Old Rage

The standout event today, and of my whole Hay experience indeed, was seeing Sheila Hancock talking to Alan Rusbridger. I expected to enjoy the show but hadn't anticipated being entertained to quite the extent I was. Sheila was sensational. Sharp and articulate and funny. And angry. Very angry. If I'd read the program notes more carefully, I would have been prepared for her rage. The book she's promoting is called Old Rage. She brought the house down on several occasions with her rantings about Johnson and the government. Apparently, it started out as a book about contentment in old age but with Brexit and then Covid, it turned into something very different. She had so much wisdom to impart. She was genuinely inspiring. I trust her grandchildren appreciate just how lucky they are to have such a young 89-year-old grandmother. I'm sure they do. 

I popped into Hay after the event to meet up with E for lunch and explore the castle, where it was lovely to bump into Anna and Omar from the cast of last night's Julius Caesar. Apologies that your portraits were gazumped by Sheila - for when we returned for our next event she was still signing books, having kept going for a full hour and a half. I was just about the last person to see her and it felt like it was meant to be. It was lovely to be able to say hello to a national icon and tell her to keep that rage firing away. We need more people to be rightfully angry at what's happening in the country at the moment.

The clouds cleared in the evening to give some sunshine which was close to being actually warm. I took off on my bike for an hour to investigate the back roads and some seriously steep hills, a little goodbye to an area that, having now been rediscovered, I hope to return to again soon.