UK’s anxiety takes center stage at Hay ideas festival – The Associated Press

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (AP) — At Britain’s leading literary gathering, the word of the year was anxiety. Fifty shades of worry —about climate change, mental health and of course Brexit — dominated the Hay Festival this year. The event is an annual carnival of ideas held amid sheep-studded green hills in Hay-on-Wye, a tiny Welsh town with about 2,000 residents and close to 20 bookshops. With Britain’s departure from the European Union in limbo, its population split, its politicians deadlocked — and divisive U.S. President Donald Trump in Britain on Monday for a state visit — many of the 600 autho…