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With Autumn closing in what better way pass the time than with a good book? For aficianados of crime fiction a good murder story is the ideal for whiling away the dark evening hours. Check out our selection of Welsh crime writers from Canada, the USA, Europe and Wales itself. Happy reading! 
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh crime fiction writer and roving guitarist Andrew Peters:-
" I was born in beautiful Barry on June 21st many years ago. That''s the longest day of the year ("Bloody felt like it too" Mrs GE Peters) so I have always yearned for the sun. After looking for it in vain in the UK, I toured the world as a guitarist and finally settled in Spain in 2004. "
Read our Interview with Peter here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Stephen and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What was the first thing you wrote and what attracted you to crime fiction writing?
Stephen: My first thing attempt at writing seriously was a general fiction novel. And my second novel was a political thriller based in London and Wales in the pre-devolution era. Luckily neither ever generated any interest from agents or publishers.
Read our Interview with Stephen here
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The Seedy Side Of Life In Rural Wales
''A friend is a good egg, even if they are slightly cracked - blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light''
Read our Interview with Delphine here ......
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Rhys Bowen is the award winning writer of the Constable Evans mysteries set in the Snowdonia Mountains of Wales. Apart from the Constable Evans series, Rhys has written many other novels and children's books, including many best-selling titles. She has also written some historical sagas and TV tie-ins. She currently resides in California and spends her winters in Arizona. AmeriCymru spoke to her about her work and future plans.
Read our Interview with Rhys here
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Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea, South Wales, worked for decades in marketing communications, and migrated to Canada in 2000. Bestselling author Ace is the 2015 winner of the Bony Blithe Award for Best Canadian Light Mystery (for The Corpse with the Platinum Hair). AmeriCymru spoke to Cathy about her life and writing.
Read our Interview with Cathy here
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— americymru (@americymru) September 21, 2016
Jaime has been interested in Wales ever since high school. Two years ago she got the idea for a Welsh-themed trilogy and started looking for a lake that her characters could visit She found Llyn Caerwych and the 'Copper And Cobalt Trilogy' was born.
Jaime: Thank you so much for interviewing me! I''ve been interested in Wales for a long time and writing my first series seemed to be a great way to explore and use that interest. I had my heart set on a Welsh theme for the trilogy. The beautiful Welsh language and area of Snowdonia the characters visit make the story come alive in an enchanting and unique place. I also feel that we don''t hear very much about Wales here in the US and I find that odd. It''s too interesting a place to not get noticed and talked about more.
AmeriCymru: Care to tell us a little about Lake Caerwych ?
Jaime: In Lake Caerwych, best friends Bridget and Celena learn that they share a haunting past in ancient Wales. They feel drawn away from their home in St. Louis, Missouri, to Snowdonia, where they begin to unravel the mystery of a Celtic necklace that Bridget found in a jewelry store. What they find is beyond their imagining when Bridget steps into Bryn Cader Faner, a Bronze Age cairn circle that takes her so far back in time that Welsh wasn''t even spoken yet! She and Celena find themselves in 500 BC speaking a tribal language and threatened by invaders, who they also find are not even their worst enemy – someone very near has discovered their secret and the present becomes more dangerous than the past.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us more about the area in the Rhinogydd in which it is set?
Jaime: The area in which the story takes place is remote and secluded. The land is hilly and rugged, with many valleys and patches of forest. There is a working sheep farm there which doubles as a bed and breakfast. The lake itself, Llyn Caerwych, is a small body of water that's not very well known, but there are many other lakes nearby. From the farmhouse one can see the Dwyryd Estuary not far away, the mountains all around, ancient woods and rolling moorland.
AmeriCymru: Part Two of the trilogy, The Space Between Worlds is set in the US. How does the plot develop in the sequel?
Jaime: Actually, only some of The Space Between Worlds is set in the US. Much of it is set in Wales – and elsewhere! At this point in the story, the girls are learning to use to portal system more and they are able to “jump” to different places and time periods. In the sequel, we learn why the antagonist in the story seems to have a deep-seated hatred for the main characters, and how a pivotal, shocking incident in the past ties into ancient Wales in a very unexpected way.
AmeriCymru: How has the trilogy been received in Wales?
Jaime: So far the trilogy has been very well received in Wales. I''ve gotten many great comments, encouragement and positive feedback. My most recent Welsh reader lives 6 miles from Llyn Caerwych and he loves the series so far, which is definitely the best compliment I could ever have. The fact that people there are viewing the books favorably has made me feel honored. When I first started writing the trilogy, I figured there would only be two ways it could go: they''d either love it or they''d hate it. So far, it looks like the former is winning, which makes me very happy and proud!
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Jaime Conrad? When is part three due for publication?
Jaime: Right now I''m working on Isle of Apples, book 3, which I plan to publish in late summer of this year. While working on it I will continue promoting the trilogy and possibly look for a traditional publishing house.
AmeriCymru: Where can our readers go online to purchase your work?
Jaime: I'm on Smashwords and Amazon. The books are available in paperback as well as in the various e-reader formats. Smashwords Amazon
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Jaime: Thank you for being here and for letting me be a part of this community!
