A great day out at Hay
- Attfield Dutt
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Have you been to the Hay Festival this year? It finishes on Sunday 31st May so there’s still time. We go every year and we’ve seen rain, oh yes, thick jumpers and warm coats weather, tents rattling in the wind; David Miliband once told the audience many years ago that it was the Welsh monsoon… but never before have we seen weather at Hay like last Saturday.
We met our daughter and son-in-law for lunch and then we all went to hear David Miliband, this time talking first about the International Rescue Committee which he heads. As we know, it responds to humanitarian crises throughout the world, and he is deeply involved and knowledgeable. But of course the audience was keen to draw him on current politics over here; there were many attempts to get him to commit, but he was extremely gracious in dodging the question – people said things like ‘you are the best prime minister we have never had,’ but he doesn’t want to talk about individuals, believing that it is policies that matter.
Earlier we went to a session in the BBC marquee at which the current actors of the Archers re-enacted an episode you might have heard of – September 1955, when Grace Archer died in a fire in the stables trying to rescue her horse. The marquee was packed – reflecting the fact that the Archers has five million listeners nowadays; but I doubt if there were many people like us there, who actually remember hearing that episode when it was first broadcast. I wish they’d asked!
Next Saturday, 30th May, we are going to Swansea for the launch of a book I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, Joan Darbyshire’s book DIASPORA FAMILY. A fascinating account of her Jewish ancestors, beginning in central Europe in the 1870s. Some of them emigrated to Australia where Joan’s father was born; some returned to Europe and finally settled in Golders Green which is where Joan and I were friends as children. Joan is launching her book at Cover to Cover, a bookshop in Mumbles, at 2pm. Worth coming if you live anywhere near.
Comments