Taking place in the grounds of Hay Castle in the heart of “the world’s first booktown” Hay- on-Wye, Wales, more than 60 artists will participate over four days.

The full line-up, announced today, includes novelist Kate Mosse; poets Simon Armitage, Owen Sheers and Alex Wharton; historian David Olusoga; singer-songwriter David Gray; Radio 1 DJ Greg James; actors Lucian Msamati, Caroline Quentin, Maxine Peake and Greg Wise; comedians Lucy Porter and Kiri Pritchard-McLean; physicist Jim Al-Khalili; journalistsLuke Harding and Charlotte Higgins; former Scotland First Minister Humza Yousaf; former Buddhist monk Sam Yo; Witches of Scotland campaigners Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi; psychotherapist Julia Samuel; potter Keith Brymer Jones; and curators of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition Sue Brunning and Lloyd de Beer.

Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, the programme will see participants engage with some of the biggest questions of our times, while spreading festive joy in candle-lit storytelling and one-off music and comedy performances.

Over the Festival weekend, the Welsh booktown’s independent shops, cafés and markets offer a warm welcome to Festivalgoers within the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, with added sparkle coming from the Christmas lights switch-on, Friday 27 November.

Select events will be live-streamed to audiences around the world through the Festival’s online pass, on sale now at hayfestival.org/onlinepass

A free KS1 Programme for Schools will open Hay Festival Winter Weekend thanks to funding from The Moondance Foundation. Events will offer Primary School pupils from state schools in Wales free access to Festival events over two days, part of a wider outreach project throughout the autumn and into the New Year.

Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said: “The changing seasons give us permission to pause and slow down. As we head into our40th year and reflect on the past four decades of our charity’s impact, Hay Festival WinterWeekend offers us an opportunity to gather around stories with warmth, humour andgenerosity and reflect on the rapidly changing world around us in an intimate, cosysetting. Join us this winter and experience a world of different ideas.”

The Festival will draw on public nominations to award the Hay Festival Book of the Year following past wins for Anthony Shapland’s A Room Above A Shop, Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry,Deborah Levy’s Real Estate, Dara McAnulty’s Diary of a Young Naturalist, Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five, and Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane’s The Lost Words.