A Miner''s Song will be launched on the 16th March before the Wales v England game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Produced by Daniel and Laura Curtis from Caerphilly; all proceeds from the sale of the single will go toward the National Coal Mining Memorial which will be unveiled on the 100th anniversary of the Senghenydd disaster where 440 people died in the UK’s worst ever coal mining tragedy. Read our interview with Dan Curtis below:-
A Miner's Song Press Release ..... Buy on Amazon
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Interview With Dan Curtis
AmeriCymru: Hi Dan and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by Americymru. Can you tell us a little about the cause you are supporting:- The Welsh National Coal Mining Memorial.
Dan: The Welsh National Coal Mining Memorial is going to be unveiled in October 2013 on the 100th anniversary of the Senghenydd disaster which killed 440 people in the UK’s worst disaster. The memorial will have a statue centrepiece, garden and walk of remembrance. It will remember the over 8,000 people who have died in Welsh coal mines and the countless more who have died as a result of coal mining related diseases. It will also pay tribute to the legacy of mining for example the hospitals and workmen''s hall which are now our theatres that were paid for by the miners themselves. It is very important for Wales to have a National monument and give people a place to come together and remember what’s gone before.
AmeriCymru: It must have been quite a logistical feat to gather all these contributions from around the world. How did you achieve it?
Dan: This has been the biggest challenge of the project. We made a decision early on that we needed to find a way to get people who were not in the UK to be able to take part on the song. We had people record on iPad’s and iPhones and send their recordings from USA and Canada. Our recording engineer Al Steele is an amazing man and made the recordings sound fantastic and you cannot tell the difference. We also did a number of location recordings in London and also around South Wales to record the choirs and brass band. There are over 300 people on the completed recording. The snow in January really delayed us but we did manage to get to everybody before the deadline. We are so grateful to everybody who took the time to do this and pay their own personal respects.
AmeriCymru: The project has received support and encouragement from some prominent showbiz and political figures. Care to tell us more?
Dan: The support for the single has been amazing. The Prime Minister David Cameron has sent us a personal letter wishing the single the best of luck and stating how important coal mining had been to the country. We have also received support from Carwyn Jones the First Minister of Wales who attended our memorial concert in September. The actors and singers involved with the song have also been amazing including Michael Sheen who has really got behind the single and offered his support and urged people to buy the single.
AmeriCymru: You have a personal connection with the mining industry. Care to elaborate?
Dan: My two great grandfathers were coal miners and sadly both died as a direct result of mining. The one died in Senghenydd and the other from the coal dust on the lungs and died when my grandfather was only one. We really wanted to create this single to pay our respects to all those who have lost their lives.
AmeriCymru: This is not your first musical venture in aid of Miners charities. Can you tell us a little more about your memorable 2012 concert?
Dan: At the start of 2012 I came up with an idea of holding a mining memorial concert underground but with the twist of taking a piano underground. I contacted Big Pit in Blaenafon and expected them to tell me I was crazy but they came back quickly and said it wasn’t the most crazy idea ever that had ever been pitched to them and that they were open to the idea. The piano was donated by Pianos Cymru who were the same company who took a piano up Snowdon for Bryn Terfel. It was an incredibly emotional experience to perform down the mine and to take a piano down for the first time. You can hear the sounds come back at you a good while later and the atmosphere was so poignant and emotional. It was the most moving and by far the most memorable of any concert we have ever performed. Something that we will never forget. We were fortunate enough to have a number of television programmes record. Here is a link to the footage: Dan and Laura Curtis at Big Pit
AmeriCymru: So...when will we first get to hear the song and where can we buy it online?
Dan: The song will be launched on the 16th March before the Wales v England game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The first play of the song will be on the Roy Noble show on the 10th March on BBC Radio Wales. The single will available in Tesco in Wales, iTunes, Amazon and can be pre-ordered Worldwide from the official website: www.nationalminingmemorial.co.uk
Welsh National Coal Mining Memorial Charity Single
Hollywood and music legends unite for charity single in aid of the Welsh National Coal Mining Memorial. Rugby fans will be given an exclusive first look as the music video is launched ahead of the Wales v England game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
The single, which so far has been kept strictly under wraps, will feature the singing talents of: Aled Jones, Caroline Sheen, Daniel and Laura Curtis, Dennis O''Neill, Darren Parry , Ioan Gruffudd, Iris Williams, Jamie Pugh , John Owen Jones, Jonathan Pryce, JP Jones , Mark Llewelyn Evans , Matthew Rhys, Paul Child , Paul Potts, Rebecca Evans, Rhys Meirion , Samantha Link , Sian Phillips, Tom Lukas, Wynne Evans . With special spoken contributions by Michael Sheen, Boyd Clack, Joe Calzaghe and the late Richard Burton with the kind permission of the Dick Cavett Show. The song also features over three hundred local musicians, choirs and bands from around South Wales including BTM Brass Band, The Gentlemen Songsters Choir, The Richard Williams Singers, The Aber Valley Male Choir and one hundred and twenty school children. The bass guitar on the song is played by World renowned musician Pino Palladino.
The recording of the song has taken place at locations all over the World. Co-producer and composer Laura Curtis said “We wanted to reach out to Welsh artists across the world and invite them to take part. Many of these artists have hectic schedules due to them being in the middle of filming TV series or films. Going into a recording studio wasn’t an option for them, so we came up with the idea of using iPads and iPhones for them to record their lines. The quality once mixed into the song is really high and the results have been brilliant”.
The song has been written and produced by Daniel and Laura Curtis from Caerphilly. This is not their first mining related project, in September 2012 they organised an underground concert in a mine to honour those who lost their lives in mining disasters. The concert involved lowering a piano 300 ft underground for the first time.
