BILL Bryson, as his interviewer Ian Katz stated, has achieved the status of a national treasure, and it was a testament to his popularity that the American writer and humorist could fill the Barclays Wealth Pavilion to capacity at 10am on a wet Saturday morning in Hay.

Bryson was at the festival to launch his latest work ‘At Home: A Short History of Private Life’, and the prospect of acquiring this eagerly-awaited volume drew long queues to the festival bookshop after the event.

The new book is nominally based around the history of Bryson’s own home – a rectory in Norfolk dating from 1851, but it was clear from his conversation with Katz, that the usual array of Bryson eccentrics would also appear to be nestling within the pages.

After 37 years in this country, Bryson, who, as the son of a prominent sportswriter, conceded that the only thing he misses about America is the unexportable baseball, is debating whether to apply for dual nationality.

He acknowledged, though, that he is currently being put off by the prospect of being humiliated by not being able to answer questions, even after four decades of residency, in the mandatory ‘Britishness’ test, a confession that produced some additional humour in the question-and-answer session from an audience containing a surprising number of Bryson’s countrymen.