Straddling the Anglo-Welsh border at the northern tip of the Brecon Beacons National Park, the sleepy little town of HAY-ON-WYE (Y Gelli) is known to most people for one thing - books . Hay is a bibliophile's paradise, with just about every spare inch of the town being given over to the trade, including the old cinema and the ramshackle stone castle. Most of Hay's inhabitants are outsiders, which means that it has little indigenous feel, but its setting, against the spectacular backdrop of Hay Bluff and the Black Mountains, together with its creaky little streets, is delightful. In summer, the town fills with life as it plays host to a succession of riverside parties and travelling fairs, the pick of which is the Hay Festival of Literature (tel 01497/821299, ) in the last week of May, when London's literary world decamps here.

 

The tourist office has a free leaflet that gives the low-down on all the bookshops in town. As good a place to start as any is Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion St, a huge, draughty warehouse of almost unlimited browsing potential. It's owned - like so much else in Hay - by Richard Booth, who lives in part of the castle, a careworn Jacobean mansion built into the walls of a thirteenth-century fortress right in the centre. In another part of the mansion is the Hay Castle Booth Books, a sedate collection of fine-art, cinema, antiquarian and photography books. Nearby, Castle Street Books, 23 Castle St, is great for historical guides and maps. Bag of Books, also on Castle Street, sells all its books at £1 each. Neighbouring Broad Street holds Y Gelli Auctions, with regular sales of books, maps and prints, and West House Books, best for Celtic and women's works.