After being made redundant in 2011, Daniel Curtis made the decision to follow his life-time passion and become a self-employed professional musician and project manager, specialising in music events. Due to close family ties with coal mining he decided to put his efforts into a project that would raise money for a cause that was very important to him.
Daniel Curtis said ‘My two great grandfathers died in mines and after the emotional experience of performing the concert underground last year I wanted to create a song that paid tribute to the legacy of coal mining. The response that we have received has been amazing and we have tried to involve everybody who has wanted to take part. Each artist has added their own personal style to the recording and made the song something very special. We are delighted with the way that it has turned out.’
Dan and Laura Curtis with Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen OBE said ‘I want to lend my support to this incredibly worthy cause that is part of our history and our heritage. I hope that everyone will get behind this and give it the boost it deserves."
The Prime Minister, David Cameron has also expressed his support saying; ‘We owe a great debt to those who were, and continue to be, involved in the industry. We cannot forget those who lost their lives in mining related disasters over the years, including Senghenydd. I wish the single every success.’
The National Coal Mining Memorial will be unveiled on the 100th anniversary of the Senghenydd disaster where 440 people died in the UK’s worst ever coal mining disaster. The National Memorial will be a national monument to remember the over 8,000 people who have died in Welsh coal mines. The memorial is costing over £220,000 and will contain a walk of remembrance, monument and garden.
The song will be available to buy from the 16 th March in Tesco on iTunes, Amazon and many other outlets nationally. The song can be pre-ordered from www.nationalminingmemorial.co.uk
The production of the single has been sponsored by a number of local businesses. The two primary sponsors are Giovanni’s Restaurant in Cardiff and Foy Wealth.
PRESS RELEASE
On the 13 th September 2012, Big Pit in Blaenafon will host a memorial concert in remembrance of those who have lost their lives in coal mining accidents. The concert comes two days before the first anniversary of the Gleision Colliery tragedy.
This concert will be held at ‘Pit Bottom’, 300 ft underground. An upright piano will be placed into the ’cage’ to make the descent into the mine. Several dignitaries and special guests including the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones will be attending the concert.
Performing will be Daniel and Laura Curtis who are considered as one of the foremost ambassadors for the preservation of the music of Ivor Novello and The Great American Songbook. Welsh writer and actor Boyd Clack will also be writing a new poem to mark the event as well as joining Daniel and Laura in song. The BBC One Show will be covering the concert for inclusion as a VT in a future programme.
Daniel Curtis said ‘I have wanted to do a concert at Big Pit for a long time. I contacted the museum with my fingers crossed that they wouldn’t think I was crazy! Luckily it wasn’t the craziest request they had ever received. It’s great that we are making this happen. My great grandfather died in Senghenydd Colliery and I really wanted to hold a concert to pay tribute to pay my respects and raise awareness for those who have died in mines. Singing was an important part of mining history with many miners being members of their local Male Voice Choir. The number of people who lost their lives through the years is one the biggest tragedies running through the history of Wales and Britain.’
Peter Walker, Keeper and Mine Manager added: ‘We are only too happy to work with Daniel and Laura Curtis on this concert, as we feel passionately that any effort to keep the memories of this most important industry alive is vitally important. We have had many weird and wonderful events underground, and we look forward to sharing the excitement of this unusual concert.’
Stage and screen legend Jonathan Pryce has supported the concert by saying: ‘Coal mining is ingrained in our history and has to been one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs that anybody could do. My father worked in two mines in the Holywell area including the Bettisfield Colliery, but my mother rescued him from the mines when they married and both became shopkeepers. It is very important that we remember those who have lost their lives working in mines, but also those who have died from diseases like pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of dust. Due to my theatre commitments with King Lear, I am unable to attend the memorial concert at Big Pit, Blaenafon but I would like to add my support to the concert and wish Dan and Laura Curtis all the very best. Taking a piano underground is certainly unique idea and will, without doubt, create a very special and poignant atmosphere.’ Jonathan Pryce CBE.
The piano has kindly been donated by Pianos Cymru who are an award winning piano dealership in the NorthWest Wales area and have recently opened another branch in Chester called ‘Jones Pianos’. They have been established since 1970 and offer an extensive range of pianos. They have twice won the prestigious ‘Kawai Dealer of The Year Award’ which is a National Recognition Award to the Piano Dealer that has ‘served the piano world best’ thorough the UK that year. They have supplied and maintained pianos for major Music Festivals across the UK, and worked for International stars that have included Jose Carreras, Jamie Cullum, Bryn Terfel, Michael Ball and Dame Shirley Bassey. www.pianoscymru.com
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AmeriCymru: Hi Peter and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Care to introduce the Batch Magna novels for our readers?
Peter: Thank you, Ceri, for inviting me. I appreciate it. The novels, of which The Cuckoos of Batch Magna is the first in the series, are set in a river valley in the Welsh Marches, the borderland between Wales and England (though I’m sure that doesn’t need explaining in this company). The squire of the village there, Batch Magna, dies, and what’s left of his decaying estate crosses the Atlantic and passes, through the ancient law of entailment, to distant relative Humph, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx.
