Literary festivals

On Friday, while most of the country was settling down to watch Radiohead perform in a field in Somerset, a row was breaking out in another field in Wiltshire. To we historians this is not Glastonbury weekend but Chalke Valley weekend; time for the country's biggest history festival.  Read more

As Hay Festival Segovia opens, Hay founding director Peter Florence talks about the festival's global appeal, and about literature as "the most dissenting art form."

But this season, there is a chill in the literary atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, given that the publishing industry continues to face tough times and, for its practitioners and impresarios alike, an uncertain future, it all starts with money. For years now, a row has rumbled on about the fees paid to authors at literary festivals or, more precisely, the lack of them.  Read more

Philip Pullman has resigned as patron of the Oxford literary festival, complaining that authors appearing at the event "are expected to work for nothing". Enough's enough - authors can't work for free.  Read more

Earlier this month, saw the second session of Jaipur BookMark, the professional publishing platform which runs in parallel to the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. The event, according to its press office, unveiled several intriguing facts, including the news that the estimated value of the industry in India is some $20 billion.  Read more