Jon Gower The 1969 Investiture of Charles Philip Arthur George as Prince of Wales was a seismic event in modern Welsh history, exposing or causing rifts in public opinion which sometimes widened into chasms. As the title of this commendably level-head book explains, it examines the lack of welcome for […]
Jon Gower This is a rustic and compelling tale of two gay relationships and the way they intertwine. When Mike Parker and his partner Peredur, know as Preds, befriended George and Reg – who happened to be the first civil partnership registered in Machynlleth – they were not to know […]
Jasmine Donahaye Every so often, a critical book review sets off a bit of a storm. These reviews have usually been pungent, challenging, and provocative; they have triggered discussion, and made our cultural world take a good, long look at itself. The latest of these is Jim Perrin’s review of […]
Jafar Iqbal There’s a lot to unpack in the story of St Cadoc. Credited as the man who brought Christianity to Wales, there’s no doubting the significance he has had on the country. So much so that Cadoc not being given the patronage of Wales continues to be a divisive […]
Jon Gower When Archbishop Makarios, the first leader of a newly independent Cyprus ordered the insurgents who had been fighting the British Army to come down from the island’s mountains the British authorities and the world media expected to see thousands of activists appear. But instead the Greek Cypriot guerrilla […]
Jon Gower This sophisticated and sassy novel, set in the Kentish Medway, mixes up the police procedural with a forensic account of the brutalising effect of the public school system. There are, as per the usual formula, two buddies, in this case Gary who likes wordplay and his quieter and […]
Jon Gower This time-travelling series by the outrageously gifted Welsh writer Russell T. Davies takes us into the chillingly plausible near-future, where a sloganeering entrepreneur Viv Rook (played with a killing mix of media savvy and moral chill by Emma Thompson) weasels her way into 10 Downing Street and brings […]
Jon Gower If straight-up weird’s what you’re after then the Caerleon writer and mystic Arthur Machen is your go-to-guy. A cult figure, even in his day, the work of this “master of the macabre” is shot through with grand moments of horror or ecstasy and The Three Impostors, first published in […]
Jon Gower A good short story writer often stakes out a territory, makes a place her own. Think of Annie Proulx’s tales, set in stands of lodgepole pines and washed by the Fujicolor sunsets of Wyoming or Claire Keegan’s vivid evocations of the blue fields of her native County Wicklow. […]
On 1st July this year it will be 50 years since the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Here Arwel Vittle, author of the new book Dim Croeso ’69 looks back at the significance of the period… Two key events and their political impact stand out in the history of […]
