Diary of a St Ivean

I have just spent a week at a rain-drenched Hay Festival - hence the absence of posts. I travelled by train (on the St Ives Bay branch line a man with an out-of-date ticket locked himself in the toilet and, after a stern warning from the "train manager," was ejected at Lelant) and was as always amazed by the amount of luggage people seem to need to haul around with them. (I predict that one day train passengers will face the same restrictions on luggage as air passengers).

It's always gratifying to have an observation confirmed. On Saturday, Simon Hoggart made the same point in his Guardian column: :

"Have you noticed that while luggage racks get smaller, luggage gets bigger? It's astounding how much folk carry round these days. Getting to your station is only half the battle. You can wait for ages as people try to manhandle three or four vast suitcases, plus smaller bags, carrier bags, bags of food, bags of papers and magazines, off the train. I know we all own more clothes these days, but do we need to carry the whole wardrobe around with us?"

And often this mountain of luggage can end up stacked on top of your own modest bag.

Also this week, I discovered Hanif Kureishi in the Guardian (he was appearing at the Hay Festival) agreeing with my dislike of the inordinate amount of useless information we are subjected to regarding writers and their likes and dislikes:

"Perhaps taking a swipe at Guardian Review's weekly photographic series Writers' Rooms, he said: "People come and take pictures of writers' desks. They don't," he continued, gesturing around the tent to his audience, "come and take photographs of your desks, do they? It's as if the talent is in the desk."