David Owens There was a point in 1993 when arch Welsh pop auteurs The Pooh Sticks looked set to live up to the grandiose billing of their resolutely tongue in cheek titled album ‘Million Seller’. Safely ensconced in a major label record deal with music giants BMG, the cartoon power […]
Sarah Tanburn The upper Teifi valley in 1851 is not the obvious setting for a murder plot littered with pornography and homosexuality. Hawkins pulls it off with a contortionist of a tale. Harry Probert-Lloyd is the acting coroner of the district standing for election to the permanent post, when he […]
Jane Fraser The acclaimed Irish short story writer, Claire Keegan, has stated that, ‘the short story begins after what happens, happens.’ After the drama has passed is the territory the writer has to work within: a time, a place, and a context of emotional consequences where, after the water has […]
Tributes have been paid to a globally-renowned Welsh harpist who has died at the age of 92. Dr Osian Ellis, who started playing again as he approached his 90th birthday, collaborated with leading British composer Benjamin Britten and performed at the world’s finest concert venues. Dr Ellis, a native of […]
David Owens There has never been a more difficult time to be a musician – especially for young artists taking the first tentative steps on their own personal musical journeys. With the grassroots live music scene in lockdown and continued uncertainty over when it will be possible for venues to […]
Jon Gower This is a very level-headed account of the arrest and trial of a north Wales cinema owner who killed four men and did so most callously and coldly. His defence lawyer Dylan Rhys Jones gives us an insight into the process of trying to defend a man who […]
Young people in Wales and Ireland have come together to create the first music video in both the Welsh and Irish languages. Youth organisation Urdd Gobaith Cymru and Irish youth project TG Lurgan have released the co-production, ‘Golau’n Dallu / Dallta ag na Solise’, which is a cover […]
A heartfelt video message from the people of Montgomery has become a hit in Hungary, landing the Powys town on TV screens across the nation. The historic town’s literary links with Hungary stem from Hungarian poet János Arany’s 160-year-old ballad ‘The Bards of Wales’ – an allegorical poem set […]
David Owens Whether plotting the course of the Manic Street Preachers from Blackwood to Brit Awards, grappling with the Gallaghers’ press as Oasis hit the headlines or charting The Stone Roses’ Second Coming, Terri Hall has seen it all in a glittering career in the music industry. The woman, who […]
A new book publisher launched during the pandemic has said that it’s looking for “under-represented voices in Wales”. Publisher Seonaid Francis already runs Scotland’s ThunderPoint Publishing, which publishes a variety of genres, including crime, LGBT, historical and literary fiction, predominantly set in Scotland. She said that her new publisher Black […]
