Hay Festival

Knowing I would be at C and T’s lodge, I had booked a day out at the Hay Festival today, as Hay-on-Wye is only a 40 minute drive away. A new experience for me, so if I do this again I think I would go for more than one day, and allow more “breathing room” between talks. It was all very full on. But I enjoyed it. It was very busy, and there was a lot of queuing. No time to sit down for lunch or a coffee.

For my own record, I attended five sessions:
* A news review, focussing on the UK and US elections, with David Runciman, Sarah Churchwell and Lionel Shriver. Some interesting disagreements between the two Americans.
* John Crace, The Guardian’s political sketch writer, always very funny. It was only as it finished that I realised (as did she) that I was sitting next to someone I knew !
* Carole Cadwalladr and Tom Burgis on censorship of the press through the legal mechanisms available to the super rich in the UK. Eye opening.
* Stephen Fry, focussing on his fourth book on the Greek Myths (this one, out in October, is all about Homer’s Odyssey). Who doesn’t like Stephen Fry.
* Merlin Sheldrake talking about fungi. I read his book “Entangled Life” when it was first published. More people should be called Merlin. The image is the marquee filling up for this last session. Strong winds meant it was flapping around a bit.

A grey and rainy day (with thunder and lightening thrown in), so this turned out to be a good way to spend it.