The truth is a moving target ...

... and everyone searches for it in their own way. That was the takeaway from today.

John Crace and John Sutherland were excellent this morning on the subject of satire. Sutherland is amazing - at the age of 81 he walked the stage, without notes or script, and spoke effortlessly for about 20 mins. Crace then took over and did a couple of readings before they finished with a double act. Very good, at times very funny, particularly Crace’s friendly lampooning of The Handmaid’s Tale. 9/10.

Simon Reid-Henry is a geographer turned global commentator. Interesting, through provoking, although a bit lacking in focus. Made me re-think the forces that bought Trump to the presidency and how the resurgence of the right in the UK might be more down to the failures of the left than anything. 7/10.

Emily Maitlis was very engaging. Lots of stories about how the news is really made and the tightrope you have to walk as a TV journalist covering politics - too soft on the subject and you’ve failed, too tough and you risk your subject refusing to engage. Good stuff although she talked at length, sometimes to the detriment of the point she was making. 8/10.

We had tickets for Jimmy Carr in the evening but left after twenty minutes, he just wasn’t funny. Terrible actually. Cheap and nasty. 0/10. Not massively bothered as I was tired by then.

We also spent a few hours in town during the day as we had a big gap in our programme. It was lovely and sunny and we sat outside Kilverts for lunch, dropped into some shops, went for a walk along the river, and I had a snooze in a deckchair on the festival site whilst TSM bought yet more books. I also bought a very expensive reading lamp, a shirt and a bottle of whisky liqueur. As you do on days like this.

Great day again. Thought I would blip some random festival goers by way of tribute. It’s the punters that make this such a great week. Oh and for the record I started blipping eight years ago today - haven’t missed a day. Still love it ...