After a weekend dominated by politics and international events, the Hay festival returned to its literary roots yesterday. We heard from Jeanette Winterson, in Hay to celebrate 25 years since the publication of her seminal novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and Andrea Levy, whose latest novel, The Long Song, is set in Jamaica and tells the story of the death throes of slavery and the transition into a free society.
We also spoke to David Mitchell, who was performing a Hay double-header, on stage firstly for the Guardian book club, which this month takes his Booker-shortlisted novel Cloud Atlas as its subject, and secondly to talk about his latest book set in Nagasaki in 1799, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. He talked to Richard Lea about writing historical fiction, and why, after the experimentation of his earlier novels, he chose this time to tell a straight story.
The outside world hasn't been forgotten entirely: in fact, we spoke to the man who has thought about it more deeply than many others. Visionary ecologist James Lovelock talked to John Harris about the future of the planet and why he believes that, in the battle against climate change, only the most radical measures can save us.
