Sunday, June 06, 2010

WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE POWYS

I got back yesterday from the Guardian Hay festival in Hay-on-Wye where Edginton and I did a talk about the Holmes books we've been working on for SelfMadeHero to a packed out tent of 200 people (it was originally supposed to be 50!)

And I have to say, the festival organisers and our publishers, SelfMadeHero, looked after us tremendously well.

Hay-on Wye is a book town. The first of its kind. Richard Booth (the King of Hay-on-Wye) changed Hay from a small market town into a book town for book lovers and it's full of second-hand bookshops. Had I died and gone to heaven? It was an almost surreal experience. And Booth's own bookshop itself is absolutely wonderful. I was stood in the theology section when I was approached by the bookshop cat. I was so giddy with the idea of being in a small town with millions of books it wouldn't really have been such an unusual occurrance if the cat had asked me if I would have liked a glass of red wine!

Glorious bliss. I hope to return one day.