The first festival appearance of the new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and the resignation of the new Oxford professor of poetry, Ruth Padel, have put poetry to the fore at this year's Hay festival. So we start today's Haycast by challenging visitors to the festival to recite poems from memory. Lavinia Greenlaw shows us how it should be done by reading and explaining one of her own poems.
We put David Starkey through his paces with questions from the GCSE history syllabus, and hear why we're still enthralled by the Tudors. Medieval historian Miri Rubin tells us why the Virgin Mary remains such a powerful icon all over the world.
We play out with a blast from the legendary South African musician Hugh Masekela, whose sell-out gig was one of the high points of the festival so far.
