David Rees The Tuckers is that rare beast, a new sitcom from BBC Wales, written, produced and performed in Wales by a Welsh writer and performers, continuing the resurgence of Wales made, English language TV comedy begun by Tourist Trap last year. These are the first shows since the end […]
Jon Gower Literary festivals leave all sorts of legacies and in the case of the Penfro festival, an annual event in the Pembrokeshire village of Rhosygilwen, it comes in the form of this bright and buoyant anthology. Showcasing the winners of its prose and poetry competitions, it is, as one […]
Jon Gower Craft was one of the keywords in John Ormond’s life, always discernible in his writing and clearly visible in his beautifully searching television films. The fact that his father was a village shoemaker in Dunvant near Swansea had much to do with the son’s lifelong celebration of the […]
Ifan Morgan Jones The amount and quality of Welsh-language literature has long been the jewel in the nation’s crown, most celebrated perhaps as poetry but also in its prose fiction. This decade has been a very productive and exciting one for Welsh language novels in particular. It is said that […]
Jon Gower The eponymous vale of this evocative historical novel is the Vale of Glamorgan though at times it might just as easily be the Vale of Tears as children die prematurely, hunger stalks the land and the shadowy clouds of the Napoleonic Wars lengthen. The central characters are George, […]
Jon Gower If you are a Welsh rugby fan and want the memory of adrenaline-charged moments to flood through you then this is the book for you. Richard Morgan, ITV Wales’ affable and knowledgeable rugby reporter has concertinaed the Welsh campaign in Japan into a sprightly aide de memoire. It […]
A village in southern Hungary has played host to a Christmas special featuring traditional songs from both Welsh and Hungarian cultures. Kunágota, a village of about 2,500 people in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary, has a strong connection to Welsh music and traditions, despite the fact that […]
Emily Garside End of year always means a look back over what the past 12 months have offered. And a seemingly impossible task for any reviewer. It’s been a somewhat fraught year for reviewers also, particularly in small communities like Wales. And in the spirit of reflection, it’s important to […]
Jon Gower Places exerted a powerful influence on Brenda Chamberlain and in particular two very different islands, Bardsey, Ynys Enlli where she lived for fifteen years and Hydra in Greece where she stayed for five. They offered stimulus and sometimes solitude although she was at heart busily gregarious, constantly wanting […]
Sarah Tanburn An ambitious project this, to review the long maritime history of Wales. The country has a lot of coast, along with the sea areas beyond them. The Irish and Celtic Seas have been great corridors for trade and battle for longer than memory, challenging mariners with their weather […]
