Hay fever and summer writing workshops

For our May Travelogs booklet, Rita Forbes took a trip to a remarkable Welsh town, Hay-on-Wye. The place is home to nearly 30 bookshops filled with fact and fiction. "It is said that Hay has the highest concentration of books per person of any place on earth," Rita wrote.

Between 27 May and 6 June, more than 100,000 visitors are expected at the Hay Festival for 11 days of reading, writing and talking with some of the biggest names in literature, including Nadine Gordimer, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Bill Bryson and Zadie Smith. Christopher Hitchens will be there, too, to discuss his autobiography, Hitch-22. The contrarian journalist and atheist, who says that Pope Benedict XVI should be arrested for "his crimes", is also thinking about rewriting the Ten Commandments.