Yahoo News The Londoner: Hay, we have a problem: festival joker beams in
The internet can make fools of us all. There were red faces at the much-loved Hay Festival this week after a prankster played on the honesty of an event host and a speaker by tricking them into thinking he was watching from the International Space Station.
During a Q&A session of a talk by materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez, hosted by Hay chairman Peter Florence, a commenter giving his name only as Michael said he was turning in from the ISS. Cue huge excitement from Florence and Ramirez.
Unfortunately Ramirez tweeted: “I communicated with the space station today. I’m done. This day is one for the ages”. Ramirez, the author of several books, later added that she would “never forget that moment.”
She wasn’t the only one taken in. One viewer tweeted: “Loved that there were also comments in the live chat coming from the International Space Station”. Dan Davis, a professor of immunology at Manchester, tweeted his excitement at the “comment direct from the SPACE STATION no less”.
Why would someone up on the ISS tune into a science talk at Hay? Perhaps they needed help getting back down to Earth again...
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This autumn could be “an embarrassment of riches for the reader” according to one leading literary agent, ahead of a book release pile-up caused by coronavirus. “The alternative,” Jonny Geller explained to the Londoner, “is to push to next spring but that will take the air out of the debuts so it’s a tough choice.” A literary dust-up beckons.
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John Mortimer, who wrote such a poor script for the film of Brideshead Revisited that it had to be rewritten by the director and producer straight from the book, was once asked: “How did you do it?” Alexander Waugh, Evelyn’s grandson, recounts his self-effacing reply, “well you know it’s all Waugh, he’s wonderful, he’s just such a good writer”. Alexander Waugh adds to the Spectator's podcast: “He wouldn’t quite admit that he didn’t write it at all, and yes it was all Waugh.”
SW1A
Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former joint chief adviser, huffs: “The point about politics is that voters never say thank you for what you’ve done, they always ask what’s next.” Given that Timothy was key in arguing for the disastrous 2017 election which lost May her majority and caused him to resign soon after, no wonder he sounds so sniffy about voters.
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Alan Johnson says Keir Starmer has “weeded out some of the rubbish” from the Shadow Cabinet already, specifically those who were “there just for ideology, for the glory of their great leader Corbyn”. The former Labour home secretary adds to the Planet Normal podcast that Starmer is “someone to be feared at PMQs, whereas it was all a bit of a laugh for the Tories under Corbyn”. They’re not laughing any more.
Let us entertain you: Robbie and Ayda join the pod squad
A post shared by Robbie Williams (@robbiewilliams) on May 28, 2020 at 3:05am PDT
Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field are back in the podcast game. “Like everyone, we’ve been stuck indoors so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring you back into our home,” they say. Will anyone emerge from lockdown having managed not to start a podcast? Meanwhile Alexa Chung looked typically chic as she sniffed a flower, and fashion designer Kyle De’Volle gave his followers a positive message ahead of the weekend, telling them “you are solid gold”. Does that mean everyone has a price?
