Day two of the Hay festival and things really got going today, despite the inclement weather. Crowds of festivalgoers flocked to events that ranged from a rare chance to hear South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer in conversation with festival director Peter Florence to a moving discussion between former climate change secretary Ed Miliband and the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, about the future of his low-lying kingdom.
First, though, we tackle the issue of climate change on a domestic scale. The London Cycle Hire scheme – a public bicycle-sharing scheme for short journeys in central London, similar to those already up and running in Boston, Paris and Montreal – launched at Hay this weekend, and Channel 4 journalist and ambassador for cycling Jon Snow agreed to try out one of its bikes out for us.
Also concerned with the question of climate change is Ian McEwan, whose latest novel, Solar, won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing, despite taking the issue as its subject. He talked to Claire Armitstead about comedy, climate change and the war against worthiness.
Finally, we ask the question which, despite all the items in the festival programme about the economy, no one has yet dared ask: are the tickets to festival events good value for money? Tracy Sortwell, who this year has spent £498 on tickets for herself and her husband, gives her verdict.
Next up: Robert Winston, Christopher Hitchens and Mal Peet. Leave your questions below, and we’ll do our best to ask them.
