HAY FESTIVAL 2011 -

I am going to Hay-on-Wye for the mighty book festival. I am fortunate enough to have an event with the fantastic Tim Bowler on Sunday 29th at 5pm. Hay is a brilliant festival with billions of authors and book lovers and book-loving authors milling around being bookish. Authors get to talk about their books and spy on/*secretly get starry eyed over other authors talking about their books.
Readers and authors meet and everyone eats an ice-cream at some point. This is one of the Laws of Hay. Nobody eats any books but I will report back if I witness this. Another Law of Hay is that if you spot a very-famous-author eating an ice cream you *MUST REMAIN NONCHALANT AND BOOKISH even if they have exceptional sideburns which, in normal circumstances, would require further investigation.
Authors usually spend most of their time sitting alone in bad trousers, muttering at their desks, exaggerating fictional events and laughing at their own jokes. So when they come to an event like Hay they DRESS UP. You will spot the author in the crowd at HAY 1)by the smell of mothballs fuming from their (odd) best clothes and 2) the limp as they walk in uncomfortable new shoes. (usually they wear slippers to work)
3) They will also look shifty as they try not to exaggerate.
Books are sold, signed and celebrated. The town itself is stuffed full of book shops (maybe I'll pick up one or two to add to my meagre collection)
I have been to the Hay festival once before, for about 2 hours, one of which was largely spent changing the baby's nappy and feeding it ice-cream.
This is why I have such vast knowledge on Hay-lore.

Bring it on!

(Note: Apology. pointless Blog waffle increases as NEW BOOK deadline approaches. I'm aiming to deliver my new teen novel BULLET BOYS, to my publisher at the end of June...)