The debate about the true national sport of Wales has been raging for years between rugby and football fans. But a new book claims that the first and true national sport of Wales is neither of these, but the little less know sport of Handball.

In industrial Wales Hanbdball (or Pêl-law) was the predominant sport – drawing crowds of thousands to watch the game that could be described as similar to squash, but without the rackets. Courts were to be seen in many parts of the Welsh valleys and it was played in yards of pubs in front of betting spectators. The game was a national obsession, with people travelling from far and wide to watch thrilling matches between the sporting heroes of the day, and fortunes being won and lost through side stakes and gambling.

Today only one ball court survives, in the village of Nelson in the Caerphilly Borough.

In Handball - The Story of Wales' First National Sport , handball player and former miner Kevin Dicks’ meticulous research traces the long history of this folk sport played with any ball on any wall, from Welsh myth and folklore and the outlawed ‘devil’s game’ of the churchyard, through its glory years in the 18th and 19th centuries and strong links with the mining industry, to its decline in the 20th century as it failed to modernise, and its reboot in the present day. He questions the origins of the grammar school version of the game known as fives, a nd precisely dates the Nelson ball court – a date that has eluded historians for years.

The book also shatters a widespread modern myth regarding an Irish origin to the court and therefore to the sport in Wales.

‘This is untold story of Wales deserves a wider audience’ said Kevin Dicks, ‘Nothing has been written as in depth as this on any folk sport in the UK’.

‘After a while it dawned upon me that I’m the last miner to play handball in Wales, and it then became somewhat of duty continue the research and complete a work on the subject. It was as if the last man left in had to tell the tale’ added Kevin.

The cover of the book feature the classic 1906 handball at Nelson. Two players and two officials stand on the ball court with a crowd of 1,200 in attendance.

The author Kevin Dicks has been a Welsh handball player and official for nearly fifty years. He has written extensively on handball for various outlets including the BBC, the Daily Mail , the American Welsh paper Y Drych and the Caerphilly Campaign . He has also spoken on the subject abroad in Ireland, Canada and Italy and has contributed to the United States Handball magazine, and this book is the product of 22 years of trawling the archives. An ex-miner, he formerly worked as a Surveyor’s Assistant at Deep Navigation, Treharris. A part-time writer he now works for Admiral and currently lives in Ystrad Mynach, Hengoed.

A refreshing look at a sport devoid of modern commercialism, this is a lively story full of colourful characters, a revealing glimpse into social history, folk sport and the passions of the working man, and a fascinating insight into what can fairly be claimed as Wales’ first national sport.

Handball - The Story of Wales' First National Sport by Kevin Dicks (£14.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

A famous Welsh legend has inspired a new novel which is published this week.

Return from Darkness  by Graham Jones is based on the story of the Twrch Trwyth, a deep vein in Welsh Mabinogi folklore.

The publishing of the novel follows the Welsh Government’s 2017 tourism campaign celebrating the ‘Year of Legends’.

‘I learned Welsh after I moved to Pembrokeshire and relished exploring the county and beyond on foot. As time passed I learned more about the myths and traditions associated with Wales until it became such a fascination that the seeds of this book were sown’ explained Graham.

‘The American writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell said once, ‘ Myths live in all of us, in our darkness’ I realised that my novel had been waiting in my own darkness for the right time to re-emerge’ said Graham, ‘I then started to write inspired by the Mabinogi story’.

The novel begins when schoolboy David’s life is changed for the better by an encounter with the guarded and mysterious headmaster of his school. A storyteller and mystic, he opens the timid boy’s eyes to the reality of ‘other worlds’ beyond our own. Twenty-five years later, having returned to Pembrokeshire, David embarks on a quest that will take him deeper into these alien realms.

Pressing into the darkness, he is menaced by cruel ancient enemies desperate to possess his power for their own ends. And following him is a beast formed from the very fabric of Celtic mythology − the animistic form of a great boar, Twrch Trwyth.

