The effect of Israel's attack on the aid flotilla heading for Palestine in the early hours of yesterday morning was felt as far away as the Hay festival. Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, who was on one of the boats, had already cancelled a planned live video-linked interview; when news of the attack broke, radical lawyer Michael Mansfield, who had warned weeks earlier of the likelihood of such an event, used his time on stage to discuss the legal implications of Israel's actions. He spoke to us exclusively with a message for the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who's due to appear at the festival later in the week.
We also spoke to South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, whose writing has long been informed by her country's struggles against the apartheid regime, about her latest book, Telling Times, a collection of her non-fiction.
Finally, Simon Armitage, here in Hay to launch Seeing Stars, read to us from the collection, and talked about the importance of titles, why he's moved away from lyric verse, and the state of poetry in the UK today.
Next up, we're interviewing rare book dealer Rick Gekoski about his bibliomemoir, Outside of a Dog, and actor Joss Ackland about his publication of the diaries of his wife, Rosemary, following her death from motor neurone disease.
