Letters Live

Hay festival returns with its first in-person event for three years

Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bernardine Evaristo, Elif Shafak and Benedict Cumberbatch are among those taking part in the 11-day gathering in Welsh border town

Lucy Knight

05, Apr, 2022 @11:00 AM

Benedict Cumberbatch on the explosive power of letters: 'They're grenades!'

Noel Fielding, Thom Yorke and Cumberbatch tell us why they love Letters Live, the performances of correspondence where anything can happen

Sian Cain

13, Mar, 2019 @9:00 AM

Letters from the Inside review – words to set you free

In the latest instalment of the Letters Live series, readers including Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Russell Brand shared moving missives

Miranda Sawyer

18, Dec, 2016 @8:00 AM

Oscar Isaac surprises audience at Letters Live event in London

The actor made a guest appearance to read aloud correspondence from his Star Wars forebear Sir Alec Guinness

Kevin Rawlinson and agencies

14, Mar, 2016 @1:15 AM

Jamie Byng: ‘Listening to letters being read out is quite something’

The Canongate Books boss on the success of Letters Live, performances of notable correspondence by leading lights of stage and screen

Interview by Killian Fox

06, Mar, 2016 @8:00 AM

Russell Brand, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gillian Anderson return to Letters Live

Star studded lineup revealed for annual ‘celebration of the enduring power of literary correspondence’