Yesterday I was at the Hay Festival talking about [amazon_link id=”0691156794″ target=”_blank” ]GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History[/amazon_link]. My slot was the opposite of headlining, 9am on Monday morning, after a weekend of rain, on a rather muddy site. It was heartwarming to see the level of interest in how to measure economic progress, even in those unpromising circumstances.

Me talking about GDP in a new pair of Festival wellies

There were loads of other economics-related sessions. [amazon_link id=”0718197038″ target=”_blank” ]Ha-Joon Chang[/amazon_link] was on yesterday too, [amazon_link id=”1846146895″ target=”_blank” ]Philip Coggan[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1846147557″ target=”_blank” ]Levitt and Dubner[/amazon_link]. And of course there’s all the non-economics non-fiction too.

The silver lining in living in interesting times is that lots of people are interested in understanding what’s going on in the world. Besides, in one of the obvious paradoxes of the ever-more digital world, one of the things people are increasingly spending their money on is participation in events, from lectures, concerts and sports events to maker faires and literary festivals. Speaking of which, information about the 2014 Festival of Economics in Bristol in late November will be available soon.

Signing copies