A large Gloucester Old Spot named, catchily enough, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has passed out at my feet and is grunting companionably. The pig, for today only, belongs to Paul Torday and has been christened in honour of his book which has just been officially awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comedy writing.

I must confess to having something of an inside track on this story, as the farmhouse where we are staying for the festival is the real home of the pig and I have been given updates, several times a day, on the Salmon's development and readiness for her debut. She was, I can reliably confirm, very excited about her big day.

Andrew Simpson has been delivering pigs for bemused novelists at Hay for five years now and reserves his greatest respect for DBC Pierre, not just an ex-drug addict, but also an ex-pig farmer, who happily rolled around in the hay (as it were) with his prize.

Paul Torday didn't do badly, though to be honest he seemed more interested in the car-sized bottle of Bollinger he received from host Jim Naughtie than his truffle-hunting friend. All will be happy to hear that Salmon, like her inspiration the Empress of Blandings, will happily live out her days in comfort on the farm; she is, Mr Simpson informs us, "a great breeder." The Hay snorts on.