We live near Hay-on-Wye, a picturesque town on the Welsh border with England, known as ‘the town of books’ because of the large number of second hand book shops and the world’s biggest literary festival. President Clinton called the Festival ‘the Woodstock of the Mind’. It is exciting and enriching because once a year over 10 days five book events run simultaneously all day attracting audiences totalling over 50,000. An ‘event’ is centred on the author of a new book, any book provided it is judged of particular importance. The author could be a Nobel laureate, or a well known rugby football player suffering from dementia who has written a campaigning book against the sport, to name two subjects this year. The author is interviewed, gives a talk or a powerpoint presentation.
I call the Hay Lit Fest ‘BBC Radio 4 on location’ because the audiences are listeners to this radio channel that caters for middle-class England (and Wales). They come to celebrate books and book talk. They fill up campsites and bed and breakfast acommodation for miles around. They attend, say, three events a day and then wander round the large tented campus, eating ‘al fresco’, chatting to the celebrities and wondering who else to listen to; or they hire bikes, take their cars or just walk to enjoy the beautiful countryside round the river Wye and Black Mountains.
This year my wife and I gave a powerpoint presentation about our new book ‘Tragic Heroes’. It is a grim story about concentration camps and the sinking of FFS Surcouf, the world’s largest submarine until after World War II.. We wondered who would come on the afternoon of the public holiday to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. We were amazed to see that the ‘Wales Tent’ was nearly full with more than 350 seats occupied and afterwards the queue waiting for us to signs copies of our book and then buy it stretched outside the Book Tent. Where else would that happen? It was like the the biblical parable of the loaves and fishes. We produced one book and hundreds of people came to listen to us talk about it.
The Hay Literary Festival franchises other lit. fests, in South America, India, Africa and Europe. They have to work as well as the mother festival in Hay. Any author should applaud this brand in a world where social media and TV are taking over.