Past event

Hay Festival, 2018

Date:
2-3 June 2018

The fifth appearance of Letters Live at the wonderful Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales this year delivered another pair of delightful shows. The line-up remained closely guarded, apart from the exciting leak that Benedict Cumberbatch would be in attendance. Joining Benedict for these shows were Clarke Peters, Louise Brealey, Ferdinand Kingsley, Rose McGowan, Tony Robinson, Jessica Raine, Toby Jones, Ophelia Lovibond, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Jordan Stephens and Yrsa Daley-Ward.

Programme

Saturday, 2nd June 2018

 

Benedict Cumberbatch

 
What gloomy tidings about the CRABS

Patrick Leigh Fermor to Enrica Soma

 
The canvas has an idiotic stare

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh

 

 

Clarke Peters

 
Love and garlic

Groucho Marx to Chico Marx

 
Long Live Africa!

Patrice Lumumba to Pauline Opango

 

 

Jordan Stephens

 
I’m still here, trying to make it

Jimi Hendrix to His Dad

 
You know who you are

Australian man to His neighbour

 

 

Louise Brealey

 
Dear Sir

Sarah-Louise Jordan to An Admirer

 
This is not a letter

Katherine Mansfield to Leslie Beauchamp

 

 

Prasanna Puwanarajah

 
Don’t come

Abdul Rahman to Rajwalk Khan

 

 

Rose McGowan

 
Have a Happy Period

Wendi Aarons to James Thatcher

 
I can’t look you in the voice

Dorothy Parker to Pascal Covici

 

 

Toby Jones

 
A lousy proposition

Evelyn Waugh to Laura Herbert

 

 

Toby Jones and Jessica Raine

 
Are you supposed to be normal?

Harold Pinter to A Theatregoer

 

 

Tony Robinson

 
He is foul in the inward man

Tobias Gowell to A Watchmaker

 
A lousy proposition

Evelyn Waugh to Laura Herbert

 

 

Yrsa Daley Ward

 
Don’t let anyone define who you are.

Angelique Kidjo to Girls of the World

 

Sunday, 3rd June 2018

 

Benedict Cumberbatch

 
I have had my eye on you

Simon Fallowfield to Mary Foster

 
DO

Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse

 

 

Clarke Peters

 
It’s a virus

Tom Waits to The Nation

 

 

Ferdinand Kingsley

 
This is my last visit

William Burroughs to Truman Capote

 
I loved the boy

William Wordsworth to Robert Southey

 

 

Jessica Raine

 
Also

Lady Elizabeth Compton to Lord William Compton

 

 

Jordan Stephens

 
It will be sunny one day

Stephen Fry to Crystal

 

 

Jordan Stephens and Clarke Peters

 
Yours sincerely, Albus Dumbledore

Steve Armes to Albus Dumbledore

 

 

Louise Brealey

 
I love you

Emma Thompson to Her Younger Self

 
The story comes from within you

Laura Dern to Her Daughter

 

 

Louise Brealey and Jessica Raine

 
What should I do?

Frustrated to Abby

 

 

Ophelia Lovibond

 
The loss of you lingers

Karin Cook to Joan Cook Carpenter

 

 

Prasanna Puwanarajah

 
Every writer has his own voice

V.S. Naipaul to Sonny Mehta at Knopf

 

 

Toby Jones

 
Torturing the Saxophone

Robert Crumb to Mats Gustafsson

 
She was the music heard faintly at the edge of sound

Raymond Chandler to Leonard Russell

 

 

Tony Robinson

 
O, Excellent Air-Bag!

Robert Southey to Tom Southey

 
I would rather die

Harold Pinter to Tom Stoppard