Benn vague at Hay

I've always had great respect for Tony Benn as being an honest socialist and principled politician. Last week I went to see him at the Hay Festival and enjoyed his intelligent analysis of British and world politics since his retirement in 2001.

However when I asked him about his understanding of what happened last month in Wales and Scotland he seemed far less sure footed and digressed into a vague argument against 'nationalism' and 'frontiers'.

I pointed out that surely the question related to self-confidence, self-government and self-empowerment; it had nothing to do with xenophobia or border controls. He came back on track and agreed that if that's what democracy dictated - "from the bottom up" - then so be it.

If a fine intellectual brain like his could not make an immediate and clear distinction between the politics of the BNP and SNP, what hope is there for our less able, tribal politicians?

Rhobert ap Steffan, Llangadog.
mailto:rhobert@uwclub.net

Owen Sheers attended the Hay Festival over the weekend to talk about his first novel Resistance.

Keep an eye out for our interview with Owen in the next edition of Cambria magazine.

Neil Gaiman at The Hay Festival, Saturday 2nd June.

Neil Gaiman attended the Hay Festival to introduce Paramount Pictures' Stardust, the Matthew Vaughn–directed adaptation of his fantasy novel. Fans were treated to clips of Stardust, staring Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox. Afterwards Gaiman took questions from the audience.

Denied my chance to take pictures by security, but reluctantly allowed to lurk in the shadows to one side of the packed tent, I found myself within a few meters of the man who created Sandman.

I find it very difficult to talk about Sandman. I was once called upon to summarize the comic during a seminar at University, but stumbled heavily over my words. Sandman is a phenomenon - a smart, beautiful, and finely constructed graphic novel in mass circulation, and there is so much going on it's difficult to compress into a short blog entry.

So I'm going to talk about StarDust...

It takes a lot of self control to step back from the subject of Sandman, so I reserve the right to stare fondly at my newly signed edition of 'Brief Lives' as I type.

From what I saw of Stardust during the Hay Festival screening, I'm convinced that this is not only a very entertaining film for children, but also targets those adults who have watched Labyrinth more than five times, who enjoyed The Dark Crystal and Legend, who can quote lines from The Princess Bride and Mirrormask. Neil Gaiman continues to create fairy tales for adults, as he did in Neverwhere, and Snow Glass Apples, and I imagine Stardust will prove a success for him. The Q&A was a friendly affair, the highlight being a small child whose arm had been held stubbornly in the air for over twenty minutes, who, on finally being asked to speak, announced that he had forgotten his question.