UK's anxiety takes center stage at Hay ideas festival

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 this year's Hay Festival, an annual carnival of ideas held in Hay-on-Wye, a tiny Welsh town with 2,000 residents and 20 bookshops.

With Britain's departure from the European Union in limbo, its population split, its politicians deadlocked - and divisive President Donald Trump in London Monday for a state visit - many of the 600 authors and 100,000 audience members were asking where things went wrong, and what to do about it.

Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak told an audience "I used to think 'the Brits are so calm when they talk about politics. They don't get angry.' I no longer think that way."