The programme was announced today for the Hay Festival 2018 (May 24-June 3). Speakers will include William Atkins, whose book on deserts, The Immeasurable World, is due to be published in June by Faber & Faber; Patrick Barkham, author of Islander; Horatio Clare, who will be reporting on his adventures in Finland while researching Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North; Tristan Gooley, the “Natural Navigator”, introducing his latest guide, Wild Signs and Star Paths; Ursula Martin, who hit the road while recovering from cancer to write One Woman Walks Wales; and Jasper Winn, whose Waterways: A Thousand Miles Along Britain’s Canals, is due to be published by Profile Books in June. Also on the bill are Tim Dee, whose absorbing new anthology, Ground Work, I mentioned recently, and Mark Cocker, whose latest book, Our Place: Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late?, is due out next month. According to the publisher, Jonathan Cape, Cocker “explores in intimate detail six special places that embody the history of conservation or whose fortunes allow us to understand why our landscape looks as it does today”.