A look at the bookshelves of Nation.Cymru’s new Books Editor

Many readers know Desmond Clifford from his weekly book reviews on Nation.Cymru. Now, as he takes on the role of Books Editor, Des offers a fresh glimpse into his bookshelves and reading habits…

How many books do you have in the house and how are they stored? 

I’ve never tried to count them but I should think around 5,000. I try hard to keep numbers down — if you shop at Oxfam in Cardiff there’s a good chance you’ll have bought one of mine!  I store them on shelves and piles around the house.

Are they arranged or organised in a particular way?

They’re loosely arranged by subject – using a secret classification scheme understood only by me. Even so, titles can go missing for years and it’s a delight when I stumble across something I thought I’d lost, rather like the prodigal son…

I have a section for Welsh language books, I’m trying to read more in Welsh than I used to. I also have a shelf of French books but they make my head hurt and I’m a bit lazy about them.

Is arranging books by colour a good idea or just interior decorating?

I’m firmly opposed to colour arrangements, but each to their own.

How many books do you read each week? How many hours a day do you spend reading? What are the pleasures? 

I probably average two or three books a week, but different books can demand different levels of attention. I suppose I read for two or three hours a day – I regard it as a proper activity, not just something to do when bored. Not all reading is pleasurable, at least not in a conventional sense, but, along with talking, it’s how we communicate with people we don’t know (mostly) including people from the past.

When you read Homer, it sends a shiver down my spine thinking of Greek audiences listening to him round the campfire a few thousand years ago. I feel the same about the Gododdin – these were real people to their first audiences.  It’s a way of communing with the dead. The same is true for Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, women of true genius. I will never tire of “Wuthering Heights”.

You’re very interested in politics. Which is your favourite tome?

I like Rhodri Morgan’s memoir, partly because I’m mentioned in it (Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas!) and it describes events I was close to. Paul Flynn, the late MP for Newport, wrote the funniest Welsh book on politics, “Dragons Led by Poodles”.

There aren’t enough books published on Welsh politics. That said, I’m looking forward to the forthcoming biography of Dafydd Elis-Thomas by Aled Eirug and Martin Shipton’s account of Welsh Labour in power. If Richard Wyn Jones publishes a second volume to his history of Plaid Cymru, I’ll look forward to that too.

Most precious book in your collection?

Emotionally, a signed dictionary given me by my dad for my 18th birthday – virtually my only memento of him.

I have a few Graham Greene first editions but nothing valuable. If anyone wants to give me a “Ulysses” first edition, I’d be delighted to take it off your hands.  Or better still, a Shakespeare First Folio – £10 million should do it!

You have a high regard for Bernice Rubens…

Yes, I cite her as Wales’ best novelist.  Occasionally people raise an eyebrow so I ask them to name someone better, and I’m still waiting…. She’s the only Welsh Booker Prize winner to date and was the first woman to win.  I was pleased to attend the unveiling of a Purple Plaque last year in her honour at her childhood home in Roath (actually she lived in Splott first). She said some negative things about the Welsh language in her memoir which was unfortunate. Her identity was complicated. Anyway, she wrote damn good novels, lots of them. More people ought to read them and more should be in print.

Any other Welsh writers you feel should share some more limelight…

I recently reviewed Goronwy Rees’ first novel, “The Summer Flood”, published when he was 23. It’s very good in lots of ways. A brilliant man in many ways, I think it’s fair to say he didn’t fulfil his potential as a writer – he was distracted by life and is best remembered now for his association with the Cambridge spies, an association which cost him his job as VC at Aberystwyth University. He wrote lots, but mostly journalism belonging to his time and place. His memoir, “A Chapter of Accidents” is excellent and deserves to be reprinted – though to what extent it tells a full story is debatable, though the same question can be asked of any memoir really…it’s important for readers to apply their own sense of context.

I have a soft spot for the poet Harri Webb. I met him once. He was almost comically misanthropic but his work conveyed very well the frustrations, false-dawns and bursts of optimism in Wales during his lifetime.

Next year is the centenary of Idris Davies’ “The Angry Summer: A Poem of 1926”. He has his admirers but Idris is scandalously neglected really. He was remarkable and should be as well-known as Dylan Thomas. Hopefully the centenary will generate some renewed interest.

What are you reading at the moment?

“The Narrow Road to the Deep North” by Richard Flanagan, a harrowing story set in a Japanese labour camp in World War II. And I’ve just finished “Camu” by Iola Ynyr, an excellent memoir — with some tough parts — and winner of Book of the Year 2025 (Welsh version) this year. I also recently read “Molloy” by Samuel Beckett, outstanding. Beckett is also the answer to my favourite trivia question: Who is the only Nobel Prize Winner mentioned in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac? (He played for Trinity College, Dublin when it had First Class cricket status).

Do you always finish a book once you’ve started? 

Yes, though I see no virtue in doing so. I wish I could stop.

Do you read more than one book at the same time?

I normally have a fiction and a non-fiction on the go, and sometimes a poetry book to dip into. Reading is a little like eating; you want different things at different times of day.

You’ve got the job but what do you hope you’ll bring to the role of Books Editor?

First and foremost I’d like to encourage people to read books linked to Wales. For reasons I don’t fully understand, Welsh book distribution and publicity is problematic. There are all kinds of cultural complexities in play but there are lots of good books by Welsh writers and I’d like to see them more widely read. If I could play a small part in encouraging that I’d be happy.

And if there’s one book you might encourage people to read what would that be?

I’m a little reluctant to evangelise, reading’s such a personal thing – but one of my favourites is Flann O’Brien’s “The Dalkey Archive”. I find it hilarious. Also, Dostoyevsky has been a faithful companion for me – people think he’s going to be terribly difficult but he’s actually very accessible and his books are life-affirming (for the most part!).