Marches.TV went along to the beer festival at Kilvert's in Hay-on-Wye only to walk in on insurrection and execution as bookshop owners declared Hay-on-Wye a commonwealth and executed an effigy of Richard Booth, the self-proclaimed King.

We managed to corner the protagonists and speak to the new First Minister, Paul Harris, the Lord High Executioner, a singing monk and Nick Jones, Commanding Officer of the Parliamentarian paramilitaries, Colonel John Birch's Regiment.

The story all began back in 1977 during the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Whilst the Sex Pistols were signing record deals on the steps of Buckingham Palace, Richard Booth, a secondhand bookseller from a little known backwater in the Welsh Marches was declaring himself King of Hay and taking the first steps in establishing Hay-on-Wye as the biggest centre of secondhand books in the world. The Book Town was born.

32 years on and the peasants are revolting. Unhappy with what they see as a public shift of focus of Hay-on-Wye to new books, thanks largely to the success of the Hay Literary Festival they felt it was time to reinvigorate the idea of The Book Town.



Witchfinder General, or Peter Harries from Boz Books if you prefer, explained that although Booth had created much publicity for the town in the past it was time for a change. "We think this is a natural continuation. There are one or two locals who think it is rather cruel, but when Richard had his coronation in the 1970s a lot of locals were vehemently against him."

Paul Harris, the new 1st Minister of The Council of State stated that: "at his trial in April, Booth was found guilty of no longer fulfilling his duties to his kingdom in terms of publicity" Booth who was separately reported to be on holiday in Spain, or drinking with Royalist sympathisers in The Crown during his actual execution said "I don't think it's worth having an argument as they don't know what they're talking about. The revolting peasants are revolting."

Anyone disagreeing with the new Commonwealth will be able to voice their dissent (or anything else they want to get off their chest) in the newly established Speaker's Corner, set-up in order to re-establish that Hay, quite separately from the yearly festival, as a haven of free speech.