Hay Sessions 2012

The great minds of the literary and cultural world gather at the Hay Festival in May.  With the Hay Sessions you get to enjoy some of the excellent talks, events and musical treats held throughout the ten-day Hay Festival - available to view on Sky Arts.  Particularly entertaining and satisfying was Harry Belafonte, who discussed his new book My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race & Defiance.  So hooked was I that I just had to order the book immediately.

Next worth a mention was Julien Clary discussing his new book, Briefs Encountered - a witty and stylish ghost tale featuring Noel Coward.  Julian uses art (writing) to work out his own life issues.  I'm yet to order this book which is laid out like a play, and written in scenes.

My all time favourite (to-date) has to be Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of the Yellow Sun who delivered her exquisite Commonwealth Lecture who discussed why she writes, the magic and craft of writing, and examined fiction as a catalyst for social and political change.  It is so true that our lives are effected by politics wherever we live and it must be a wonderful art to be able to write realistic fiction in this way.  Chimamanda's quotes were also worth noting here, my favourite being:
Writers go out of their way to secure their solitude and then having secured it, they go out of their way to squander it. (A US Writer)