An adventure story of a journey into Celtic mythology, Return from Darkness has been described as ‘a spellbinding journey to find the shining light inside all our darknesses’.

‘Mythology can be seen as a series of ancient messages passed down by our ancestors to help future generations through the challenges of life’ added Graham, ‘and perhaps this book may help to draw some of these messages out of the darkness so we can ‘read’ and understand them’.

Graham Jones was born in Cardiff. He taught Physical Education and Outdoor Pursuits before taking early retirement and settling down in north Pembrokeshire. He now lives in the White Mountains of Crete.

Return from Darkness by Graham Jones (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

This first biography of the famous Welsh painter Thomas Jones has been published this week.

Thomas Jones of Pencerrig: artist, traveller, country squire by Richard Veasey is the full-length biography of the eighteenth-century landscape painter and seeks to draw together the different threads of his life.

Born in September 1742, Thomas Jones moved with his parents from Llandrindod Wells to Pencerrig close to Builth Wells when he was around seven years old. He was educated first by Dissenting ministers before being sent with his elder brother to Christ College in Brecon.

Following in the footsteps of his master Richard Wilson, he travelled to Italy and spent six and a half years there first in Rome among English artists then in Naples where he was welcomed into the local artistic milieu.

His career led him to return to London in 1783 until the unexpected death of his elder brother in 1787. Thereafter he had to assume responsibility for the running of the family estate of Pencerrig in Radnorshire, where he remained until his death in 1803.

Two of his most prominent works include The Bard (1774) and A Wall in Naples (1782).

He was the first Welsh - and British, artist to write his memoirs.

‘As an artist Jones has come to be recognised above all for his striking images of buildings in Naples and for the freshness of his pictures of the Radnorshire countryside’ said author Richard Veasey, ‘But the view we now have of him runs somewhat counter to the story he tells in his memoirs of a thwarted professional career.’

‘There is indeed a tension between the pictures he produced largely for his own pleasure and what he achieved as a pupil and follower of Richard Wilson. It is the difference between his own direct and personal vision and a classically derived and idealised one’ explained Richard.

The memoirs, which he wrote when he was settled at Pencerrig, offer a vivid account of his life in London, of his travels through France to Italy, of what he did in Rome and Naples and of the long journey home by boat. The Day Book provides a similar record of life on the estate in Wales.

Together with a handful of other documents, these give us further insights into the life Jones led when he set up home with Maria in Naples and what was involved in the running of a large country estate.

Richard Veasey was a lecturer in French and European Studies at the University of Sussex. After he retired, he lived for a number of years in converted farm buildings on the former estate of Thomas Jones and became familiar with the landscape the artist both transformed and painted. He currently lives in Kington, Herefordshire.

Thomas Jones of Pencerrig: artist, traveller, country squire by Richard Veasey (£12.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

The story of a deep coalmine in Cwmtawe, the Swansea Valley.

'A tribute to those Tareni miners, their trials and tribulations but also their joys and successes both in and outside of work, and to their families and to all those others who worked the hard anthracite coalmines of the Swansea Valley.'

£30 plus P&P £4.95. Cheques to be made out to
Clive Reed at 17 Smithfield Road, Pontardawe, Swansea SA8 4LA.

For more information please email lynnegent46 at gmail.com

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‘A general poverty of ambition for Wales is undermining its development potential as the confidence of a whole generation of our young people is challenged on a daily basis’.

In his newly-released autobiography Carl Clowes, founder of the iconic language Centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn and prime motivator for the unique link between Wales and Lesotho, describes how communities the length and breadth of Wales are struggling to survive, rarely believing that they have the potential to overcome the disadvantages they are faced with. And when the occasional aspiring entrepreneurial spirit does come along it is often shot down by an unimaginative bureaucracy.

In his book Super Furries, Prins Seeiso, Miss Siberia – a Fi , he claims the need for a real injection of vision and leadership is glaringly obvious.

‘Wales suffers from a lack of confidence’, he says, ‘even at the highest level, something that stems from centuries of being dominated by a culture that has always believed it has the right answer for us and, indeed, everyone else in the world’.

