Munching a Crunchie bar  he splutters as the daily death figures don't come down quickly enough for him when the total reaches 44,000* he starts to feel a bit like  it's Medieval days again only this time with apps  that don't always deliver  and the act of dying more private splutter splutter mutter mutter stutter stutter he gets restless as the deaths are now at least twice the amount the scientists said would be  an acceptable outcome not so long ago who can you believe? who can you trust? thank God for TV remotes pity they can't switch off his mind too  and those of the others though...

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Animal Rights activist A.L.F. Egan lay completely still in the long grass, high above the Welsh Valley of Cwm Twp. He motioned to his 15- year old accomplice, ‘Popeye’ Doyle, to lie still until the factory searchlight had passed overhead. Once it had done so, the pair all dressed in black and camouflage gear used the wire cutters to snip the perimeter fence. In the distance was a grey metallic building called Abbot’s Trois, owned according to Companies House by a French Company based in the Tax Haven of Jersey, called Vaches Mort R-US. A.L.F. & Popeye didn’t call it...

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He dreams of capital cities  the pyramids of money  the cut-price labour that raised them now laid off in quarantine blacked out streets  avenues  squares  lanes  the underground  and overground railway tracks emptied no children at play  no vehicles in motion  parked forever a sky reprieved and exonerated is reflected in lakes fountains and tributaries where fish nervously return and dolphins are anticipated sea eagles ravens and sparrows  rule the high buildings  their glass blue  in the reconditioned atmosphere quaking in expectation learning to breathe again sleeping cities are...

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Paul Steffan Jones has been a regular and much valued contributor to this site for many years. Recently he has posted a series of poems which address the covid crisis and his reaction to it. AmeriCymru spoke to Paul about his recent work and how Wales is faring in the ongoing pandemic. The individual poems discussed below are linked from the interview but if you want to browse more of Paul's work please go here:- Paul Steffan Jones Author Page. Paul Steffan Jones Author Page: Click Here ... AmeriCymru: Hi Paul and many thanks for agreeing to this...

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South Wales’ coal industry is world famous, and north Wales’ slate industry is recognised thanks to the Slate Museum in Llanberis as well as numerous publications celebrating its history. But what about the lost ore industry in mid Wales? Ioan Lord, author of a new bilingual book on the subject,  Worn by Tools and Time: Ore from Mid Wales  (Y Lolfa), hopes to bring attention to the history and the importance of the industry and its workers through his descriptive text and brand-new photographs of the underground world created centuries ago.   “The fact that such a small...

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Dead Method returns with their hotly anticipated new track Babylon, an assertive alternative pop anthem for outcasts and outsiders searching for their tribe. Taking influence from PC Music without falling back on cliche, the track was produced by Minas who has worked with Dan Betteridge, Tierny & Local to name a few. The track is taken from Dead Method’s upcoming debut album Queer Genesis, which will release in September, 2020. The album is a celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and middle finger to oppression. They say: “Babylon depicts a great exodus of queer people who...

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Conformist  is back with a new remix of  Radio Europa' s ' Something Beautiful'  featuring vocals by  Gwenllian Anthony  of Adwaith. Out on 31st of July it's the first new material from Conformist this year and a teaser of more to come with his forthcoming third album slated for release in late 2020. Conformist is the moniker of Cardiff's Michael Simmons, he takes Radio Europa's 'Something Beautiful' from last year's acclaimed " Community is Revolution " album and gave it fresh spin, with an intricate palette of synths, strings, cut up vocal samples and spluttering beats, he shows off...

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The much vaunted app that seems  to be no longer so vaunted if at all the commitments that wither almost as soon as they're uttered the NHS Track and Trace tsar a baroness who had formerly been the chief executive of a telecoms company  when there was a breach of thousands  of its customers' data and who left with a full year's salary of £550,000 despite working  only two months of that financial year and who as a Jockey Club board member argued against cancelling the Cheltenham Festival  as Coronavirus cantered towards us allowing a quarter of a million people to congregate  be socially...

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A five year old patient with underlying health conditions diminutive in her intubation and her chariot-like bed nameless to us victimised beloved in this scary place of scary-looking people the sounds of ongoing urgency of breathing big as a country it's hard to read a person's face when it's behind a covering they say that with this bastard  you die alone no one to hold your hand  no one to lie that everything's  going to be alright no one to say goodbye goodbye

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Popular illustrator and artist Valériane Leblond has written her first book for children, as well as painting the images that bring the story to life.  The Quilt  (Y Lolfa) is a beautifully illustrated hardback offering a message of hope which is sure to also strike a chord with many adult readers in these difficult days: when things look bleak, remember that happy times will return.  The story follows a little girl who lives with her parents on a farm near the coast, around the turn of the twentieth century. Times are hard and the family decides to emigrate to America, raising the...

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