Changes

Gone are the flowing locks and rather chubby, youthful face. In their place are a sharp haircut and a slimmed-down version of the campaigner we know and love. It was one of the final events of the Festival and Ilkley's Kings Hall was packed with a surprisingly youthful audience to hear Hugh talk about his latest book, his campaigns, past, present and future – and to give us a few recipe hints to whet our appetite.

It was a partisan audience prepared to cheer Hugh for drinking a bottle of Yorkshire beer and who didn't even object when he confessed to having no suggestions for the lady who wondered what she could do with the giant marrow she'd acquired – or when he read a page and a half from his new book. If you've absorbed much of the publicity for the book and the television series then you won't have found much that was new in the event but in much the same way that there's a world of difference between going to a football match and watching it on TV there's a great deal to be said for the charisma of the man himself and it was this that made the event a success.