Suzanne Harrington: I'd never been to a literary festival before —  it was actual paradise on earth

I'd never been to a literary festival... I’ve long considered myself too young to waft around a picturesque rural town surrounded by men in white straw hats and ladies in Birkenstocks and floaty scarves

Hay Festival in Wales turned out to be 'actual paradise on earth'. 

All my life, I have been in love with books. They spill out of my house. Build up in corners, waiting to be read. Flop through the letterbox in fat brown envelopes — my favourite sound is the flump of them hitting the hall floor.

Yet I’ve never been to a literary festival. Despite being firmly in the adolescence of old age, I’ve long considered myself too young to waft around a picturesque rural town surrounded by men in white straw hats and ladies in Birkenstocks and floaty scarves. Festivals mean jumping around in a field being deafened by Amyl and the Sniffers.