Hands up

Another "perfect ten" event to finish our week at Hay. War correspondent Marie Colvin’s biographer Lindsey Hillsum being interviewed by Rosie Boycott. This is the official Hay Festival programme and I have to say it totally lived up to its billing:

"Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. She reported from the most dangerous places in the world, going in further and staying longer than anyone else. Marie covered the major conflicts of our time: Israel and Palestine, Chechnya, East Timor, Sri Lanka (where she was hit by a grenade and lost sight in her left eye, resulting in her trademark eye-patch), Iraq and Afghanistan. Her anecdotes about encounters with dictators and presidents – including Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat, whom she knew well – were incomparable. She was much admired, and as famous for her wild parties as for the extraordinary lengths to which she went to tell the story, including being smuggled into Syria where she was killed in 2012."

One last meal - they do communal eating par excellence at this festival and you get to meet lots of people over a bite to eat - and then we headed home. It’s always a joy to see the family again, human and feline, but there is sadness too. Hay is so special. TSM wants to go and live there. I’ve reached an age where the idea is beginning to look attractive ...even though our car is covered in Jackdaw shit from having to park under a telegraph pole where they like to hang out ...