Battle of Hay-on-Wye: Authors accuse literary festival organisers of selling out

Its literary speakers used to be happy with a case of claret as payment, but with A-list guests reportedly asking for a fee of £100,000, some of the literati have vowed never to return

By Andrew Johnson
Sunday, 27 May 2007

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What are these?

Deep in the countryside of the Welsh borders, great minds meet today to discuss life, literature and to cast their wisdom among book lovers.

The 20th Hay Festival is the biggest yet, with 150,000 ticket sales for 435 events held in the numerous white marquees which have temporarily turned the green landscape into something resembling a lunar base.

But there are rumblings of discontent among authors, who fear the festival, which has hosted such literary titans as Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing, is losing its soul to commercialisation and celebrity glitz.

An estimated 80,000 people will turn up for the annual literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, a small market town nestling beneath the Black Mountains that divide England from Wales and which is famous for its 39 bookshops - the equivalent of one for every 37 residents.

They are there to hear authors such as Jeanette Winterson, Eric Hobsbawm and no fewer than four Nobel prize winners, including the St Lucian poet Derek Walcott, consider problems of philosophy, politics and art. And they will spend about £3m.

Before retiring to one of the numerous pubs for a glass of wine or ale, they might also see John Major talk about the origins of cricket, or Gordon Brown discuss his political heroes.

They may even try to gatecrash one of the exclusive parties where the literary lions emerge from their accommodation at the Llangoed Hall country house to unwind and behave badly, such as Robin Cook telling anyone who would listen one year about what went on in the Cabinet in the run-up to the Iraq war.

And as they stagger back tomorrow to their stables, tents, or rooms rented from one of the 1,450 residents of Hay - B&Bs are booked up two years in advance - they may recall Vivienne Westwood's discussion of her "cultural manifesto". They could hear Imran Khan's talk about the 60th anniversary of India's partition, or they watch Bonnie Langford perform in a variety show with Sandi Toksvig.

Murmurings that Hay was becoming a Cannes for the literati began in 2001 when the American former president, Bill Clinton, who famously described Hay as a "Woodstock of the mind" turned up in exchange for a cool £100,000.

It is not just that authors are unpaid, with accommodation costs met by their publisher and a case of wine sent on if they insist. Some authors believe that the festival has just grown too big, so that it now separates the author from the reader, making it nothing more than an extravagant marketing tool.

Leading the charge is the novelist Margaret Drabble, who attended the first festival in 1988 but has vowed never to return. The author of 17 novels, two biographies, a television play and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize told The Independent on Sunday it had become too "celebrity conscious".

"It's a pity," she said. "The whole thing has become a celebrity festival, not an author's festival. Of course there are some very fine writers there this year. But the whole thing of festivals has become about book sales and marketing, nothing to do with meeting readers. They argue that if they're selling your book then you don't get a fee. But I like to get a fee unless I choose to be a patron or a friend which I am to one or two small festivals. I don't want £100K and I don't see why Bill Clinton did, and he's not an author."

The author Terence Blacker, who has written numerous novels, said he was "bemused" by the reaction he received when he suggested giving a reading of his biography of the theatre impresario and author Willie Donaldson.

"I've loved Hay in the past, as performer and audience," he said, "but this year my new biography of Willie Donaldson was rejected on the grounds that a reading from it could only work if it was 'glammed up a bit' - direct quote - with celebrity readers. I can't help feeling that something about the festival may have changed in some way and I'm sad that I'll never be glam enough for it."

Penelope Lively, who has won both the Booker Prize and Whitbread award, said she agreed with Margaret Drabble. "I haven't been to Hay for several years," she said. "It's not my favourite festival, speaking as an author. It lacks a personal quality."

Not everyone shares this opinion, however. James Naughtie, the presenter of Radio 4's Today programme, who is broadcasting from the festival, gave a fierce defence of the literary melting pot. "The extraordinary thing is how the success of Hay has survived the hype and celebrity," he said. "That's the point. The talk prospers, and the gossip persists. It's no accident that they're springing up everywhere. Books, interesting talk, argument - people find they need it - and they'll make sure it isn't drowned out."

The author and critic Professor Lisa Jardine added: "I'd be happy if they put neon all over the site as long as it got more people reading. I love the fact it's celebrity authors who are complaining there are too many celebrities. The festival is about a passion for books. The more things that generates excitement about books the better. The bigger the name the better. We live in a celebrity culture world. If we separate books from the rest of life then they go into a musty fusty library and nobody cares. This is a world in which screens dominate and books come second. I'd really like David Beckham to go next year."

And the festival organiser, Peter Florence, is dismissive of the critics, arguing Hay hasn't changed, despite its success.

"I'm reminded of the Ford Madox Ford line about critics," he said. "They point at an elephant and say 'that is a terrible rhinoceros'. Hay is proud of its commitment to authors. Hay is what it is and always has been."

Margaret Drabble, however, can't help feeling that with its success, Hay has lost the very thing that first gave it such appeal. "I liked it in the old days when it was small and friendly. Now it's big and bustling and that's not as pleasant for individual authors," she said. "I'm slightly nostalgic about the old days. I've known Hay since before it became a festival. I have very happy memories of it in the 1970s, of it being a special place."

Humble beginnings of a literary landmark

1988: First Hay-on-Wye Festival

Budget: Festival launched by Norman Florence and his son Peter with an investment of £23,000 won in a poker game

Attendance: 1,200 people

Events: 35

Author's pay: A case of claret

Sponsors: None

Highlights: Peter Florence's one-man show about Wilfred Owen

Coup: The opera singer Bryn Terfel, the novelist Margaret Drabble and the comedian Jenny Eclair

Media coverage: None

Spin-off events: None

Hay as it is now: bigger, starrier and costlier