The Hay festival in Segovia

Award-winning documentary maker Nick Broomfield presented Battle for Haditha, his film about the Iraq war, and Ghosts, about the deaths of Chinese workers in Morecambe. He also spoke to the festival director, Peter Florence, about his work Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

French author Daniel Pennac has seen his work translated into more than 30 languages, and opened this year's Hay festival in Segovia Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Aminatta Forna, author of Ancestor Stones, spoke to the Guardian's literary editor, Claire Armitstead, about her experiences as a writer Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

The Welsh writer and poet Owen Sheers came to Spain, where his most recent novel, Resistance, a love story that takes place in an imaginary England occupied by the Nazis in 1944, has just been published Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Mario Vargas Llosa spoke to packed crowds about his life as a writer and journalist at the Hay festival, where he was awarded a first edition copy of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Author of the English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, spoke on the first night of the festival about the impact that a life spent on the move has had on his writing career Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

The Chinese novelist, Diane Wei Liang, now based in London talked about her work, and her experiences as an activist in China Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Germaine Greer came to Hay to talk about her experiences in Spain in the late 60s and its influence on her development as an anarchist Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Folk singer Seth Lakeman played a rousing concert on the first night of the festival, though whether the Spanish crowd understood his songs about tin mining and life in Cornwall is a moot point Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski

Paul Preston, the leading historian on 20th century Spain, spoke about the events May 1968 in Spain and their repercussions throughout the 1970s as Spain opened up to democracy. His latest book, We Saw Spain Die, is out soon in the UK Photograph: Daniel Mordzinski