A new publication based on Hay-on-Wye by Bridget Ashton is being launched on Saturday, December 7.

Bridget’s new trilogy starts in Hay-on-Wye where she lived as a child in the 1950s. It combines her first book, Hay before the Bookshops or The Beeman’s Familyinto one volume with the second, Hit the Road, Gals: her student hitchhiking days from Hereford College, and the third: Cold War, Warm Hearts, her year spent on foot behind the Iron Curtain.

From one book festival town to another, the publication is being launched in Morpeth, a north of England market town where Bridget now resides.

Bridget explained her connection to Morpeth, she said: “My beekeeper father needed to move the family north in 1955. The weather had been so bad for two years that there was no honey, and he was offered a secure job in Northumberland.I was always pining for Hay, and some years later I moved back to Hereford for my further education. 

“With student friends, I learned to hitchhike overseas, to Franco’s Spain, as far as the camels of the Sahara, and later I spent a year solo in the fearsome lands behind the Iron Curtain.”

Frank Rescigno, Morpeth Book Festival organiser, said: “From its early beginnings in 2022, Morpeth is now becoming a book festival town like Hay-on-Wye. We’re launching Bridget’s new trilogy, Hay Girl, the Girl from the Book Festival town,in a pre-2025 festival promotional event. Bridget has lived in Northumberland now for many decades and is a link between the towns. Maybe one day our festival will be as big and famous.

“Members of the public will be coming to the early afternoon event on 7 December where they can meet the Mayor of Morpeth, and mingle with local writers, VIPs, journalists and reviewers.”

She met her true love, a young American named Bill, during her travels behind the Iron Curtain. The US Army was trying to catch up with him even though he had already completed two years’ service. Their romantic finale is related in Cold War, Warm Hearts, and was recently broadcast by the BBC World Service in their Outlook programme.

Bridget’s final words: “Hay-on-Wye was the place where, as a girl, I learned to love the land, country ways and a simple lifestyle. Later I was able to transfer this love to Northumberland. But Hay came first. That is why I call my new trilogy, Hay Girl, the Girl from the Book Festival Town.”

She plans to come to Hay for a launch event early in 2025.

The Trilogy is available to purchase on Amazon.