Sir Humphrey Franklin T Strange, 9 th baronet and squire of Batch Magna, as Humph now most remarkably finds himself to be, is persuaded by his Uncle Frank, a small time Wall Street broker with an eye on the big time, to make a killing by turning the sleepy backwater into a theme-park rural paradise for free-spending US millionaires.
But while the village pub and shop, with the lure of the dollar in their eyes, put out the Stars and Stripes in welcome, the tenants of the estate’s dilapidated houseboats take a different view, and when they’re given notice to quit by the new squire they stand their ground. And the fun begins.
The novels were inspired by nostalgia, of a time in the mid 1970s spent gloriously free living in a small colony of houseboats on the River Medway, in deepest rural Kent. The houseboats there were converted Thames sailing barges; for my houseboats, on Batch Magna''s river the Cluny, I used converted paddle steamers (once part of an equally fictitious Victorian trading company, the Cluny Steamboat Company), simply because I like the vessels.
They are feelgood books (The Wind in the Willows for grown-ups, as one Amazon reviewer described Cuckoos), pure escapism - for me now, looking back, and I hope for my readers.
AmeriCymru: What is the connection with Wales? How much of the action takes place west of Offa''s Dyke?
Peter: The stage is shared equally. The books were conceived with a nod both to Mercia and to Powys. The imaginary Welsh/English border running through Batch Valley and its village twists and turns, bestowing Welsh nationality on one villager in one part of it and English on another. And their accents, as they tend to in the Marches, share that duality, sounding Welsh to English ears and English to Welsh. A duality which also allowed me to have fun with Welsh/English banter.
AmeriCymru: How many books are there in the series and how would you say the plot and characters have developed over time?
Peter: I have two sequels to Cuckoos finished and waiting their turn (why this is so involves rather complicated reasons when I was under contract to my last two publishers), and I’m several chapters into a third sequel. And I think there’s enough mileage in the characters and place for at least several more. I don’t think anything changed much really, apart from the plots. The characters, I suppose, like actors, have settled into the parts more in the sequels, are more perhaps rounded, but rather like Batch Magna itself, everything else is just as it always was.
AmeriCymru: I have to ask....did you have any particular village in mind as a model or paradigm for Batch Magna?
Peter: Yes, well two villages, actually, Ceri, and appropriately enough, one was in England (Somerset), the other in Wales (Pembrokeshire). The interior of the Batch Magna pub, the Steamer Inn, was taken from Somerset, the shop and post office from the Pembrokeshire village.
AmeriCymru: How has your background as an ex-actor, fringe theatre director and script writer influenced your writing?
Peter: That’s an interesting question. I am all of those when writing. I write the script, while seeing the scene through the eye, as it were, of the camera, direct and act it out on paper. But it’s that first bit, the ‘seeing’, I think that is important, it’s from that which all else follows. The late Yorkshire novelist John Braine said you can break all the rules written about novel writing, and still write a good novel. But if you break the rule which says you must see the action as you write it, no matter how trivial that action might be, then your words will stay on the page, will never take on a second life in the imagination of the reader (and reading should also be creative). And when a writer hasn’t done that then I think it’s noticeable – especially in any kind of action novel.
AmeriCymru: Are all the books in the series currently available? If so where can readers go to purchase them online?
Peter: It pains me to have to past up an opportunity for a plug, but I’m afraid the answer to that must be that your readers can’t, not yet. The second book will be out sometime this year. but I can’t even give a date for that yet.
AmeriCymru: What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?
Peter: I’m reading a book I picked up the other day in a second-home book shop in Hay on Wye (where all the second hand bookshops of the country are massed, ready to make a last stand) It’s a book of essays called At Home and Abroad by one of the great travel writers, V. S. Pritchard, a writer with a marvellous ability to conjure up the essence of a place and its people. (He was also of course, in addition to his biography and literary criticism, a renowned short story writer)
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Peter Maughan? When can we expect a new episode?
Peter: Well, as I said, there are two sequels finished, which, as with Cuckoos, I’m bringing out under my own imprint of The Cluny Press, and I now have to judge what is the optimum time to release the first one.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru? .
Peter: Well, if they’ve followed my ramblings this far I’d like to thank them for that. And to thank you also, Ceri, for having me. And from me to them and you: hwyl fawr.
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2006 Welsh Book of the Year winner Rhys Evans has just launched the biography of Gwynfor Evans, hailed by many as the ‘Welsh Gandhi’, at the Hay festival. The launch was chaired by newly appointed Director of Communications to Boris Johnson, Guto Harri. During the event at the Sky Movie stage Rhys was questioned on Gwynfor Evans and his vast contribution to Welsh politics.
Comparisons were made between the pressure Gordon Brown is presently under to what Gwynfor Evans suffered on numerous periods during his career. But Rhys Evans explained that Gwynfor just kept on going through thick and thin to become one of the main Welsh political figures of the 20 th century. Rhys Evans said: “For Gwynfor to be preseident of a nationalist party for 36 is unsurpassed anywhere in Europe as far as I know, except maybe for Tito in the old Yugoslavia!”
Regarding his contribution, Rhys Evans said: “Wales and Wales's position within a devolved UK would be unrecognisable were it not for the labours of Gwynfor Evans over four decades. The central argument of this book is that Gwynfor Evans should be critically regarded as one of the three Welsh architects of post-war Wales. Whilst the lives of the other two key figures, Aneurin Bevan and Lloyd George, have been dispassionately chronicled, this is the first attempt to tell the complex and often tortured story of Gwynfor Evans."
