{"product_id":"the-bookseller-of-hay-by-james-hanning","title":"The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1962, a young man left university without a degree and, for want of anything better to do, bought a small shop in an obscure market town on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Within fifteen years, largely through force of personality, Richard Booth had created the world's largest second-hand bookshop, attracting thousands of visitors from across the globe to Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh border.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Bookseller of Hay tells the tale of an extraordinary, chaotic man, a true British eccentric, who invented the term 'book town', attracted a coterie of exotic and illustrious followers, crowned himself king, declared the town's independence and provided the bookish backdrop which - to his frustration - allowed a rival attraction, the now world-famous Hay Festival, to flourish.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a story of the extraordinary singlemindedness of a hard-working, hard-playing and rebellious son of privilege, inspired by a romantic vision and a deep love of the area, of a man better suited to publicity than bean-counting who launched countless careers but whose business instincts undermined precisely what had brought success. Booth was a deeply divisive figure, but love him or hate him, all agree on one thing. He put Hay on the map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Hanning, a frequent visitor to Hay since the 1960s, has interviewed dozens of local people and booksellers and with typical acuity wonderfully captures this bygone era of eccentricity and excess.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Literary Cat Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52891919810824,"sku":"9781472159786","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0967\/7688\/0392\/files\/9781472159786.jpg?v=1764507833","url":"https:\/\/literarycatbooks.myshopify.com\/products\/the-bookseller-of-hay-by-james-hanning","provider":"Literary Cat Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}