Hay-on-Wye ( 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-on-Wye 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 famous are a relatively recent innovation. The name most closely associated with the book trade in Hay-on-Wye 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.

The Guardian Hay Festival

Since 1988, Hay-on-Wye 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.

See also

• List of closed railway stations in Britain
• Wigtown ("Scotland's book town")
• Blaenavon (an attempt to create a second "book town" in Wales)

External links

• Official website
• The Guardian Hay Festival

Brecknockshire | British bookshops | Cultural festivals | Towns in Powys | Towns of the Welsh Marches | Welsh market towns

Y Gelli Gandryll | Hay-on-Wye | Hay-on-Wye | Hay-on-Wye | Hay-on-Wye