Gwynfor Evans propelled Welsh politics onto the UK stage. He was one of the rare politicians to have forced Margaret Thatcher to make a U-turn, when he threatened a hunger strike to campaign for a Welsh-language TV channel, and was the winner of one of the most famous by-elections when he became Wales’ first nationalist MP. His leadership of the Welsh resistance against the flooding of Welsh valleys gained Plaid Cymru UK-wide publicity, and he is credited with paving the way for our post-devolution UK-politics.
The 500 page hardback book, Gwynfor Evans: Portrait of a Patriot is published by Y Lolfa. The original Welsh version won Welsh Book of the Year award in 2006 and Hywel Williams in The Guardian described Rhys Evans’s “sumptuous new biography” as a “major event”. It has also been described as a “masterpiece, both comprehensive and extremely interesting” by International Politics lecture Dr Richard Wyn Jones.
Author Rhys Evans was born in Carmarthen and raised in Aberystwyth. He graduated at Hertford College, Oxford where he studied Modern History. He’s been a journalist in Cardiff for more than a decade and is currently BBC Wales’ Deputy Head of News and Current Affairs.
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Secret Life Of A Postman is the first collection of poetry from award winning novelist Lloyd Jones. The book is dedicated to, "the members of AmeriCymru and the Welsh in America".
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About Lloyd Jones
Lloyd Jones is an award-winning novelist in English and Welsh. He lives on the North Wales coast near Bangor.
His first novel, Mr Vogel, (Seren 2005) won the McKitterick first novel award and was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction. His second novel, Mr Cassini (Seren 2006) won the Wales Book of the Year prize. In 2009, he published his first collection of short stories, My First Colouring Book (Seren). He was chosen to contribute to Seren Books’ acclaimed series reimagining the Mabinogion, the original source of the legendary King Arthur story cycle, with See How They Run (New Stories from the Mabinogion Seren 2012), a retelling of “Manawydan, Son of Llyr”. He published his first Welsh language novel, Y Dwr (Y Lolfa 2010) to critical acclaim. and followed that with Y Daith (Seren 2011). He translated Y Dwr into English as Water (Y Lolfa 2014).
Lloyd Jones is the first person to have walked completely around Wales, a 1,000-mile journey, on foot.
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Poems From 'Secret Life'
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Size matters
For instance we can''t imagine what it''s like
To be Russian, we''ll never know
What it''s like to live in a country
With an unassailable language
And a monumental culture spreading
Across nine time zones,
So much space it drives men mad.
We''ve just the one field in Wales,
Small and green, with a copse of myths
And a boggy bit in the middle;
An apple tree and a pig,
A church and twelve chapels, also
A hut which is home to three anchorites,
Two of them devising the country''s history
Always a little faster than the third can read it;
And there''s always a gang
Drilling for something by the gate,
Forever a promise of gold or maybe
Yet more mud.
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Mawddach Bridge
for Brynley Jenkins
Meet me on the Mawddach in the spring,
When the sapphire tide spins seawards:
Sewin streams on either shore will flee the land
Sucked hellbent to the river’s restless floor.
Meet me on the footbridge [fallopian in the water’s womb,
Childbrace on the chill white waveteeth] –
Come sundrunk when the sea’s draconian whisper
Drowns their hillside hymns, those believers before us.
Easily we will cross our pagan gantry,
Lopsided woodhenge, lollipop sticks impertinent in the sand.
Meet me on a sad day by Dysynni, seditious with longing;
We will muster a bluster of April dog-winds
To shepherd sunshine down Cader Idris
And chase spindrift clouds along the raven ridges,
Through unshakable shadows, vast in the valley’s ravines.
At nightfall when we part [not mournfully]
Arawn will chalk a cross, other-worldly, on our walkway to Annwfn:
Footmarks for actors, cues from a ghost.
In the estuary’s amphitheatre, amphibious
We will face her foothills, blinded by sunset’s footlights.
Stagestruck, we will hear the invisible tribes
With their faint dogs sidle through side doors
Leaving Wales: wind, wood and water to our own devising.
Their shadows will move fleetingly, avoidingly, to another time
When the two of us will meet again, on the bridge at Mawddach.
,,,
A Review By John Good
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If you were a writer of fiction (stories short and long, novels, scripts ac ati), or non-fiction (biography, history, science, learned essays ac ati), you could hide behind the narrative, equations, characters and your own intellect or not, but if you write poetry you can’t. The poet (his life experience/relationships, belief or disbelief system, mood(s), mental state(s), interests/obsessions/politics ac ati) will shyly or brazenly stand more or less trouserless right next to meaning, novelty of thought, metaphor, expression, voice and wordcraft. In other words, poetry is the poet. Having said that, the fascination of the art is in the extraordinary variety and often esoteric if not arcane sensibilities of its more interesting exponents.
But bullpucky or cachu rwtsh aside, if the poet isn’t interesting in her/himself then we can only hope for something like clever metaphor and dispassionate observation. You won’t find any of that in Secret life of a Postman. Dedicated to Ceri and Gaabi and the crew at AmeriCymru – a pro-active, savvy, ex-patriot, Welsh-American dynamo – the author is himself unashamedly visible in his poetry. Don’t get me wrong, and admitting that all art is in part vanity, this is not a look-at–me-I’m-cool kind of collection, I stopped reading those ages ago. The attraction is in the personal honesty and the ever-unexpected stimulus for the verse –the scenario. (Am I allowed to use that word verse in ‘14? There’s rhythm, tempo, agreement of sounds ac ati … yes I think I can.)
