New Bookshop - the Literature Laboratory

 

No sooner has the new bookshop leaflet come out than it's out of date!  This is the Literature Laboratory, next to Clock Tower Books and opposite the Butter Market, which will be selling children's books and, I think, doing projects with children, too.

Saturday Afternoon at the Festival

 I've been enjoying the podcast Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, so I was keen to go to the free event at the Festival.  This time I was prepared for the crowds - I took a small folding stool along, and positioned myself outside the packed out marquee where I could hear everything but not see the stage (so, just like radio, then!).  The subject was Demeter, and Natalie Haynes took us through the original myth of Persephone, in which Zeus and Hades are far more creepy than later versions.  Also, bonus first named female comedian in history (or myth), Iambe, who tells jokes until Demeter can smile again.

Later in the marquee, there was a broadcast of You're Dead to Me, the history podcast.

I wandered off afterwards in search of something to drink, and ended up paying £4.50 for a half of cider (Festival Ferret from the Festival Bar) but at least I got to keep the decorative plastic glass.

I also bought a three pack of beer from Woofy's Brewery near Ross-on-Wye - they've brewed a special limited edition amber ale for the Festival, called Bibliophile, which I'm drinking now, and it's very pleasant.  I have yet to try the porter and the IPA.

Then I wandered round the stalls for a while (and had a Shepherds ice cream) until it was time for the event I had a ticket for - Stephen Moffat, Lucy Caldwell and Rob Appleby in conversation.  I didn't catch the name of the moderator of the panel, but I think he was from Comma Press, who published Collison: stories from the science of CERN.  The idea behind the book was to pair a writer with a scientist at CERN.  The scientist would tell the writer about the theories they were working on, and the writer would then write a short story about it.  Stephen Moffat and Lucy Caldwell were two of the writers involved, and Rob Appleby is one of the astrophysicists, and they talked about visiting CERN.  Lucy compared living there to some of the work she's been doing with young women who have vocations to enclosed monastic orders in Ireland - the living quarters being like monastic cells, and the sense of devotion to something greater than themselves.  They also talked about scientists who have spent their entire careers in one area of research - and if they succeed in making a breakthrough, they're likely to get a Nobel prize, but they also might spend 30 years working in obscurity, without discovering any new theories about the universe.  

Stephen Moffat read a portion of his story based on the theory of dark matter, about a person who had been wiped out of existence - in fact, had never existed at all - and added at the end that, if we'd paid a bit more for tickets, we could have got Peter Capaldi to read it!  Lucy Caldwell's reading was also based on the theory of dark matter, and involved a scientist going home to his family in Belfast.

Rob Appleby pointed out that all the scientific endeavour over the last few hundred years has led to us (as a species) learning about 5% of all matter in the universe.  There's 95% of stuff out there that we really know very little about, and that includes dark matter.  He seemed quite excited by this thought, as it means we have so much yet to discover.

It was a really interesting discussion, and it seems that Comma Press may be doing more similar collaborations in the future.

At the Festival Site

 I went up to the Festival site yesterday with the intention of seeing the free live broadcast of the Media Show in the Marquee near the entrance.  However, when I got there fifteen minutes before the start of the show, the seats were already full, so I wandered off to look at the stalls around the site instead.

This was at the Greenpeace stall.  The turtle is made of old tires!  Apparently, old tires are sent to the Gambia, where they burn them to get at the metals embedded within the rubber, so rather than burn the tires, they are being encouraged to make them into artworks like this, or practical things like the tire armchair that was also on the stall.

Just a few stalls along was Plantlife.  They run wildlife reserves across the country with an emphasis on rare species.  As the chap at the stall said, people usually haven't heard of them - but they have heard of NoMowMay, which is their campaign.

I had a look at the Oxfam bookshop, briefly.  I used to be able to take away carrier bags full of books, but they have raised their prices rather too much for me to be able to do that now.

There was another second hand bookshop on site, run by the National Trust, which had an interesting selection, including some quite rare books (I noticed a book on ciphers that they wanted £70 for!).

A choir was singing outside the Festival Bookshop, from Hereford College of Arts.  I found an interesting book there by Juno Dawson (I recognised the name because she's written for Doctor Who) called Gender Games.  She's in a panel talking about witches at the Festival.

I had a chat with one of the stewards, too.  He's been stewarding at the Festival for years, and when I wandered on, he went to stand at the back of the talk he was stewarding.  When I saw him later, he said the talk had been very good, but the speaker hadn't made any concessions to the youth of his audience - it being Schools Day for secondary schools. 

I went back to the Marquee and listened to the discussion for a while from the edge of the tent - the sides were open, but by then my back was starting to ache, so I didn't stay long.

Festival Friday

 The school buses were at the Festival yesterday - traffic chaos on Broad Street, and more police officers than we usually see for the rest of the year!

I now live over the Old Electric Shop, so I could hear the music from their late opening last night.  In previous years, my house was sheltered from most of the noise in the evenings, but I'm not complaining - the music was pleasant, and didn't go on too late into the night.

A couple of the outbuildings of the Castle have things happening in them - there's a shop selling sheep-themed tshirts and so on, and an exhibition I only got a glimpse of because they hadn't quite opened when I wandered through.

There's bric-a-brac and vintage clothes in the Buttermarket today, and the marquee is going up for Fair in the Square over the weekend.

Later on, I'm ambling up to the Festival site.

And the new Booksellers leaflet is out!  I was in Broad Street Books when Derek Addyman delivered them.  This year, they are black and orange.

Ready for the Festival

 There's a big sign saying "BAR" in the Honesty Garden at the Castle, with tables and chairs out ready.

Up above that, on the Castle wall, is a rather cryptic sign:

"Love detonates this distance between us to ash holds your flooded heart in the fire of night".

(I think there should probably be punctuation between "ash" and "holds").

Meanwhile, in the Walled Garden on Belmont Road, the Scouts are having a plant sale on Saturday, and after that it's going to be a Secret Wine Bar!

An art exhibition has gone up around the Cinema Bookshop, done by the people from the Art Gallery across the road, plus giant dice and wooden figures in the garden (and a sign asking people to please not roll the dice or sit on them!).

The Addyman Annexe is cutting it a bit fine with the preparations - when I passed this evening, all the books were out of the window, with a new Festival display yet to appear.

Tomorrow is Schools Day at the Festival, but the day after that, everything starts in earnest.

No Mow May

 

I came across this sign on Forest Road, explaining why Powys County Council are not mowing the verges at the moment - it's not to save money; it's for the benefit of wildlife.

I must say the verge looks lovely, full of buttercups and purple vetch and other flowers.

Royal Welsh Regiment in Hay

 

The Royal Welsh Regiment (with their goat mascot and regimental band) marched through the streets of Hay yesterday, to celebrate their Freedom of the County.  There was a ceremony and speeches on the Castle lawn.  Gareth Ratcliffe was there (before he went off to the football pitch later in the afternoon) and a chap who was resplendent in black velvet breeches and tail coat, who may have been the Lord Lieutenant of the County (or something similar).  Some of the streets in the middle of town, and the town square, were closed for the parade.

[Edited to add: Chatting in the Post Office this morning, I discovered that the goat is called Shenkin, and holds the rank of lance-corporal, because he has participated in three parades in front of royalty!]