Uchay Writes

23 May – 2 June 2024 was the Hay Festival. For those of you who don’t know, the Hay Festival is one of the biggest literary festivals in the UK, and I was there as an events management intern.

It was an amazing 11 days, managing artists, liaising with stage managers and the Artist Management team. I know, I know, it sounds really fun, but it was also very exhausting. It’s like you’re running on excitement and adrenaline for the first few days, but then the tiredness hits you halfway through and the days would blur together. Julie Finch, CEO of Hay, always reminded us that every day/event is someone’s first time at Hay.

It was a surreal experience every time I entered the Green Room as you’d see these huge figures, interacting with each other like one big crossover episode. For example, one day I’d see Michael Rosen and Michael Morpurgo having a chat, then another day casually walk past Miriam Margolyes or bump into Toby Jones.

In total I managed over 20 artists, but here are just a few highlights with some of the artists I was assigned to.

1. First let’s talk about my 3 absolute favourites:

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

Ayọ̀bámi is an author I found out about by reading through the Hay Festival programme before my interview. I immediately bought her new book. For the last year I’ve been trying to read more books by Nigerian/Black authors. By the way, her new book A Spell of Good Things, is such a good read I highly recommend it! On our way to her book signing, we discussed my writing and told her about my wanting to read more Nigerian authors. After her book signing (she signed mine too!) she listed down some Nigerian authors I should look into!

Chigozie Obioma

Such a hilarious and kind person. Chigozie is one of my favourite authors (his books are on my Black authors recommendations list go have a look!) and having the opportunity to manage and converse with him is something I’ll never forget. It was funny when I was introduced to him as ‘you-chen-a’, he exclaimed sounding like a proud uncle “eh he! Uchenna (oo-chenn-a)! It’s good that you’re doing something like this, maybe I should join you.”

For his event he discussed his new book The Road To The Country, which I have almost finished reading. It is about the Nigerian Civil war, aka the Biafran War. As someone who is half Igbo and whose mother was born the year it started, you could guess how keen I was on listening about his research and thinking process about the topic.

One thing which stood out to me was when he said something along the lines of how he has written something that hasn’t been written before and would love to find more things which have not been spoken about. It reminded me of my MA dissertation about Lawrence Anini, and has sparked the want to do further research into him. It’s fitting it’s happening now as I’m about to travel to Nigeria very soon.

Jeffrey Boakye, George the Poet and Aleema Gray with Mykaell Riley

Their discussion on the evolution of music, Black music, and the music they grew up on was so enjoyable to listen to. I have heard George the Poet speak on podcasts before, so I was excited to see a live discussion. I really wanted to buy all their books but they were all hardbacks (I was disciplined and ended up bringing home 8 new books!). I especially remember my first interaction with Jeffrey Boakye where we discussed how nice my glasses frames were and that Specsavers have upped their game.

2. Next we have big name artists whose work I have seen/heard of but didn’t know much about:

David Mitchell (no, not the comedian)

Have you heard of Cloud Atlas? Yes, that David Mitchell. He was one of the loveliest people ever. When I introduced myself to him, he became enthralled with my name, and said how much he loved it. I believe him because whenever he spoke to me, he’d always say my name in the sentence. He then bared his teeth at me backstage so I can check if they were clean before going on.

Jodi Picoult

A literal ray of happiness and sunshine, but her books…wow. The film adaptation for My Sister’s Keeper is the only work I know from Jodie, and that was enough for me. But hearing her speak about not only about her new novel (which she distributed free proofs of, I should’ve snagged one!), but also why she writes the stuff she does and how she does her research was so fascinating.

3. Next, my artists who had the longest book signing ever:

Stephen and Anita Mangan

This sibling duo was really cool to watch backstage. Stephen writes the books and Anita illustrates them. Children’s book signings always take the longest, especially because the authors take their time with each child who comes up. During their event, Anita taught the audience how to draw one of the characters from their new book The Day I Fell Down The Toilet, (which I may actually purchase because it looked and sounded really funny), and so all the children would show their drawings whilst getting their book signed.

The book is about a boy who falls down the toilet and ends up in an alternate world full of jokes. The queen of this world has lost her sense of humour so has banned any new jokes to be created, so the protagonist must find the funniest joke to make her laugh. This led to a lot of children telling their best dad jokes/puns during the Q&A. The book signing was over 2 hours.

4. Strangest artist act:

Matthew Holness aka Garth Marenghi

I’m not the biggest stand up comedy fan but I decided to watch my artist backstage because the character he was playing just sounded so odd. This character ‘Garth Marenghi’ (anagram for ‘argh nightmare’) is a horror author who makes himself greater than he actually is. This spoof horror was surprisingly hilarious and I loved every minute of it!

5. First timers:

Kaliane Bradley

Kaliane discussed her debut novel The Ministry of Time. Though I’m not a time travel fan, the premise of the book actually sounded really good, I may have to buy it. When I took her to the venue for her event, she was shocked at how many people were lining up to go in. It’s really cool seeing upcoming artist realising how many people are eager to hear and read their work. Even her book signing queue was a pretty good length which she was really delighted with.

Ramzee

This author-illustrator was just a bundle of energy. He was really excited to see all the children who came to his comic workshop. It’s one thing to have a full room, but another to have full participation and intrigue from the audience, which he did. Like Kaliane, he was surprised that some came for his book signing.

6. Most awkward moment:

Sebastian Coe

When the event comes to an end, the intern who is managing the artist come on stage with a paper rose to give them. Bare in mind Sebastian Coe is on the biggest stage venue so there are many, many people. So once the interviewer said thank you for coming and everyone started clapping, I walked on stage and handed the interviewer his rose. I then held out the other for Lord Coe, but did he take it straightaway? No. Instead he picks up his glass and takes what feels like the longest sip of water and I’m just standing there, aware of all the eyes on me.

But besides that he was great! He was really happy when I told him that he was at my graduation (for those who don’t know, Lord Coe is the Chancellor of Loughborough University). He told me to sign up to the alumni programme and write about the Hay Festival, which I have done just now haha.

Finally, let’s talk about Hay-on-Wye! A town made up of just over 2,000 people. It’s also known as a bookshop town with over 26 bookshops, I only managed to enter around 12 though. I stayed with one of the locals who was the best host ever! Even taking me and another intern, with whom I shared a room with, out to breakfast on the morning of our departure, then drove us up to Hereford station.

The Hay Festival was an eye-opening experience and brought me out of my comfort zone! I hope to go again next year :).