The view from Hay

As sun breaks through last night’s cloud and the beautiful Wye valley is once again bathed in dazzling sunshine, Tuesday morning seems a good moment to take stock of what was a triumphant, record-breaking bank holiday at the Hay Festival. As ever, the opening-weekend programme contained a plethora of luminaries from the worlds of books, politics, economics, history, music, science, film and art, but this year there was also a particularly rare visitor to the Brecon Beacons: the sun! In stark contrast to the storms and mud of recent years, giddy festival-goers (of whom there were more here this weekend alone than at the entire festival last year) swapped wellies for flip-flops and hot chocolate for ice-creams as they got sunburnt on the grass discussing events that ranged from Jane Birkin on her love affair with Serge Gainsbourg to astronomer royal Martin Rees on what’s going to happen to the human race.