Considering Richard Booth's Legacy

There was a meeting yesterday evening at Booth's Bookshop, in the café, of people who were interested in ways to continue Richard Booth's legacy to Hay in various ways. Olly Cooke, the Crown Prince, and Aubrey Fry, Admiral of the Hay Navy, were there, as well as Goffee, Amy from the Kingdom Project, Anne Brichto, and a variety of others. Elizabeth Haycox chaired the meeting and represented the Castle Trust.
Elizabeth started by saying that Hope and the Booth family were keen to be involved in anything that was decided for the future. She also said that the first exhibition that will be put on when the Castle re-opens will be about Richard - they're hoping it will be in the summer of 2020. As custodians of a castle with a thousand years of history, they will be doing a lot to present that history to the public, starting with Matilda de Breos - but Richard was an important part of the modern history of the castle.
The Castle Trust also has all the official seals and so on to continue Richard's practice of selling noble titles, which will raise money for the Castle. Someone asked if the holders of Hay titles could be contacted to invite them to the opening of the Castle, or other Hay events, but I don't know if this will be possible.
As Olly was there, there was talk of a coronation. The original crown is owned by the Castle Trust now (and presently in the window of Booth's bookshop as part of the display to honour Richard), but a new wonky crown could be made, and April 1st would be a good time to crown the new king.
The suggestion was that April 1st would be a National Day for the Kingdom of Hay - a Bank Holiday.
"But we haven't got any banks now!"
"A Non-Bank Holiday, then!"
Goffee said that, when he organised circus conventions, they always happened around the beginning of April, and he was in touch with the present organisers, who might be interested in coming to Hay again.
Another suggestion was to get in touch with Les Penning, who Richard made his Keeper of the King's Music, to get him to compose a piece, possibly a requiem.
Anne and Josh have been organising the Bookstagram meetings in Hay, and would be happy to do it again to coincide with the Independence celebrations.
Next April 1st is a Wednesday, but it was agreed that it was important that the celebrations be on the actual day, not just the nearest weekend.

Amy from the Kingdom Project had been working with Richard closely before he died on future projects to carry on his story. She suggested that it might be possible to hold Court at the Castle, as Richard used to do, maybe once a year, with re-enactors in the grounds. The grounds have been used for re-enactments, and Shakespeare performances, in the past. People who bought titles could go through a ceremony of climbing the steps to the Castle gates where they would be presented with their title, possibly from a little Medieval tent.
And, since Hay does have a form of its own currency now in the form of Hay Vouchers, it might be worth approaching the ladies at Londis to suggest that the name be changed to the Hay Crown, possibly with pictures of Richard and Olly on the vouchers. In the early days of the Kingdom, Richard issued his own currency, the Bootho.

Richard's passing has been noted nationally, with obituaries in national newspapers (the Guardian one is good) and also on Radio 4 on Thought for the Day and Last Word.

Richard always said he wanted to be buried under a pyramid of books. Obviously the headstone is a matter for the family, but building a pyramid of books would be a great kids' activity. "Encyclopaedias are a good base!"

Another thing Richard was always interested in was providing local jobs. Anne pointed out that only one bookshop in Hay was run by people who were under the age of 40, and suggested that it would be a good idea to give training and support to young people who wanted to start up as booksellers, as bookshop apprenticeships. One of the big difficulties for booksellers starting up, for instance, is finding the time to go out and buy books when they also have to keep the shop open and can't afford to pay staff, so that's one area where support could be given. She said that John Bird, of the Big Issue, has indicated his interest. It might be possible to use some of the outbuildings of the Castle when it re-opens as the venue for this, or part of Addyman's Annexe, and it would help to keep the High Street alive, which was another of Richard's passions.

Aubrey Fry has set up a Facebook page to share stories about Richard (though I haven't been able to find it yet), and he said there would probably be enough material there for a book. Ann suggested a leaflet like the ones Richard used to put out - "100 Interesting Facts about King Richard".
The Kingdom Project also includes a Museum of Memories, and the Castle is also doing a project about local history and stories, so all that could come together.
Also Richard's autobiography My Kingdom of Books is out of print, but is due to be reprinted soon - is there a possibility of updating it? Elizabeth said she has a large number of remainders if anyone wanted them!
Anne also has a collection of Hay memorabilia.

