THE sun shone on Hay in more ways than one, with fabulous weather attracting record numbers of visitors to a Hay Festival packed with world-famous names, best-selling authors, leading thinkers, comics and musicians with the odd surprise thrown in and many events sold out.

Ticket sales were up more than 15 per cent, with 185,000 tickets sold for this year’s event, 27,000 more than at last year’s festival, and more than £130,000 already raised for charities including Oxfam, Samaritans, Storymoja Kenya, Hay Humanitarian Aid, Macmillan Appeal and Clifford Village Hall.

“We’re thrilled,” said Peter Florence, of Hay 2009. “It was a vintage year – so many magical moments. We’ve all come away feeling inspired and ready for the next adventure.”

The first Saturday of the festival saw Heston Blumenthal, chef extraordinaire, in conversation with Jay Rayner about his philosophy of food and his self-taught journey to his present Michelin-starred status.

Author and broadcaster Libby Purves charmed her audience with readings from Shadow Child, her 12th novel, using the occasion to stress that, contrary to the views of some reviewers, it is no more autobiographical than the previous 11, and though her protagonist Marion has lost a son, as she herself did three years ago, Marion’s grief is not hers. “It is fiction,” she declared emphatically.

Another popular author, Kate Atkinson, used her appearance at Hay to reveal that she wishes she were rich enough to write without being published – saying that she doesn’t like reviews or critics. “It's a very uncomfortable thing for a writer,” she said. “We’re very tender.”

Children’s favourite Michael Morpurgo spoke to a packed Barclays Wealth Pavilion, charming, entertaining and amusing in equal measure. His reading of one of his short stories, I Believe in Unicorns, a story about the transforming effects of stories, was itself a powerful demonstration of why Morpurgo’s work is so universally admired.

The final evening of the festival saw a surprise appearance by Will Young at the event to sing with Shropshire-born Mara Carlyle. And Radio 2 star Mark Radcliffe defended the way Glastonbury has modernised while speaking at the Hay Festival, saying that Glastonbury had been forced to adapt to cope with its growing popularity.

Speaking on the final day of the event, Radcliffe said: “Things have to change as you cannot have 120,000 people who have all got in free sitting on hay bales and drinking. It just would not work.”

The Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Hereford Jesse Norman achieved a long-cherished dream when he interviewed the Nobel prize-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen at the festival.

Hay Festival 2010 will run from Thursday, May 27, to Sunday, June 6.