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Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll or Y Gelli), often described as "the town of books", is a market town in Brecknockshire, Wales. It is on the River Wye, very close to the border with England, and within the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is a town of around 1,900 people.

Hay is a mecca for bibliophiles, boasting "thirty major bookshops" (according to its Tourist Information Bureau). Most sell second-hand books.

The bookshops for which the town is now world-famous are a relatively recent innovation. The name most closely associated with the book trade in Hay is that of Richard George William Pitt Booth, who, on April 1, 1977, sought publicity by declaring Hay an "independent kingdom" with himself as its king. The tongue-in-cheek micronation of Hay-on-Wye and its "king" (who wields an old toilet-plunger in place of a sceptre) is today known chiefly for selling novelty low-cost "peerages" to bemused tourists.

Hay-on-Wye appears to continue over the border into Herefordshire. This part of the town is administratively separate, and is called Cusop.

Hay-on-Wye is twinned with Redu, a village in the Belgian municipality of Libin.

Since 1988, Hay has been the venue for a literary festival, sponsored by The Guardian newspaper, which draws a claimed 80,000 visitors over ten days at the beginning of June to see and hear big literary names from all over the world.

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This Month

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Terry Nation (script writer) born 1930 in Cardiff

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T E Lawrence born 1888, Caernarfonshire

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