The only full guidebook treatment of this charming Welsh border town, famous for its second-hand bookstores and annual Book Festival.
View the book’s contents, index and some sample pages, and buy securely from blueguides.com here »
Comments on Blue Guide Hay-on-Wye
Peter at Boz Books has passed me your e-mail re the Blue Guide Hay-on-Wye so that I could mention a copule of points for amendment in any future issue. He was aware that as we produce a local magazine we will have to reassure the locals that Lucy Powell, ex of The Three Public House is very much alive and apparently thriving. She still lives in Hay, and is seen out and about, most days.
(p. 123 “It remains a magnet for celebrities, but these days, since Lucy died and the pub was sold on…) Of slightly less aniquated importance, but high-profile in recent times, the revolution against the King of Hay which led to the King to being “decapitated in effigy by a breakaway group…led by Peter Harries”, (p. 9) was in fact led by Paul Harris – although that was a slip which can be easily explained given the information Mr. Saikia had to monitor. Here, for your reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/30/booksellers-behead-king-hay Our magazine will be grateful in print to the Blue Guide, and know you will make amendments for the next issue, should there be one.
What other regional guides for England are in the process of being prepared? It seems that the last Blue Guide to England was published in 1995, a long time ago.
But I am most disappointed that you managed to put the fax number for the ‘Hay Cinema Bookshop’ listing as the telephone number, and the telephone number for ‘Francis Edwards’ the antiquarian department of ‘Hay Cinema Bookshop’ is also incorrect i.e. 820070. The correct telephone number for both the ‘Hay Cinema Bookshop’ and ‘Francis Edwards’ is 820071.
http://www.francisedwards.co.uk/
I went to hay for the Festival and found the guide book indispensable, very amusing too. It certainly captures the unique eccentricities of Hay-on-Wye residents past and present. It was good to be steered in the direction of the Black Mountains – and to the ‘English’ bits of the surrounding area that are understated but no less beautiful than what the author calls the ‘colossal beauties’ of the mountains. Bravo.
I was delighted to read your recent Blue Guide to Hay-on-Wye recently and think Robin Saikia has done a tremendous job.
However I must point out a rather serious error which appears on page 123 concerning the Three Tuns pub where Mr Saikia states that “. . . since Lucy died and the pub was sold on”. Lucy Powell the former landlady of the Three Tuns, and the second most important resident of Hay after King Richard Booth, is extremely alive, very well and is certainly kicking.