Southern Hemisphere Luminaries

International rugby and book events aligned their timings exactly today to combine into one perfect Kath Saturday.

This afternoon, Wales took on South Africa at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in the last of their Autumn Internationals. We hadn't beaten them since 1999, the year in which the stadium opened. But today, Wales finally came out on top again and won!! It was the long-awaited win we so badly wanted over one of the top three Southern Hemisphere teams.

As soon as the match finished, G and I headed up over the Brecon Beacons through thick fog to the book town of Hay-on-Wye. The Hay Festival Winter Weekend is on and I really wanted to go to Eleanor Catton's event. [The New Zealand author won the Booker Prize last year with [i]The Luminaries[/i].]

It was well worth making the trip to listen to her in conversation with Peter Florence, talking about The Luminaries, and it's made me want to go back and re-read it.

I was also happy to get the chance to have a quick chat with her about it afterwards at the signing... and for once, I didn't lose the ability to string a coherent sentence together. Result!