Heidi Thomas at the Hay Festival

"Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little I am soulless and heartless?" cries Jane Eyre to Mr Rochester in one of Heidi Thomas's favourite books, and Heidi uses this rallying cry for the oppressed and under-estimated as a motif for her choice of readings in With Great Pleasure. She is joined onstage at the Hay Festival by Nicholas Farrell and Sylvestra Le Touzel, who read a wide selection including poetry, Bills of Mortality, novels and social history.

Heidi's interest in the small, the uncelebrated life has informed much of her work, from her television adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford to her current work, the massively successful Call the Midwife.

Producer Christine Hall.