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HAY FESTIVAL DIARY I've been to the Hay Festival before twice as a visitor but this was my first visit as a journalist. Find out what I got up to, and what it's like visiting a book festival for the first time with a press pass. Hay is not easy to get to from anywhere. I set off from my flat in London at 7.30am on Friday and arrived at the festival site just after 1pm after a long train to Hereford next to a man eating bagels with an alarming intensity; an hour-long bus ride from Hereford to Hay; and then a shuttle bus from Hay town to the festival site. Naturally it was raining the whole time. The site was already muddy when I arrived but there were lots of excited visitors and plenty of smiling Hay volunteers pointing people in the right direction. READ MORE >

	FEATURES

   

WHAT ARE YOU READING? We asked visitors to Hay what they were reading, and here's what they said - everything from Stoner to Clarice Bean. MORE >

JUDGING THE CARNEGIE AWARD The chair of the judges for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards told us more about the judging process. MORE >

	BOOK OF THE WEEK

TIGERMAN by Nick Harkaway The setting for Tigerman is the (fictional) island of Mancreau, where Sergeant Lester Ferris has been posted after a harrowing tour of duty in Afghanistan. Mancreau is an island under a death sentence – ongoing pollution has caused clouds of toxic chemicals to intermittently explode from the island's innards causing scientifically inexplicable problems such as the sex of the island's fish changing. Harkaway writes with such dexterity and delight, seemingly effortlessly melding witty descriptions of the island's inhabitants with moving and confronting moments as well as frenetic action scenes. The absurd never becomes the ridiculous and the heart of the story never wavers. That balance of proper storytelling with literary complexity is, for me, what makes a book really special and Tigerman does this with aplomb. It's a joy to read. MORE >