Take the opening poem Juggling. A daughter is juggling fruit in a kitchen that sets off a series of quasi-real almost mythical remembrances that circle back, just like the juggling hands and juggled objects themselves, to a maybe never-to-be-realized desire to start juggling or gardening or stonemasonry, and the universal wish to go back, relive selective memories. Is that what the author intended? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter anyway. The first glory of poetry is that whatever truth you get from the poem is yours to keep. Perhaps this is only a personal truth, bringing me to the second glory, which is that the poet may not know what the poem means, having been merely the creator, and anyway, once you show it to others, you are inviting them to imagine, spin a web, take a trip and perhaps even let you know what your poem is really about.
Some selected imaginings:
Moving -- the infrequent freedom of chairs.
A warm and sandy love -- Mediterranean cinematographic myth-real.
Currents -- the dark and painfully real-real.
By now you may have noticed, as I skip through the selection, the range of subject/scenario is broad.
Size matters -- the dimensions of Wales
Secret life of a postman -- the true identity of the work/man.
In a pocket, among those travellers
within me, I found a scrunched up
piece of paper …
Is this what this book is about? At least a major theme? I suspect so.
Pathways -- irrevocable directions.
Odysseus complains about the publicity -- Homeric paparazzi. The collection takes an unusual tack.
Airtime -- lavatory for thinkers.
The black rabbit -- reality creating the metaphor.
Chapter 2 ( Simeon Ellerton, Between a Rock and a Hard Place ) takes us to a fresh and wondrous sequence of did-you-know type of extraordinary, short, factual, prose paragraphs, followed by an entertaining and often humorous poetic gloss; the whole held together with a rare glue.
With Chapter 3, we are back in the individual thought/poem world with Time sadly presenting the oldest and most constant of poetic themes; The look -- voyeuristic envy-lust; Beowulf -- 21 st century mythology; Sacrament (1&2) translations from the Welsh … I think you’re beginning to get the picture: The collection is as intricate as the man who wrote and assembled the word pieces; they are one and the same; a cawl, a lobscouse with accidental ingredients carefully selected and combined from myth, history, dream, hallucination, experience, bias, heritage; many accessible, some edgy, puzzling, some transparent, inevitably metaphoric, ancient and modern and overall, damn well entertaining. I’m left with two thoughts, having finished the collection: Significance often builds nests in exotic trees and, just as the poet can’t hide behind the poem, neither can the reader.
P.S. 4, Requiem, In Memory of my Mother, the last poem sequence, from a purely personal point of view, is the very best of the bunch. You can accompany Mr. Jones as he wanders down the winding lanes of loss that inevitably sets off unexpected flashbacks; sends postcards from the ether that tell us of known yet strangely unfamiliar destinations. All of us, at some time, will have walked those lanes that lead to a new you.
Enjoy Secret life of a Postman. I did .
John Good/Sioni Dda, El Mirage, AZ., Summer ’14.
Talented singers to represent the Lackawanna Valley, and they need your help.
By AmeriCymru, 2016-09-13
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Archbald, PA: When Gina Lupini, Choral Director for the Valley View High School, was asked if she and her students would perform with a visiting Welsh Male Choir, she had no idea that her acceptance would result in an international odyssey of friendship and song.
In October of 2015, Côr Dathlu Cwmtawe, (The Swansea Valley Celebration Choir), came to the Lackawanna Valley, a place of historical significance to Wales and America, to sing and honor those who had come before in the 1830’s. Gina’s talented youngsters had earned a reputation of excellence and professionalism. Gina, was known to the choir for her Vivace choir performance for The Saint Francis Assisi Kitchen. This was an unforgettable event featuring The Catholic Choral Society, The Burlington Welsh Male Choir, and Gina’s Vivace. Their performance with the 60 voice Swansea choir directed by one of Wales’ most renowned conductors exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Our valley has an incredible choral heritage dating to the 1850’s. From its founding, the immigrants to the Lackawanna Valley have created a choral legacy of unsurpassed artistic standards that has reached far beyond our region. Our valleys sent five, 300 voice choirs to the Philadelphia Bicentennial of 1882. A choir composed of Lackawanna Valley singers surpassed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the 1893 World’s Fair choir competition. In the same contest, another Lackawanna choir came in third. The years 1891 and 1892 saw the Scranton Catholic Choir Association hold competitive music festivals featuring over 20 choirs, 25 singing societies and 65 soloists. More recognition came to Scranton in 1928 with a first place win at The Royal National Eisteddfod in Wales secured by the Scranton Anthracite Chorus.
Local newspapers covered almost every development in the 1928 adventure, both here and in Wales. The Johnson School, now The Johnson College of Technology, created a Welsh flag that flew on the ship’s mast while crossing the Atlantic and was presented to Wales at the competition.
Our valley has a special place in the hearts of the Welsh, especially Welsh choirs. It is our history and tradition that brings their choirs here. It was the upholding of that tradition of excellence by our young singers that drew the attention of Conway Morgan, the Celebration Choir’s director.
