Major Idiocy
John Harris: Moazzam Begg's interview at the Hay festival suggested that the war on terror is a byword for surreal incompetence.
An Islamic reformation
Sarah Crown: Reza Aslan believes Islamic terrorism is not caused of a clash of civilisations but an argument within Islam.
The magnificent Mr Welles
Alan Warner enjoys Simon Callow's Orson Welles: Hello Americans, the second instalment of a glittering career.
The mythmaker
Seamus Heaney published his first collection when he was 27, he won the Nobel Prize when he was 56 and his 12th book of poetry came out this spring. He talks to James Campbell about growing up on a farm in County Derry, politics and his current project, inspired by a 15th-century Scots poet.
Saving Helen: from Trojan fantasy girl to real woman
Historian urges Hay Festival to rethink the legend after 28 centuries of myth.