There was a bit of reminiscing then about Goffee's floating bicycle, on which he once pedalled down the Wye from Hay to Hereford. The swans didn't like it much, but wouldn't get out of the way, so at one point he was herding a flock of about 20 swans in front of him - "and when I hit the rapids...."

Finally Goffee revealed his plans for a grand Hay-on-Fire style extravaganza to mark Richard's passing, to be held on 31st October. This has gone through some revisions since I posted about it the other day, principally because he has talked to Hope, and she said "Please don't burn Richard!" (even in a nice way!). So now the bonfires will be created around three wicker figures representing Bureaucracy, Greed and Control - which I think Richard would thoroughly have approved of (who can forget the statue he had made for the Castle grounds, of the man from the Welsh Development Agency shooting himself in the foot?).
There will be an effigy of Richard in the procession instead, with a flashing crown!
There will be no firework display at Baskerville Hall this year, as the organisers have retired from running it, so there's a gap in the calendar for something like this. Goffee said it would be the last one he would organise, as he doesn't actually live in Hay any more.

So the main points that were agreed were:

1. Celebrations on April 1st (possibly with coronation)
2. Bookseller apprentice scheme
3. Stories of Richard
4. Firework extravaganza on October 31st.

A Good Send Off for the King

I wasn't able to go to the funeral, but I did see people gathering in Castle Street for the procession up to Cusop Church. There was even a minibus laid on for people who couldn't walk that far.
One of the people who did go told me that there were about 200 people outside the church. Local novelist Phil Rickman said a few words at the service.

After the funeral, local people gathered at the Globe to pay tribute to the King.
When I got there Goffee was making a speech about his memories of Richard, and how he had given licence to the eccentric and mad things that happened in Hay - like Hay-on-Fire, for instance, or the unicycle races around the Castle outskirts. Goffee organised Hay-on-Fire, and also held circus workshops over the years.
Projected on the wall during the proceedings were photos of Richard at various moments in his life. The poster at the doorway had a picture of the King, with the words "...total chaos and anarchy is the only answer..."
Goffee then handed the mic over to Oliver, who said he had been designated Crown Prince by Richard, but knew that he could never fill Richard's shoes. However, he did want to make sure that Richard's legacy of making Hay such an eccentric and fun place to be was continued. To this end, he was setting up a new Cabinet along with the Admiral of the Hay Navy, who also said a few words.
He also read out a tribute from Hay's Twin Town of Timbuktu, which was very touching.
They have set up a Facebook page where people can share their stories about Richard.
They also tried to track down some of Richard's friends from the early days, but had been unable to contact Boots Bantock the poet (last heard of in Bath). When they phoned April Ashley, her first words were "I'm not going." But she is planning to return to Hay soon.
Oliver recounted a story about Richard, from his father, who had accompanied Richard to the USA in the late 1970s, where they had met with the management team of one of the biggest antiquarian booksellers there - they'd handled Gutenberg Bibles! Richard was taken out for a slap up meal, and at the end of it said that he would return the favour the following night.
When they got back to the motel, Oliver's father told Richard that just the tip for the evening had come to $600. Richard's immediate response was to look for an early flight back to the UK! When he couldn't get a flight, he proposed only taking the chairman out for dinner - and suggested a little known gem of a place to eat. It was an Indian takeaway, and they ate the meal from the plastic containers, with the plastic cutlery, in the back of the chairman's stretch limo.
Oliver then offered the mic to anyone else in the room who had stories to tell about Richard, and that's still going on now.

The King is Dead - Long Live Hay-on-Wye!

Community King's Wake

Continuing Richard Booth's Legacy

There will be a meeting at 6pm on Friday 30th August at Booth's Bookshop, open to all.
This will be to decide how to celebrate Richard's life, and to think about ways to ensure that his legacy will continue.

