Aug 22 2019
On April Fools’ Day 1977 Richard Booth, who has died aged 80, strode down the high street of Hay-on-Wye, Powys, dressed in a home-made crown and fake ermine robe. His intent – to declare the small market town an independent sovereign state – was as visionary as it was bonkers. Today Hay-on-Wye, a pretty but otherwise unremarkable border town (on the border of Wales and England), thrives thanks to the remarkable legacy of its self-appointed monarch, who helped to establish it as a centre for the secondhand book trade and to create the environment in which the annual Hay festival of literature and arts was founded in 1988.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
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