As the Hay festival enters its final weekend, we gathered in the Guardian's Portakabin and asked our team to select their highlights so far. Alison Flood talks us through the Puffin of Puffins and tells us how Marcus Brigstocke mounted the best campaign, while Charlotte Higgins explains why history in all its forms has been one of the themes of this year's festival.
Our first guests are the Orange prize-winning author Helen Dunmore, whose latest book, The Betrayal, describes the feverish years running up to the death of Stalin in 1953, and the military historian Anthony Beevor. Both are steeped in Russia's recent past, but have chosen to approach it from different angles. Claire Armitstead talks to them about the places where fiction and history meet, and the extent to which one can complement the other.
The chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi gives us a demonstration of his kitchen skills, whipping up a Mediterranean picnic salad.
And we end with history of a more personal sort, when Charlotte Higgins talks to the professional adventurer Ranulph Fiennes about his book Mad Dogs and Englishmen, in which he traces his family roots back to the time of the emperor Charlemagne.
Today, we'll be speaking to Sue Townsend, Charlie Higson and David Remnick. Please leave your questions below.
