The Story of Books looks so quaint and charming that I fell in love before I stepped over the threshold. Indeed it sums itself up well in the writing above the window: where stories are told and books are made. Last August's issue includes a report on the Bryngwyn WI outing to Berrington Hall, where they enjoyed the costume collection. The Young Farmers were taking part in a Rally - shearing, a wheelbarrow race, floral arrangements and a Generation Game competition, among others (they came 9th - Howey were the winners), and held their 75th year ball, hosted at Trewyrlod farm in Painscastle. It was emphasised that only a minority were prepared to get arrested, and there was plenty of scope for people to take part at whatever comfort level they had. Support roles are also important, such as cooking for big events, or being a "well-being co-ordinator" to make sure members of the group are looking after themselves and taking adequate breaks. At the Easter action, they found that there was a shortage of people who were prepared to hang around outside police stations to wait for the people who had been arrested to be released - and since 1,100 people were arrested, and processed in police stations across London, this was quite an important job that they would be trying to do better next time.

When Captain's Walk was renovated a plaque was put up to commemorate the person who first created the Walk - Captain Thomas Phillips of Havard House, Brecon (more recently the Ursuline Convent). The plaque said that Captain Phillips was the author of A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal 1693 -94 to Africa and Barbadoes.

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The Old Electric Bookshop is the newest bookshop in Hay-on-Wye and opened its doors in October 2019. It’s an offshoot of the popular cafe and shop called The Old Electric Shop (it’s easy to confuse the two!). I took the twenty to ten bus from Hay, and got off just beyond Peterchurch at Poston Mill, where the caravan park is. A little way along the main road, I turned off up a driveway which was also a public footpath, which led up to Poston Lodge. The views of the Golden Valley are fantastic, and this morning there was sunshine with a slight haze in the air.

There's also a solar lamp project, where students can take lamps home so they have light to do their homework. Near to Hay, there's also an exhibition at the River Café in Glasbury, of food paintings by Alice Straker, and at the Chapel on the Green in Glasbury Susan Adams and Jo Mazelis have created an installation formed of drawings, video and a giant sculpture making the Tivoli Fish Bar. Broad Street Book Centre is unique in that it houses a number of different independent bookshops. In fact, there are almost twenty little bookshops in this building. The Table on Lion Street is full of pictures of Welsh country cottages by Simon Dorrell, and some raku fired ceramic Welsh houses by Amanda Banham. Another solicitor, Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong, had his office on Broad Street - the only solicitor to be hanged in British history. Martin Beales, the solicitor who later used those same offices, and lived in Armstrong's house on Cusop Dingle, wrote a book arguing that he should not have been convicted, and there have been other books about the case.

The HOWLS meeting on Wednesday evening was to update people on what's happening at the moment - at a time when Powys County Council are considering their budget for next year, but are not releasing any details yet. Isobelle has hit the ground running as a member of the Town Council, as she is now the Co-ordinator for the Green Transport Action Plan. She has already set up a lift/car share group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/238557719890177/ You can see from the photo above that Richard Booth’s Bookshops is simply gorgeous with its striking facade. This bookshop is housed in a converted chapel, which seems apt as I think most people who visit this town worship books.

When Oliver Balch wrote Under the Tump, his book about living in the Hay area, he interviewed the people who ran the cattle market. They had seen a decline in the use of the market over the years, since it is quite a small, local one. Ive been reading these types of mites normally feed on other insects, not the hay itself, and have come in from the field - usually dont survive in dry bales for long, preferring 60% moisture to continue their life cycle. On the political front, there are articles from County Councillor James Gibson-Watt, AM Kirsty Williams and MP Chris Davies - Brexit was a theme here, with worries about what it would mean for local farmers. There’s also an enormous basement and a top floor so you could easily spend hours in here (something I’m going to say about a lot of bookshops in this post…). There's also news of a new session at Hay Library called The Enchanted Hour, in which "writers and performers will read aloud to transport the Library visitors to another world". This happens on the second Friday of each month at 3.30pm, starting on 11th October.We started, around 20 of us, at The End, the shop on Castle Street which was used for the Wayzgoose the day before. In the window was a special offer - a copy of Oliver Balch's book Under the Tump, about the local area, with a free goose egg! At the end of the concert, a member of the audience stood up to thank the performers (I think he was also involved with a music group locally) and he said how fortunate we are in Hay to have so many wonderful musicians living locally. It's not long now until the Hay Walking Festival (I hope they have better weather than this week!).