"A few days before the 2007 Hay on Wye Festival started I was delighted to receive a letter from Dr Williams expressing his determination to pay a brief "private" visit to the Festival on Bank Holiday Monday.

It was to be his first visit to Hay since his move from Wales and was clearly pleased to be back in Wales albeit briefly.

His visit with his son, though officially private, did allow for an informal reading of some of his poems in the Academi tent and, though there was nothing to pay, for those lucky enough to see him, as they wandered past, meeting him and hearing him read could well have been one of the high spots of their Festival.

We collected them from Hereford Station after some delay due to the London train being late at Newport and the connection missed. Pip Williams was pleased to find himself in our Subaru Impreza, a car familiar to small boys through its links with a popular computer game we understand.

We met Fr Richard and of course the Curate at a local Hotel for coffee and some chat about the on-going project in progress about life in and around church.

Our visitors were keen to get into the childrens' bookshops in town so we arranged to meet them later. Peter Finch, Director of the Academi, which promotes the work of Welsh and Anglo-Welsh writers, introduced the ten-minute poetry reading in their small tent, and word quickly spread around the Festival that the Archbishop was in town.

Although the media had been advised that there were to be no interviews, this being Pip's day, TV cameras and journalists quickly appeared and all were given a few words before going away happy.

I got the impression that Dr Williams was enjoying being home in Wales and rules were made to be broken as he saw fit. Finally we were able to whisk him out through the Green Room to where our car was parked in a VIP spot.

Another session in the childrens' bookshops followed and finally the Williams's arrived at St Mary's from where Fr Richard had agreed to do the trip back to Hereford Station.

It was good that a ten minute slot had been kept for any of the congregation who happened to be around the church to be introduced and several people, including Eileen Bufton our blind choir member, shook hands and had things signed.

Pip took a large bag of books home with him and I had enjoyed chatting with him his interest in Conan Doyle especially The Hound of the Baskervilles.

In spite of our best efforts we did not manage to fit in a visit to Clyro Court but I was able to run through the story of Conan Doyle's visit to his friends the Radnorshire Baskerville family where he first heard about the original story which he later set in the West Country and why the switch was made.

It was quite to be expected that before saying their goodbyes at the station the Archbishop blessed the Curate and in return was charmed by a demonstration of Hi-Five agility."

Article written by by Rita Tait