Quoting from a conversation with a former European Commission representative in Wales, ‘from my many meetings since I`ve been in this country, there is an obvious tension between Wales and England. It is something that nobody is willing to talk about publicly but it clearly exists and is of real concern’.

Carl Clowes concludes: ‘Only by establishing Wales as a sovereign state will we see servitude replaced by an empowered people, confidence regained and a belief in our capacity to move forward and away from the bottom half of virtually every table of performance in Europe’.

‘If we don`t take ourselves seriously, nobody else will. We deserve better but we need a vision and the political leadership to enable us to get there’ he concludes.

About the Author

A medical doctor by background, Carl Clowes was the Medical Director for Powys having started his career as a General Practitioner on the Llŷn peninsula where he established Antur Aelhaearn, the UK`s first community cooperative in 1974.

He has been honoured by the National Eisteddfod for his contribution `locally, nationally and internationally`, given the University of Manchester`s alumni Award for Social Responsibility and, latterly became the first doctor with an earlier career in General Practice to be made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners for his work with the Royal College in Lesotho. He is the Honorary Consul for Lesotho in Wales.

He was awarded the OBE in 2012 and in 2009 was given Lesotho`s highest Civil honour when he was made a Member of the Most Loyal Order of Ramatseatsana by His Majesty King Letsie III.

Super Furries, Prins Seeiso, Miss Siberia a Fi by Carl Clowes (£12.99, Y Lolfa) is availble now.

Are the effects of global warming seen in Wales? That is the driving question behind the new publication  Tywydd Mawr – Extreme Weather in Wales published this week.

To look for the answer, the photographer Iestyn Hughes studied countless archives for evidence of the consequences of weather over the centuries.

As the world’s climate changes each year, the book shows the impact of these effects on the Alps and glacier shrinkage in Canada but primarily the dramatic views from across Wales – snow of 1947 and 1978, the summer drought of 1976, the 2003 floods, and the storms of 2013/14 along the west coast of Wales.

Tywydd Mawr – Extreme Weather in Wales is a comprehensive volume that contains well over a hundred photographs and drawings of extreme weather in Wales. It houses a treasure trove of facts, memories, photogarphs, folklore and the science of weather and climate.

‘I was motivated to compile this book following the terrific storms of 2013/2014 which thrust Aberystwyth into the media spotlight. Having always been someone who took a peculiar delight in storm watching, I hung around and documented much of this exceptional period with my camera’ explained Iestyn Hughes.

‘I was asked to contribute to a film on the weather and climate change, and this stirred my interest in the broader historical context of the weather as it had affected Wales over the centuries.’ added Iestyn, ‘Is the recent unpredictable weather brought about by climate change, or, when set in the context that’s longer than a memory of a generation, is it part of a natural long term pattern?’

‘Although this is primarily a Welsh-language book, the picture captions are bilingual, helping the less-fluent reader to appreciate their context.’ added Iestyn.

The images presented in the book come from different sources including a collection from the National Library of Wales, which includes the first ever photograph of a snowman taken around 1854 and one of the people skating on the Teifi in 1891. In addition to photographs, there are also paintings such as those by Breugel, Aneurin Jones and Kyffin Williams.

‘To us as Welsh people, and to the other residents of the British Isles, the weather is a large part of our lives. When we experience extreme weather, our social and cultural responses are direct, instinctive and highly creative.’ says Dr Hywel Griffiths, who wrote the introduction to the book and is a lecturer in the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University.

‘In poetry or myth, paintings or photographs, something about the weather inspires. In recent years we in Wales have experienced a number of examples of extreme weather, including storms and floods.’ said Dr Griffiths.

‘This book is an important contribution to the public conversation about weather and climate as it shows historical and cultural evidence that we as individuals and communities have proven, and coped with these extreme events in the past,’ he added ‘When we, who experienced the storms of 2013/2014, are no longer here to tell the tale, the pictures, as art and record, will endure.’

