WATCH: Helen Macdonald, James Rebanks, and Andy Fryers in Conversation

The Hay Festival, now in its 21st year, brings writers and readers together in a free digital space of thoughtful conversation, storytelling, comedy, and family fun. This year, the Festival has been streamed live with a star-studded line-up of speakers and performers, and is currently available for public viewing.

Below, Helen Macdonald, author of the widely-acclaimed H is for Hawk, and James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral, join Andy Fryers in conversation about the natural world, time, memory, and how we make sense of the world around us.

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From the video:

Helen Macdonald: Getting the natural world on paper: a lot of these essays are based around puzzles or encounters or sightings I’ve had when I’ve been outside. Geographically, this book has quite a wide remit—there’s bit set in Australia, Chile. A lot of it was actually during book tours and I’d run away from my hotel rooms and go birding and meet locals who knew the land. And there was just the sense of trying to get across to a reader—these essays almost feel to me as conversations with the reader. They have a kind of generosity. But I always feel there’s someone with me when I write. It’s not a narrative that excludes. And I want to puzzle stuff out, and try to get across the emotional impact as well as the scientific side of what I see out there.

For access to the Festival’s full archive, please visit hayfestival.org/hayplayer, and support their work at hayfestival.org/support-us.