Jul 16, 2020
Peter Florence is a British festival
director, notable for founding
the Hay Festival
with his parents,
Norman and Rhoda
Florence. FYI the first festival was financed with winnings from a
poker game.
Peter was educated at Ipswich School, Jesus College, Cambridge, and the University of Paris and has an MA in Modern and Medieval Literatures. He holds honorary doctorates from four universities.
He has replicated the success of Hay in numerous cities around the world, launching similar festivals in Mantua, Segovia, the Alhambra Palace, Cartagena, Nairobi, Zacatecas, Thiruvananthapuram, Dhaka, Xalapa, Belfast and Paraty.
He is the co-editor of the Oxtales and Oxtravels anthologies with Mark Ellingham of Profile Books, in partnership with Oxfam and has written for the Index on Censorship, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Spectator and numerous other publications.
"Florence chaired the jury of the 2019 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and controversially defied the foundation’s 1993-established rules to award the prize to two authors. Bernardine Evaristo - the first black woman to be awarded the prize - shared the prize with Margaret Atwood." ( unfortunately, I failed to ask him about this).
He and his wife Becky Shaw have four sons. They live in Herefordshire. Peter was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to Arts and Culture and a CBE in 2018 for services to Literature and Charity.
Peter was educated at Ipswich School, Jesus College, Cambridge, and the University of Paris and has an MA in Modern and Medieval Literatures. He holds honorary doctorates from four universities.
He has replicated the success of Hay in numerous cities around the world, launching similar festivals in Mantua, Segovia, the Alhambra Palace, Cartagena, Nairobi, Zacatecas, Thiruvananthapuram, Dhaka, Xalapa, Belfast and Paraty.
He is the co-editor of the Oxtales and Oxtravels anthologies with Mark Ellingham of Profile Books, in partnership with Oxfam and has written for the Index on Censorship, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Spectator and numerous other publications.
"Florence chaired the jury of the 2019 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and controversially defied the foundation’s 1993-established rules to award the prize to two authors. Bernardine Evaristo - the first black woman to be awarded the prize - shared the prize with Margaret Atwood." ( unfortunately, I failed to ask him about this).
He and his wife Becky Shaw have four sons. They live in Herefordshire. Peter was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to Arts and Culture and a CBE in 2018 for services to Literature and Charity.
We met via Zoom to talk, among
other things, about Hay's recent on-line, Covid-driven 2020 event
and how Peter plans to capitalize on its enormous success, about
what special ingredients are required to put on good festivals and
interesting sessions, about the English language, party animals,
translation, what makes Peter happy, and the titles of his
favourite recent reads.