Originally from Llaniestyn, Sir Fôn, Iestyn became a native of Ceredigion after 35 years working at the National Library. In 2011 he left the establishment to follow new and creative endeavours. He has made a substantial contribution to books

He has contributed extensively to books by several publishers since, either as a picture researcher, or as a photographer. Tywydd Mawr – Extreme Weather in Wales is the fourth book to bear his name as the author, and it is a book that combines his interest in archive footage and his photographic talent.

Tywydd Mawr – Extreme Weather in Wales by Iestyn Hughes (£14.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

A remarkable story of military courage….

As Wales prepares to remember those who lost their lives in wars across the world a 98 year-old veteran from Carmarthenshire

publishes a book detailing his incredible experiences as a prisoner of war.

In All for Freedom D.T. Davies from Dryslwyn, near Llandeilo, provides an emotional account of some of the harrowing scenes he witnessed as a prisoner at Nazi camps across Europe.

D.T. Davies was captured at the Battle of Crete at the end of May 1941. He was among hundreds of troops who were herded on to

cramped wagon trains in Greece and taken on a three-day journey, with very little food or water, to the infamous Stalag 18A Nazi prison camp at Wolfsberg, in southern Austria.

He spent three years as a prisoner of war, in Austria, then Hungary and finally at the barbaric concentration camp of Zemun, near Belgrade. He describes Zemun as “quite simply hell on earth.”

These places were far removed from the rural Carmarthenshire where he was brought up, but their stench remains with him to this day.

“He witnessed dark deeds. But, all the while, one thing kept him going – the urge to escape. His is an amazing and uplifting story. It is the tale of one man’s fight for a basic human right – freedom – against a backdrop of unimaginable cruelty and suffering. For his bravery, he was awarded the Military Medal,” says Ioan Wyn Evans, television producer and co-author of the book.

Over 70 years after the end of the war, DT Davies recounts his incredible experiences in All for Freedom: A True Story of Escape from the Nazis , published by Gomer Press.

“Whatever your views on war, D.T. Davies’s courage, determination and humility should be highlighted and respected. This is the story of a man who truly deserves to be called a ‘hero’,” says Ioan Wyn.

After returning home from the war he didn’t talk about his time as a POW for years on end, not even to his family. But he says “When I reached my 90s, my sons insisted I put my experiences on paper for the sake of my two grandsons and five granddaughters.”

D.T. Davies says “For me, the most important thing is that we remember. Remember those who lost their lives, from every nation across the world; and to remember their sacrifice. I think everyone needs to bear that in mind, people of all ages and backgrounds, but especially the young. Because without the sacrifices of others, where would they be today? Whatever your views on war, it’s imperative that we remember those who didn’t come home, and my biggest hope is that we will never see anything like it again. Ever.”

The Manchester United Welsh by Gwyn Jenkins and Ioan Gwyn offers an insight into Wales' contribution to one of football's most famous clubs.

From its early beginnings nearly a century and a half ago and players such as Jack Powell and Billy Meredith, through the Golden Age of the 1950-60s when Jimmy Murphy was Matt Busby's right-hand man, and on to the latter-day glory years under Alex Ferguson with worldwide icons such as Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs, Welshmen have played a vital role in shaping the history of a club supported right across the world.

‘What is unique about the book is that it views the club from a Welsh perspective, tracing the considerable contribution to its enormous success made by a few key individuals with one important thing in common – their roots in this small but proud nation’ said co-author, Gwyn Jenkins.

The book provides fascinating historic detail  by travelling back to the birth of the club. It includes countless anecdotes about life and matches at the club in bygone eras making it the essential book for all Manchester United and Wales fans and for those interested in the development of football over the years.

Gwyn Jenkins has written numerous books on the history of Wales and on football. He lives in Talybont, Ceredigion. His son, Ioan Gwyn, is an actor who has inherited his father’s keen interest in football and currently resides in London.

The Manchester United Welsh by Gwyn Jenkins and Ioan Gwyn (£6.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

‘Caryl Lewis is the new queen of our literature’ according to prominent Welsh book reviewer Bethan Mair.