Brecon Museum Concerns

There was a meeting last week at the Castle Hotel in Brecon about the future of Brecon Museum. As well as members of the County Council, Kirsty Williams AM was there, and Jane Dodds the new MP, Roger Williams the previous Lib Dem MP, and others concerned about the way the project is going. The Museum was due to open earlier this year, but is not ready yet - and it seems that the County Council have been in secret negotiations with Neath Port Talbot Colleges Group for them to take over part of the running of the Y Gaer centre. Apparently they were already part of the project as they are going to run the café.
About 200 people managed to get into the meeting, and about 100 people were turned away because there was no room, though the patio doors were opened so some people could listen from outside.
Nina Davies, the head of housing and community development for Powys Council, said that the museum and library complex should be opening in November or December of this year, and that they needed a partnership with the College Group to secure the financial sustainability of Y Gaer. As well as running the café, the proposal is that the College would also have the use of the Sir John Lloyd Gallery. She also said that the Council were considering limiting the opening hours of all their libraries to 30 hours a week.
Various groups have given grants for the building of the new complex, and these grants come with conditions attached. If the conditions are not met, the donors can withdraw their funds, and the National Lottery and the Welsh Assembly have concerns. One of the donors is the Brecknock Society and Museum Friends, who opened the first museum 50 years ago. They are very concerned that the deal with the College Group will mean there isn't enough space to display the important art collection that the museum has built up.

Richard Booth's Funeral

Richard Booth's funeral will take place at Cusop Church on Thursday 29th August at 2.30pm. The Brecon and Radnor Express reports that, if anyone wishes to leave flowers or make donations in Richard's memory, it should be at their own choice.
Several members of the Booth family are buried in Cusop churchyard.
[Edited to add: There will be a procession from 5a Castle Street, which was the King of Hay bookshop, to Cusop Church, starting at 1.30pm on Thursday 29th. The procession will be led by family members.]

There are also plans underway for an informal and unofficial wake to celebrate Richard's life at the Globe, also on the Thursday. I'm not sure how far preparations for that have got.

And Goffee, in his role as "the last court fool", has shared a document on Facebook to organise a King Richard Coeur de Livre Day on 31st October. It looks very like the Hay-on-Fire events he used to organise, with a procession led by the flag of the Independent Kingdom of Hay, followed by a black horse bearing the royal crown, a traction engine, brass band or samba band, representatives and flags of all the booktowns around the world, circus performers, and anyone dressed as a character from their favourite book.
Then down at Cae Mawr he plans to burn a huge seated effigy of King Richard, with his ballcock and sceptre, "in a huge fiery farewell", with singers and fireworks, finishing with a burning heart on the walls of the castle.

Bustling Market

I usually miss most of the Thursday market because I'm at work, but today I was still recovering from my holiday so I got to look round properly.
There are a lot of interesting stalls. Regulars include the bread, cheese, Primrose Farm organic veg, another fruit and veg stall, plants, vintage clothes, the WI, meat, bric a brac, socks, the Greek olive man, pet food, and records and DVDs. The fish van wasn't there today. Stalls I hadn't seen before included a lady woodcarver, who was carving as she looked after her stall, a leather stall, takeaway chow mein, a man selling air plants decoratively set in shells and so on, soap and beeswax, specialist teas, a shepherd's hut selling prickly plants and garden ornaments, picnic blankets, someone demonstrating kitchen equipment - and there was more.
It's wonderful to see the market so busy!
[Edited to add: There was also one stall draped in black, with a display of a shield with the motto "Coeur de Livres" and a variety of photos showing Richard Booth's life.]

End of an Era

When I came back from my holidays, the first person I met when I got off the bus told me that Richard Booth had died.

I came to Hay because of Richard Booth. He placed an advert for a gardener and housekeeper in Resurgence magazine (I believe he knew Satish Kumar, who founded the magazine). It was the early 1990s - my husband and I had just finished working on a big archaeological dig, and there was no other archaeological work in sight, so we applied for the job - which came with a flat so long you could see it on the OS map, across the top of Brynmelin in Cusop Dingle, where Richard and Hope lived.
On the day of the interview, which was in February and foggy, we looked through the gate at the Honesty Bookshop when we walked round Hay. "They even have bookshelves outside!" we said. "We've got to come and live here!"
Working for Richard was - interesting - and when we finally parted company we were determined to stay in the area. And I'm still here.

