Hay Festival appoints Christopher Bone as publicity director

Global literary event brand Hay Festival has appointed FMcM Associates’ Christopher Bone to the new role of publicity director, who will oversee UK and international PR for the organisation in its 30th anniversary year.

Bone, who has six years’ agency experience, started his career with Glasgow-based public affairs consultancy 3×1 PR, followed by Stripe Communications in Edinburgh.

In 2014 he began working for arts comms consultancy FMcM Associates, where he represented literary organisations including National Poetry Day, Wellcome Book Prize, The Folio Prize, The SundayTimes / Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award, and Hay Festival, which he has worked with over the last two years.

Based in London, Christopher will now oversee UK and international PR for the organisation in its 30th anniversary year, including Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias in Colombia (26 – 29 January 2017), Hay Festival Wales (25 May – 4 June 2017), Hay Festival Queretaro in Mexico (7 – 10 September 2017), Hay Festival Segovia in Spain (22 – 24 September 2017), and HayFestival Aarhus in Denmark (26 – 29 October 2017).

He will also work on several special projects, including the Hay Festival Press.

Becky Shaw, comms director at Hay Festival, said: “Chris is a highly skilled publicist strategically and creatively. He will be a huge asset to Hay Festival working on our international campaign for books in our 30th anniversary year. We are thrilled to welcome him.”

Bone added: “I first visited Hay for a weekend in 2011 with no connection to the world of books (other than a love of reading). Watching talks that year with VS Naipaul, Javier Cercas, David Milliband, and Nigella Lawson, was thrilling, mind altering and changed the course of everything I have done since.

“Having consulted for the festival for the last two years I am thrilled to be joining the immensely talented team in house.”