Now, The Côr Dathlu Cwmtawe Male Choir and Her Majesty’s Representative to the County of Powys (In the heart of the Swansea Valleys) have officially requested that our talented singers come to Wales to represent our valley in combined events with Côr Dathlu Cwmtawe and their Regional High School, Ysgol Bro Dynefwr in June of 2017.
The tour will be for two weeks with performances across South Wales at popular venues and with other award winning Welsh choirs. While the students are from Valley View High School, they will be representing the Lackawanna Valley as Voices of the Valley. Their school gave their blessing for the tour, but is not funding it. All funds must be raised through the generosity of the public. All funds raised will be used exclusively for student expenses. Fortunately, facilities in Wales have given significant discounts for the students and expenses will be much less than otherwise expected. There will be fund raising in Wales, as well.
Our young people are continuing our rich musical heritage and certainly deserve our help to make possible this International Odyssey of Friendship and Song.
You can help these young ambassadors by becoming a personal or business sponsor, and by sharing this opportunity to become a positive participant in a young person’s life. The official kick off for the fundraiser will be in September with concerts, car washes, and special events. In the interim, we are seeking major sponsors who would like to be visible throughout the campaign through March of 2017. For many of these young folk, this will be the adventure of a lifetime. Join the quest, make it happen.
We are excited that these young people are bringing together two nations, two generations, and our valley communities through friendship and song. This is a perfect example of the value of the arts in our schools.
Our youngsters are washing cars, hosting bake sales, and scheduling concerts to cover the $65K for their two week tour. All funds raised are specifically for the expenses of the choir.
Find your way to help these hardworking students. Please go to our website to donate directly at: gvgb.co/voicesofthevalley
Facebook page. VOTVWalesTour 2017
Contact us at: VOTVWalesTour2017@gmail.com
A Brief Account of Welsh Choral History of Northeastern PA.
As early as 1850, Carbondale was hosting literary and musical competitions. These competitions were a tradition brought to America by Welsh immigrants, and date from the 12 th century, Britain. The Welsh called the competition eisteddfod, and Carbondale’s was the first recorded in America.
These early events became the catalyst for NEPA creating a choral legacy beyond the Welsh community and unsurpassed in both artistic standards and numbers of participants. Important milestones in our regional musical history only hint at its depth and significance.
In 1875, West Scranton held competitions to raise funds for their library. A tent holding an audience of 6,000 was full to capacity for each of the 6 sessions. Special trains for the event were scheduled throughout the valley. Our valleys sent five, 300 voice choirs to the Philadelphia Bicentennial of 1882. The years 1891 and 1892 saw the Scranton Catholic Choir Association hold competitive music festivals featuring over 20 choirs, 25 singing societies and 65 soloists. The Cathedral Choir won the 1892 competition.
The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair choral competition listed two Scranton choirs, the 260 voice Scranton Choral Union and the 200 voice Cymmrodorion Choral Society. Their competitors would include the formidable Mormon Tabernacle Choir, also founded by Welsh immigrants. The Scranton Choral Union took the $5,000 first prize, the Utah choir second, and the Cymmrodorians, third. The returning champions were greeted by thousands of Scrantonians when their special flag and bunting festooned train arrived at Lackawanna Station.
Choral events continued into the next century with a 1902 Gymanfa Ganu , (A Welsh Hymn Sing) attended by 10,000 at the Scranton Armory.
International recognition came to Scranton in 1928 with a first place win at The Royal National Eisteddfod secured by the Scranton Anthracite Chorus. This chorus was formed the previous year specifically to prove the excellence of Scranton talent.
-----An extract from a pamphlet published 2007, written by Jerry Williams, Past President,
Saint David’s Society of Lackawanna County, PA------
'Wingspan' - A Review
The two characters (father and son) who dominate this narrative are from profoundly dissimilar backgrounds and lead acutely contrasting lives.
The father, an ace US Air Force commander in WWII, describes his excitement as his formation emerges from cloud cover after another successful bombing mission over wartime Germany:-
We emerge number one in the high squadron, coming to the surface as if from dark water, and then we see the others breaking through, their tailfins first, large dull fish suddenly plated gold by the sun. Someone says "Wow!" on the interphone, "would you look at that!" Not many people get to see such wonder. Thirty-six forts in formation moving gently in the currents.
The son, a mild mannered headmaster at a rural English school, relishes the feeling of comfort and security he experiences viewing factory lights from a passing train:-
Industrial units, so often a feature of derelict ground near stations these days, have dull amber lights over their back doors. I feel well off, suddenly: if I were out there I''d be confronted with something that might threaten my mortality. I''m thinking motiveless murder. All from a light above a door. I used to look out of my bedroom as a child and watch the rain lashing past the amber street light. It''s a similar feeling. I''m safe.
The action takes place in England, Wales and America and the story unfolds in episodes from the war period and the present day. The plot details are skifully interwoven and as layer upon layer of the unfolding drama is revealed we become engrossed in the son''s ongoing quest to connect with the ''ghost'' of his dead father. In deciding to pursue this quest, he embarks upon a voyage of self discovery which ultimately transforms his life and circumstances.
Readers of Jeremy''s first novel ''Dovetail'' may be surprised by the contrast in thematic material and content but this only demonstrates his extreme versatility as a writer. What both novels have in common is that they are beautifully crafted and a delight to read. A former ''Book of the Day'' selection on the Welsh American Bookstore, this title comes highly recommended.