He was educated at Rugby School (my husband grew up in Rugby) and one day he told us that he had stolen his first book from Overs, which was then a big, rambling bookshop in the middle of Rugby - long gone now.
While we were there we cooked for Italian journalists (they wrote an article entitled "Il Re de Hay, e un Hippy!"), a Belgian cabinet minister, a bookseller from Damascus, people from the booktowns of Le Redu and Montelieu (Richard's lurcher, who we loved, was called Monty after the booktown), April Ashley, and many others.
He was writing his autobiography My Kingdom of Books while we were there, and we occasionally heard him reading portions out to his wife Hope, who would offer constructive criticism!
We heard about the wild parties he held in the 1970s, including one he held in Hay Castle where people were dancing so vigorously the floor collapsed!
He also told us that, when Hay Castle burned down, he was so convinced of the safety of the medieval stone stairs that he went back inside for his trousers, left behind as he escaped! I've also heard the tale, from local firefighters, that they had to tie him to a tree to stop him going back inside to rescue the books!
The Belgian bookseller who visited told us about the time he drove Richard around during his election campaign. He was against supermarkets and festivals (especially Hay Festival at the beginning) and in favour of a return to horse transport, as well as diversifying the rural economy, which was something he was very successful in doing.
I also have the unique distinction of sentencing Richard Booth to death! It was when a group of booksellers organised a Republican uprising against the King, culminating in a parade through town with the help of a local Sealed Knot group, and beheading the King in effigy in the Buttermarket. I don't think Richard minded too much - and he gave a very amusing speech at his trial.
The group tried to think of other publicity stunts, but none of them could match Richard's flair for the bizarre and extraordinary.

Richard Booth set the direction for Hay that the town still follows today, all from a mad idea that people would come to a small town in the middle of nowhere from all over the world to buy second hand books. There was no-one quite like him.

I Return from my Travels

I lied when I posted that picture pointing to the Real World! I have been in Dublin for the 77th Annual World Science Fiction Convention, which was a much better place than the Real World! I will be posting about the Con, in great detail, in my other blog, Morwenna's Tower - link can be found on the side bar.

Off-line for a While

I shall be off-line for a few days.
Back soon.

The Happy Ever After

I've known Betty Maura-Cooper for a long time, and I knew that she had written romance novels in the past. More recently, though, she's written a slightly different book, which was obviously a labour of love, and she's asked me to review it for her.

In 1937, Eve Garnett wrote a children's book called The Family at One End Street. It was one of the first British children's books to feature a working class family - the father was a dustman, and the mother (of seven children!) took in washing as the Ideal Laundry. It won the Carnegie Medal (in only the second year of the award's existence), beating other books including The Hobbit. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal, it was named as one of the top ten winners, and has always been in print. Eve Garnett also illustrated the books.
There were two sequels - Further Adventures of the Family at One End Street and Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn.

Betty wanted to know what happened to the children of the Ruggles family when they grew up, and decided she wanted to write their story. She contacted the copyright holders, and they said they would only agree to a sequel being published if they read it first - which meant that she had to write the story without knowing whether it would be acceptable.
Fortunately, they liked it, and The Happy Ever After: the family from One End Street grows up is now available, published by Endeavour Media.

I have surprisingly vivid memories of reading the Eve Garnett stories as a child - I loved them - so I was very happy to be asked to review this book. I loved the way Betty brought the family through the decades into the present.

The story is told from the perspective of Lily Rose, the oldest of the seven Ruggles children, now in her eighties and reminiscing about her life just before a big family reunion at the Dew Drop Inn. All the children get their own strand of the story, each of them getting different careers according to their personalities and what sort of opportunities were available to them. At first, the story extrapolates directly from the original books, but as the years pass, what happens to the family comes more from Betty's imagination.
It all works very well - the future she maps out for the family is both plausible, and gives a varied social history of the years after the second world war, with the world changing into something very different from the 1930s.
It's a large cast of characters - the seven siblings and all the people they have relationships with, and their own children, but I never felt confused about who was who. It's a long period to cover, too. The story has a framing narrative set in the present, with the history of the family unfolding gradually, and it was always clear to me which decade the scenes were set in, as the world changes around the family.
By the time Lily Rose's life changed dramatically in middle age, when her own children were grown up and had left home, I was completely emotionally involved with her decisions, and I sat up late to make sure that the family (and Lily Rose) did have their Happy Ever After in the end.

