My two writing friends, the Poet Macaque (aka Hamish MacNeil) Fenja Hill and I, visited Hay-on-Wye today, the small Welsh town in Powys today. It’s a lovely little place, renowned for its bookshops (of which it has about twenty) and Book Festival. Needless to say we visited plenty, but I restrained myself and only bought one, a poetry book in Danish – yes, I’m still trying to learn Danish and I thought this might help!
As we wandered we noticed a sign pointing to a book sale in the grounds of the castle – and I thought to myself, I never noticed/realised or maybe forgotten there was a castle in Hay. How could I have not wanted to explore it? I guess because I was too busy looking for books. The castle itself dates from the eleventh century, it was burnt and damaged and rebuilt in the thirteenth century, and reduced to a ruin a hundred years later. It was transformed into a residence over the last three or four hundred years, becoming a Jacobean mansion, a vicarage, and had various owners, before being sold to the Hay Castle Trust.
We had our minds on other things, i.e. books and I just took a quick photo as the threatened rain began to arrive. No doubt we’ll visit again, and next time I will make sure I actually visit and investigate the castle!
Lois Elsden 
Oh, the bookshops! What a wonderful adventure.
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If you love books it certainly is the place to go, and the bookshops themselves are so varied, many in very old buildings with twisty staircases and winding stairs, one is in what used to be a cinema, the shops themselves are fascinating – as well as their wares!
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