Robat Gruffudd, the founder of Y Lolfa publishers and co-founder of Lol magazine, reveals all in private diaries written over the last fifty years that are published for the first time ever this week.

Lolian is a collection of ‘eccentric and too honest’ diaries that Robat Gruffudd kept since the sixties. It contains a mixture of humours ancedotes, provoking comments and memories about the twists and turns working in the pubilshing industry and meetings with authors and beyond in Wales and in bars on the continent. As a language campaigner since his early years, Robat goes into detail about his work with Cymdeithas yr Iaith, Cymuned, Dyfodol i'r Iaith – and a campaign where he refused to speak English. Also discussed are the Trefechan bridge protest and the campaign to establish a daily Welsh newspaper, Y Byd .

The diaries include response to events and an ‘unofficial’ yet original portrait of life in Wales over the last fifty years.

His Jewish and German background is also illustrated – as well as the prosecution suffered by his family in Germany, which was the basis of the successful book written by his brother Heini, A Haven from Hitler, which won Book of the Year (as Yr Erlid ).

‘There are funny stories about plenty of people here and that’s what I’m afraid of! What will they say when they see their names in print? But the diary form asks for complete honesty,’ says Robat, ‘If you’re not honest then what’s the point? Although I may leave the country for a month or two after publication!’

But Robat Gruffudd says he never intended to publish the book originally.

‘These are personal diaries that I kept for my own amusement’ he explains, ‘I never intended for anyone else to see them. Unfortunatley, I gave in and this is the result’.

The diaries are published before the 50 ^th anniversary of Y Lolfa which will be celebrated next year. The book delves into the publishing world but Robat emphasises that this is not an autobiography nor the history of Y Lolfa per se.

‘We will be celebrating Y Lolfa’s birthday soon. Watch this space for news of a big party and a range of other events!’ says Robat.

The book is launched officially on Friday the 25 ^th of November at 8pm at the Llew Du (Black Lion) in Talybont. The academic Simon Brooks will be in conversation with the author followed by live music from Tecwyn Ifan.

‘I will be gone after the event!’ says Robat, ‘before people get a chance to read the book!’

Lolian by Robat Gruffudd (£9.99, 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.

A Message From John MOuse

Hey

I (We) (John MOuse) is (are) making available the songs from the last ever Death of John MOuse show. The songs were recorded back in May this year. The songs will be released every Sunday .

The first song, The Teacher, is available now via Bandcamp

https://johnmouse.bandcamp.com/track/the-teacher-live" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://johnmouse.bandcamp.com/track/the-teacher-live&source=gmail&ust=1478629894169000&usg=AFQjCNFP9EQeczwfDzLQrdkBNmIyIjIM3w"> https://johnmouse.bandcamp. com/track/the-teacher-live
The releases try to capture the live John MOuse experience and includes different versions of the album tracks and also a couple of previously unreleased songs.

Thanks for your support over the years

Welsh football fans have come together to celebrate the success of the Welsh football team at the Euros in a new book that is published this week.

Merci Cymru is a collection of essays and articles to celebrate and remember the Wales football team’s success this year. The book was written by fans, commentators and some of the game’s biggest names including Dylan Ebenezer, the former player and academic Laura McAllister and poets Aled Gwyn and Rhys Iorwerth.

The book depicts the buzz in the games, on the streets, in the fanzones, on the couch and in the pubs and offers a very vivid impression of a very special time in the history of Welsh football.

The volume was edited by the author and jouranlist Tim Hartley and includes contributions from Tim himself as well as his son Rhys who also plays for the supporters’ team.

‘This book is a record. A record of events that some of us never imagined we would experience in our lifetime.’ said Tim Hartley, ‘But the fact remains, the Wales football team played in the finals of an international tournament .’

‘It is thanks to the effort of a small group of footballers from a small nation – and in the eyes of many people before this feat – an insignificant nation. They say ‘its only a game’ – but no. They also say that the journey itself and not the arrival is what matters in life. Not this time’ added Tim.

The book will be launched in a special event to celebrate the Wales team’s success at Chapter centre in Cardiff at 7pm on the 11 ^th of November before the game against Serbia.

Merci Cymru (£7.99, 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)

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AmeriCymru: Hi Robin and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about your recent single ‘Cloddio Unterdach’?

Robin: 'Clouddio Unterdach’ is the first track released from an EP that’ll be out around the middle of the month. The EP was written and recorded in a small diy studio I set up in the roof of a garage in North Wales over winter 2015, it was really cold in there… At some point I totally started to believe that more bass would warm up the place somehow, thinking that vibrating air is surely warmer than non-vibrating air? I don’t know. But it’s produced a record that has a whole lot of low-end, and I didn’t get frostbite. So go figure dudes! All about heating the home with classic dub bass now.

AmeriCymru: Your music is inspired by "the North Walian landscape". How do you attempt to capture your surroundings in your music?

Robin: Yeah, I suppose music or any creative output is some kind of process involving absorbing environment and then letting your brain sift out, magnify or ignore certain things - then re-present those elements back through a medium like sound, or paint or dance or whatever. So everything seems to reflect everything else. It’s not until I tend to step back from a project that I really see (or hear) what was actually driving the inspiration.