Her comments come following the publishing of a new volume of stories by Caryl Lewis this week as well as Caryl’s phenomenal success at the Book of the Year awards this year.

Y Gwreiddyn by Caryl Lewis is a collection of short stories on the relationships people have with their fellows, love, loss and roots.

‘I love the idea that there is a ‘tree’ of roots underneath each tree that shapes and drives it’ says Caryl, ‘After writing the title story I imagined that the idea fitted the short story format – that there’s a world underneath us that drives us. The important things about us are often hidden.’

‘Roots anchor us and let us grow but they can also hinder us’ says Caryl, ‘There is a popular saying that says that we need roots and wings, but there is tension between the two’

The stories often a wide range of characters including Hazel and Trefor in the story Chwarae Cardiau (Playing Cards), Piotr in Y Llif (The Flow) and Eben in the story Gwahaddod (Moles) – and each one looks at the root of the relationships between the characters.

‘Caryl understands the rural characters that fill the pages so much so that we forget they are works of fiction’ says Bethan Mair, ‘I read the volume in one evening but I will spend the rest of my life in her presence. Caryl is the new queen of our literature’

Caryl Lewis lives in Goginan near Aberystwyth with her hsuband and three children. She won Book of the Year for two of her novels – Martha Jac a Sianco in 2005 and Y Bwthyn in 2016. She has also won Tir na n-Og twice. This is her second volume of shrot stories following Plu which was published in 2008.

The past year has been a very busy year for Caryl after winning three awards at the Book of the Year awards and now publishing a volume of stories. She also worked alongside artist Aneurin Jones on a new exhibition in Aberteifi castle.  

‘It has been exciting but tiring!’ says Caryl ‘I tend to have periods of creativity when ideas come to me and then ideas lead to more ideas’

‘But its important to take advantage of such periods and let the ideas guide you’ she added.

The book is presented to local artist Aneurin Jones.

Y Gwreiddyn by Caryl Lewis is available now (£7.99, Y Lolfa)

The first Welsh colouring book for adults is published this week by Y Lolfa publishers. 

Lliwio Cymru / Colouring Wales is the first adult colouring book for adults with a Welsh theme running throughout the pictures. It contains 21 beautiful hand-drawn Welsh pictures by the artist from Llanrug, Dawn Williams, including pictures of Branwen, Saint David, Blodeuwedd, the Red Dragon, ‘Cariad’, and Calon Lân and the Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad fy Nhadau.

There has been a recent growth in the sales of colouring books for adults and psychologists claim that focusing on colouring can remove or hinder negative thoughts or encourage relaxation. 

According to the Mental Health Foundation 59% of adults in Britain say they are under more stressed today than they were five years ago. Although colouring is an activity for children it is now being used as a form of alternative theraphy to help adults relieve stress and anxiety. 

‘This is a unqiue and innovative book within the Welsh publishing industry,’ said Fflur Arwel, Head of Marketing for Y Lolfa, ‘Hundreds of colouring books for adults have been published in recent years but this is the only one with a Welsh dimension to it.’ 

‘Research has shown that colouring can alleviate conditions such as stress or transport people back to the easier days of childhood,’ Fflur added. 

The professional artist Dawn Williams was born in Bangor and raised in Ynys Môn. She now lives in Llanrug and is married with three sons. 

‘From the moment I used my pencils for the first time I became hooked on art!’ explained Dawn, ‘I was very young – a child in a children’s home in Llandudno and loved to sit at the desk in the playing room and show the other children how to draw.’ 

‘It was a way of escaping to another world the second the pencil would touch the paper,’ said Dawn, ‘and I am encouraged by the need to escape to my own kingdom of colours and inspired by nature and people and all the world around me!’

‘I jumped at the chance to create a Welsh colouring book – art is important to me and I am very grateful for the opportunity. Its theraputic and a chance to escape to somewhere if I feel down,’ added Dawn.

Lliwio Cymru / Colouring Wales by Dawn Williams (£4.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.