After months of exciting plotting and planning, the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Litfest got underway at the Grain Store in Ballymaloe last night.

AT 9.30am on a glorious Saturday last year, I paused at the entrance to the Ballymaloe Grainstore; was I really going to pass up a rare blast of Irish summer sunshine to instead sit indoors and listen to two guys talking?