Small Business Saturday

Philosophie has closed down, due to health problems, and HayDaze has now moved into the shop from their old shop a little way along the road. There are still some bits and pieces from Philosophie - their closing down sale - with all the interesting HayDaze clothes as well.

Solar Lamps for Timbuktu

Last year, toilets - this year, solar lamps.
Hay2Timbuktu are fundraising this year to provide solar powered lamps which will be charged at the secondary schools so that students can take them home to do their homework. Girls in each school will be trained to maintain the lamps in good order. The fundraising is already off to a good start with some money from Hay Festival and a quiz night. There will be a dinner with a speaker in the early autumn.
The Hay2Timbuktu AGM will be on 27th September, which is also Mali Independence Day, and there will be news of the girls who are being supported by Hay2Timbuktu's current project, helping with school equipment and remedial lessons. Also in September there will be a bursary available to a girl from each of the partner schools in Timbuktu to start a midwifery course. Two trustees of Hay2Timbuktu will be travelling to Mali to monitor the project and to take the good wishes of the people of Hay with them.

Latest News from Hay Council

I haven't been going along to the Council meetings for a while, partly because I didn't have time to eat anything between the time I left work and the time the meetings started, and partly because the situation between the Town Council and the County Council didn't seem to change from one month to the next. So the following information has come from WyeLocal.

The Transfer of Assets has finally been decided - and not in Hay Town Council's favour despite long negotiations and a petition signed by 1,350 people.
So, the Town Council will continue to run the public toilets until 1st October, after which there will be, hopefully, another decision. To do this, they are having to increase the price of entry to 30p.
Meanwhile, the County Council has terminated the lease on the Council Chambers, to take effect in May 2020. This means that the Town Council will have to meet elsewhere, and the tenants of the council in the building will have to find other premises.
On a more positive note, the Town Council has received the draft lease for the Recreation Facilities, so that should be safe from closure.

The Town Council voted, at the beginning of the year, to accept that there is a Climate Emergency, and they are taking it seriously. They have a Low Carbon Group, which is working out what the Town Council can do, and they have ideas for several local projects. They are planning a community event in September.

A little while ago, I met Councillor Alan Powell taking a group of South Koreans around the Cinema Bookshop. They were from Gimhae, the first "Slow City" in South Korea. As well as seeing the bookshops, they went down to the Riverside Path to meet members of the Community Woodland Group and to see the chainsaw sculptures. They also met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Hay Festival.
Mayor Trudy Stedman also met the Swedish Ambassador, when they came for Hay Festival. They parked a bus at the Festival entrance.

Hay in Bloom is getting established as an annual event. Local businesses have already been judged for the competition (on Friday 26th July), but front gardens will be judged in the week of 2nd September, along with container planting around town.
The Town Council is also looking for ways to get children involved, by creating imaginative spaces in their front gardens for wildlife using recycled materials. There are ideas for attracting useful insects like bees on the Hay in Bloom Facebook page or the Hay Community Noticeboard.

Eating Out

My Young Man has come to visit - and the first thing he wanted to do when he got off the train was to have lunch at Planet Buffet, by the bus station in Hereford, with plenty of green tea.
It was a hot day, so they had the door facing the bus station open, which is also level access - one customer had come in on his mobility scooter and parked it next to his table. The front way in is up a flight of steps.
In the evening we had planned to go for a pop-up pizza at Ty Tan art gallery. Usually they do this on Thursday evenings, but at the moment they are on holiday, so we had to think of something else. We still fancied something Italian, so we went across to the Three Tuns. We treated ourselves to wild boar ragu, rather than pizza, which was delicious, washed down with locally brewed Lucky 7 beer, and made friends with the little dog at the next table who barked at us when we didn't say hello.

By-election

Congratulations to Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrat candidate, who won the Brecon and Radnor by-election.