Peter Florence
b. 1964
Peter Florence was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
Peter Florence founded the Hay Festival with his parents 30 years ago, funding it with winnings from a poker game. Since then it has become one of the most important literary festivals in the world, fuelling and stimulating debate, nurturing people’s imaginations and love of books, supporting new writers of all nationalities, encouraging freedom of speech, opening our minds to art, science and philosophy and developing outreach work in schools. Hay has been called ‘a crucible for progressive thinking and action’ and, in Bill Clinton’s famous phrase, ‘the Woodstock of the mind’.
