On Friday, 24 April, an author who grew up in Hay-on-Wye will host a presentation at the Kilvert Society AGM at the Bishop’s Palace in Hereford.

Author Bridget Ashton’s most recent book ‘My Mother and the Curate’ explores two diaries of life in Hay-on-Wye - one from 1953 by her mother, Mrs Eileen Ashton, and one from 1870 by Revd Francis Kilvert.

Bridget has been kindly invited by the Kilvert Society to do a presentation at their annual general meeting next week.

“The new hardback book includes coloured illustrations by Kilvert’s sister Thermuthis, Edith Thomas of Llanigon and Mrs Crichton of Wyecliff near Hay,” said Bridget. “A series of sepia photos from the 1880s is from an early collection by Herefordshire photographer Alfred Watkins. Other rarely seen photos of historic farm life are from the Radnorshire Society’s collection by William Watkins.”

The Kilvert Society promotes interest in Kilvert’s work, his Diary and the countryside he loved. Members explore remote and beautiful places in the Welsh Border area where Kilvert walked, and are sent a twice-yearly illustrated glossy journal. Details are to be found on www.thekilvertsociety.org.uk

A reporter who Bridget says triggered her new book is to be a guest at the Bishop’s Palace of Hereford Cathedral. At the Kilvert Society’s AGM, the author will explain the importance of Joe Corrick’s first major story when he was a trainee writer at the Brecon and Radnor Express. Writing of the author’s book new book Hay Before the Bookshops or the Beeman’s Family in 2022, he introduced the idea: “echoes of Kilvert’s Diary”.

“Since then,” Bridget said, “thanks to Joe, I was aware of the influence of Kilvert in all the books I wrote. My new book, My Mother and the Curate, which I am presenting on 24 April, celebrates Reverend Francis Kilvert’s 1870s diary and my mother’s full diary from 1953. Joe understood that although they lived 80 years apart, both diarists wrote of daily life in the Hay and Clyro area, the lives of the poor in their hovels and the rich in their mansions.”

My Mother and the Curate is available from local bookshops or direct from the author [email protected]. Special price of £15 to B + R readers.