams clearly in front of a fake picturesque view, is one of my favourites.

David Walliams

09.20 Morning all! Welcome to today's Hay Festival 2012 live blog, bringing you all the action from day two. How are we all doing today? Or, should I say, toHay? No, I shouldn't. Hay got off to a schorching start yesterday - weather notwithstanding - with performances from Tim Minchin and his band, the Etherington brothers, and David Walliams in conversation with Chris Evans. Phew! As usual, tweet us using #hay25 or #hayquotes and we'll stick the best ones up on this here blog.

You can see a

of this map on the Hay Festival site

The Telegraph is official media sponsor of the Hay Festival.