Derek Addyman is on the front page of the Hereford Times this week! (cunningly disguised as Prince Derek Fitz Pitt Booth Addyman, and in his Henry VIII costume!). He's declaring Hay a Kindle-free zone*, and has a Royal proclamation:
1. There will be no supermarket in Hay
2. July 4th will be known as Alice in Wonderland day
3. No Kindles
4. Royal Charters for Open Mic Night and all shops selling second hand goods, especially books, and "craftspeople of worth".
5. National sports will be encyclopaedia tossing in summer, conkers in autumn, and dragon racing in winter "once another dragon has been located" (which rather begs the question - where is Derek keeping the one that he has already?)
This is followed up with a rather fine editorial, describing Prince Derek's proposed Kindle ban as "a kind of Passport to Pimlico for the modern age", and making the more serious point that the proposal is opening up our thinking about what a book, and reading, actually is.
Meanwhile, on page 9, there's a photo of that unholy trinity - 'Sir' Rob Soldat (dressed as a knight), George the Town Cryer and Toby Parker the busker, to publicise the opening of the new Brook Street Cinema, at the back of Booth Books.
Today is also the first day of the Hay Festival - so of course the weather has changed and light rain has started to fall.
It's also time for How The Light Gets In at the Globe. As a near neighbour, I got a programme for this pushed through my letter box, together with a letter offering a pair of free tickets to a short list of events, as a good will gesture in case anybody was bothered by noise and so on. "Sounds great," I thought, so I went along one evening to collect a free ticket - I rather fancied seeing the talk on the Higgs-Boson particle. In my innocence, I thought that they would just give me a ticket - but it seemed to actually be hideously complicated and computerised, and they said they'd let me know by Tuesday....
Oh, well, I wasn't that bothered about seeing the talk anyway.
*see Hay on TV for more on that
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2 comments:
Derek also managed to get half a page in the Daily Mail!
The Globe sent the same letter to the shops that advertise them all year round, and failed to come up with the tickets too. Well, shan't be putting up their posters from now on either.
As for Derek, he was in The Times but according to them, We are in Hertfordshire!
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