I do spend a lot of time out in the North Walian landscsape and like being sat in the mountains watching and listening and doing field recordings that naturally find their way into the music as ambience or cut up and used as rhythm parts. Most of the rhythm parts on Cloddio Unterdach are from a sketchy homebuilt binaural mic recordings of tumbling slate down a small quarry that's on a mountain called Foel Gasyth in Peniel where I grew up.

I’m sure everything inspires to some degree, even if it’s all subconscious at the time.

AmeriCymru: Care to tell us a little about your 'Shedhead' EP? Where can readers go to buy a copy?

Robin: So the ‘Shedhead EP’ is the first full project undertaken since moving back to North Wales from Cardiff where I had been living for about 12 years. I’m always remixing or playing around with field recordings and ideas, but this is the first record to emerge since the ‘In HZ’ LP that came out late 2014.

It was written and recorded during autumn/winter 2015; and then took most part of a year to mix and master. I think Kev and Alun at Turnstile records received about 5 different masters over the year, but they were really patient and cool about me taking it back and changing the mixes over and over. The fourth master was in holographic stereo, that was a bit weird though.

The EP can be bought from within the internet using some money.

AmeriCymru: Many people were entranced by your 2014 recording 'In Hz'. How would you describe the album?

Robin: Erm, I can’t really listen to it now.. It was quite a raw expression of the period it was produced, it was a bit of a crazy and turbulent time of change so it felt a bit strange to me when people were ‘entranced' by it. I did it without thinking much about it actually being listened to by other people; so it felt more personal than things I’d released before, even though it’s still really really abstract.

I'd probably describe it as loud, full, with no headroom - everything's pushed to the limit of the gear I was using.

It has a lot of experimental acousmatic qualities, but also has the cosmic-techno/acid house thread that keeps some kind of stable and tangible narrative or forward motion to it. The artwork was made by Sion Alun who also did the illustrations on the two previous records and there’s a photograph by Mark Jeffs in the gatefold. Looks rad. Sounds heavy.

AmeriCymru: Care to tell us more about your involvement with the Manic Street Preachers in the wake of your 'Doppler' release?

Robin: Yeah, the Manics seemed to like Doppler! - it's a real psych/krautrock/stream of consciousness kind of record with layers of guitars and analogue synths, and it’s what the live shows have been based on until recently.

They're really nice people and asked me to remix their single ‘Futurology’, which I still can’t really get my head around… I still think it might be a joke, but the punchline is taking a really long time to land by now.

Myself and brother, and friends and all their older siblings grew up listening to the Manics, SFA and Gorky’s. It’s literally what my childhood sounds like. So it’s just very surreal and a massive honour to've been allowed anywhere near their music at all.

AmeriCymru: Many reviewers have referred to your Krautrock influences. Any particular favorites in that genre?

Robin: Yep. It’s bands like CAN, Harmonia, La Düsseldorf, NEU, Popol Vuh, Cluster, Kraftwerk, Faust… There’s so much incredible music from that short window of time that just resonates with me. CAN’s 'Tago Mago’ was playing just now, and to me it’s totally timeless..

As a teenager I was obsessed with a band called Slint; and a friend of my father, Mark Jeffs (who also took the photograph that's on the In Hz LP) gave me a copy of Tago Mago, which I still associate, or pair with Slint’s ‘Spiderland’.

It blew my mind to bits from the first listen and it’s one of those records that just stays with me somehow. I think that’s how I got into Neu, Harmonia and Faust from that introduction.

AmeriCymru: Who are your favourite bands currently on the Welsh music scene?

Robin: I heard Accü play live at Swn festival recently and it was the best electronic set I’ve seen in a very long time; everything was unbelievably refined and crafted. Amazing! I like a band called Ysgol Sul who are from Aberystwyth, I think.. Cymru at least. Their sound is great. Omaloma, which is George from Sen Segur’s project, that’s really good.

Islet have a new record out - I haven’t heard it yet but I imagine it’s good. Castles, I’ve just started listening to.

There’s always new and weird stuff to discover everywhere. Endless.

AmeriCymru: What's next for R.Seiliog? Any upcoming gigs?

Robin: Recording an album that’ll probably be finished at some point the new year. And there are some gigs happening at the moment supporting a great band called Stealing Sheep. We’ve been touring around Wales playing gigs that have free entry when you bring a broken electrical item to recycle, it’s been really fun and has good reason to be happening.

The Parrot in Carmarthen was really great to play at again, and Stealing Sheep and Heavenly Records are really fun people to hang out with too.

My name's David Williamson and I write for Wales Online and the Western Mail.

As you can imagine, the US election has fascinated people in Wales.

I'd love to share the perspective of as many Welsh Americans as possible. 

If you would be kind enough to take the time to answer some questions I'd be very grateful. 

And if you might be able to send me a photo of yourself and your contact details that would be ideal. My email address is  david.williamson@mediawales.co.uk  

Thank you!

1. What is your name (and if possible your age)?  

2. Where is home and and what do you do for a living? 

3. What links do you have to Wales? How did you, or your family, come to be in the United States? 

4. If you have visited Wales, what is your favourite place?  

5. Do you have a favourite Welsh person? 

6. What does it means to be a Welsh-American today? 

7. What is your greatest hope and your greatest fear for the United States? 

8. How do you think a Trump presidency would change the US? Would you vote for him? 

9. How would Clinton change the country? Would you vote for her? 

10. Do Clinton's Welsh roots make you more likely to vote for her?

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