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An Interview With Jeremy Hughes
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author Jeremy Hughes about his latest novel ''Wingspan" - "Jeremy Hughes was born in Crickhowell, south Wales. He was awarded first prize in the Poetry Wales competition and his poetry was short-listed for an Eric Gregory Award. He has published two pamphlets - Breathing For All My Birds (2000) and The Woman Opposite (2004) - and has published poetry, short fiction, memoir and reviews widely in British and American magazines,. His first novel Dovetail was published in 2011."
AmeriCymru: Hi Jeremy and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. How would you describe your new novel ''Wingspan''?
Jeremy: Wingspan is the story of a WWll American bomber pilot who has always believed he can fly and who crashes when returning from a mission, leaving behind a wife and baby son. The first half of the book explores his world. The second half of the book is set fifty years later with the son searching for the father he never knew.
AmeriCymru: What does the novel have to say about the importance of understanding and re connecting with our past?
Jeremy: The past is integral to our lives. The novel explores the relationship between familial generations and their historical significance. The global is always played out in the domestic.
AmeriCymru: The experience of wartime flying is superbly evoked in the book. How did you research this topic?
Jeremy: Even though the book is relatively short, it contains a great deal of research. This includes finding out about the training of pilots, hunting out documentaries, feature films, visiting the American war cemetery at Madingley, Cambridge, visiting airfields and crash sites, as well as the Imperial War Museum, Duxford where they have a Stearman and Flying Fortress in the collection. All of these contributed to the book in some way. A great deal of research is always left out.
AmeriCymru: A number of American and British planes crashed in the Welsh mountains during World War II. What attracted you to this theme or setting?
Jeremy: I discovered a pamphlet in the mid-1990s which plots the locations and stories of the aeroplanes which have crashed in the area. I was very moved by the story of “Ascend Charlie”, a Flying Fortress which crashed when returning from a mission. Its crew of ten perished and were buried at Madingley. I couldn’t stop wondering about each of these men and their individual lives: who they were in civilian life, what had been their hopes and ambitions, who they had left behind. This is what set me off. I’d been thinking about it for years.
Tim is emasculated by a gang of bullies at the age of fifteen and devotes his life to revenge. He plans to build a machine that will kill each member of the gang one by one. Each death must be aesthetically beautiful, and so Tim apprentices himself to a brilliant craftsman to acquire the skills he needs. Then he begins to practice the perfect murder. A psychological thriller set in Spain and south east Wales, focused on obsession and the far-reaching evils of perfectionism.
AmeriCymru: Your first novel ''Dovetail'' was also set in the Welsh hills. Care to describe it for us?
Jeremy: Reviewers described ‘Dovetail’ as a psychological thriller and as literary horror. For me it is quite simply a revenge story. The protagonist devotes his life to putting right the wrong perpetrated upon him by a gang of boys when he was fifteen. He apprentices himself to a brilliant craftsman in order to acquire the skills he perceives he needs to build a killing machine out of fine timbers. He is obsessed with perfection. The moment at which the machine is perfect is when it kills beautifully. The book interrogates the notions of aesthetic beauty and moral imperfection, as the protagonist busies himself with a love of birds, craftsmanship and the story of Saint Sebastian with whom he identifies.
AmeriCymru: In addition to writing novels you are also a published poet. Care to tell us more? Where can readers go to buy your poetry online?
Jeremy: Before I wrote ‘Dovetail’ my whole world view was poetic. I interpreted what was around me in terms of poetry constantly. I published the first poems I wrote as an undergraduate. I was shortlisted for an Eric Gregory Award and was awarded first prize in the Poetry Wales competition. I had a great deal of magazine publication. I published two pamphlets: breathing for all my birds and The Woman Opposite . I read enormous amounts of poetry and built up a great library. Then it all stopped when I entered the world of fiction.
I had wanted to be a novelist when I first started writing but didn’t know how to achieve this, so turned to poetry because I thought it was ‘achievable’: poems were short and I could complete one in a reasonable amount of time. I haven’t written a poem for several years but without the experience of crafting poems I would not be the kind of prose writer I have become. Baudelaire said, “Be a poet even in prose,” or something like that…
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Jeremy Hughes? Are you working on a new book at the moment?
Jeremy: I am working on a crime novel set in Abergavenny and Madrid. The book’s central idea is related to identity. The criminal is a portrait painter. The police officer returns to the small town of his upbringing with the skills and years of experience he acquired as a detective in the Met. People disappear and artistic clues are left behind. The criminal and the officer share an event in the past which causes these disappearances.
I carried out research at the Prado and Reina Sophia in Madrid, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, the fine gallery in Céret, southern France and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Jeremy: I am so pleased to be able to connect with readers around the world. I love writing about the place of Wales within a global context, however modestly. I hope that American readers enjoy the books I make as much as I enjoy creating them.
All best wishes from Abergavenny,
Jeremy Hughes
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About the Author
Jeremy Hughes was born in Crickhowell, south Wales. He was awarded first prize in the Poetry Wales competition and his poetry was short-listed for an Eric Gregory Award. He has published two pamphlets - Breathing For All My Birds (2000) and The Woman Opposite (2004) - and has published poetry, short fiction, memoir and reviews widely in British and American magazines,. His first novel Dovetail was published in 2011. He studied for the Master''s in creative writing at the University of Oxford. He now teaches Creative Writing at Oxford and the University of Wales, Newport, as well as literature for Aberystwyth. He is married with a daughter and a son.
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