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.