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Bydd Mai 31ain yn gweld gŵyl sydd yn dathlu un o’r safiadau cynharaf gan weithwyr mewn protest yn erbyn cyflogau isel ac amodau echrydus yn y gweithfeydd haearn a phyllau glo, sef Gwrthryfel Merthyr 1831.Nod yr Ŵyl hon yw dathlu hanes a diwylliant radicalaidd y dre, gan gynnig cyfle i drafod yr heriau sydd yn wynebu pobl Merthyr, Cymru a’r byd heddiw.
Bydd yr Ŵyl yn cynnwys ystod eang o siaradwyr, perfformwyr, cerddorion, gwneuthurwyr ffilm ac awduron o Gymru a thu hwnt. Ymhlith yr uchafbwyntiau bydd cyngerdd gyda’r athrylith Gruff Rhys gyda chefnogaeth cantorion lleol Kizzy Crawford, Fingertrap a Delyth McLean.Yn y prynhawn fe fydd yr economegydd John Weeks yn siarad ar y thema ‘Economeg yr 1%’ ac fe fydd y gwneuthurwr ffilm lleol Jon Owen yn dangos ei ffilm gomedi newydd ‘Svengali’. Bydd 30 mlynedd ers streic y glowyr yn cael ei nodi trwy ddangos gwaith pwerus Karl Francis ‘Miss Rhymney Valley 1985’ a pherfformiadau gan Y Beirdd Coch a’r canwr lleol Jamie Bevan.
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Wales Celebrates its Rock Star Poet During His Centenary Year
Additional Programs Announced
New York, May 21, 2014 The centenary celebration of Dylan Thomas’s birth (born Swansea: October 27, 1914; died New York City: November 9, 1953) - Dylan Thomas 100 – continues in Wales with news of additional multi-disciplinary events being added to the festival’s creative mix.
An inspiration for poet-musicians like Bob Dylan and John Lennon and actors like Richard Burton, Dylan Thomas was a bona-fide rock-star before there was such a thing – sometimes playing to crowds of 1,000 – especially in the USA. Welsh actor Matthew Rhys ( The Americans; Brothers and Sisters ) who has channeled the poet (in the film Edge of Love ) hopes you’ll join the festivities, “We’ve been celebrating Dylan Thomas in Wales for decades now. Come to Wales this year and celebrate his centenary.”
The eponymously named digital hub www.dylanthomas100.org makes it easy and fun to discover Dylan Thomas, explore places in Wales he is connected with, engage via social networking and locate festival events via a Timeline tab. The site americas.visitwales.com is a resource for planning your Dylan-themed trip to Wales and for downloading a full list of Dylan Thomas 100 events.
Here is a sampling of the inspired programs on tap during the second half of 2014:
- June 28–Dec 20: Dylan – National Library of Wales – www.dylanthomas100.org/llgc.org.uk :
A combination of dance, poetry and the visual arts will provide a fresh take on Dylan’s life and work. The event will enliven several of the Library’s gallery spaces in Aberystwyth and will include displays of personal items, providing a unique view of Dylan’s world.
- June 28: Dylanathon – 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea - www.dylanthomasbirthplace.com
Using a camera, smartphone or tablet, entrants are asked to use innovation over picture quality to interpret Dylan-related themes throughout the day.
- July 19: Dylan Thomas’ Swansea Hollywood: The Mummy and the Old Dark Horse – www.literaturewales.org
This Dylan odyssey visits three of Dylan’s childhood cinemas in Swansea with a talk in a secret space at a fourth. The evening culminates with Andrew Davies introducing a screening of his new film, “A Poet in New York,” starring Tom Hollander, followed by a Q & A session.
- Aug-Sept: Bedazzled - A Welshman in New York - www.ffotogallery.org
Celebrating Dylan’s special relationship with the USA, especially New York, a series of live events will “re-imagine” Dylan’s favorite watering hole – New York’s White Horse Tavern. Audiences will be transported to the bohemian world of 1950’s Greenwich Village where Dylan held court.
- Sept 5–Dec 24 Manuscripts Exhibition – Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea – www.dylanthomas.com
Infrequently exhibited items on loan from the University of Buffalo include poems, lists of rhyming words and black and white photographs.
- Oct 26-Oct 27 The Dylathon – The Swansea Grand Theatre – www.dylathon100.com
The Wales Theatre Company stages a non-stop 36 hour marathon reading of Dylan’s work. Performers include Sir Derek Jacobi, Jonathan Pryce, and many more acclaimed personalities together with schools, bands and choirs numbering in the hundreds.
- Oct 27-Nov 9 Dylan Thomas Festival – Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea – www.dylanthomas.com
This 17 th annual eclectic celebration will feature talks, exhibitions, workshops and performances.
Dylan Thomas 100 and www.dylanthomas100.org highlights Welsh locations closely associated with the poet-like his birthplace, Swansea, his old writing shed, and his home -The Boathouse - in the town of Laugharne. And the program ranges across all artistic disciplines – from literature, to opera, theatre and painting. From high profile exhibits and live performances to community-based educational programs.
Business and Tourism Minister Edwina Hart said: “Dylan Thomas is one of the literary giants of the last century.” … “These events will help contribute to a fitting legacy for Dylan’s life and work, but I also hope they will resurrect a passion for literature and inspire people of all ages to connect more actively with our rich cultural heritage. In the spirit of Dylan, it is an opportunity to showcase Wales as a land of artistic excellence to an international audience and raise further the iconic status of this great literary figure.”
To find out more about these landmark events visit www.dylanthoms100.org . To plan your itinerary in Wales and for a downloadable program of Dylan Thomas 100 events: americas.visitwales.com .
A funny and poignant story of an unlikely hero…
Newport primary school teacher, Paul Manship will be launching his new book, Charlie Underwood Fights Back , at Millbrook Primary School on Wednesday, 21st of May.
Charlie Underwood is the archetypal victim of bullying, and his move to yet another primary school in year 6 is supposed to be another fresh start for him. But it turns out that TJ Carver has other plans in mind, and the novel is full of twists and disasters as their lives intertwine.
This is the inspiring story of Charlie’s determination to be himself, to handle what school life throws at him and to overcome fears and frightening situations through his own talents. Set in the south Wales Valleys, this engrossing novel addresses the concerns of many young children but is also packed with humour and powerful moments.
Weaving through are four stories in different genres which Charlie narrates to his young brother Oliver as bedtime stories. Charlie is kind, considerate, patient, but not a push-over, a secret amazing guitarist, a story-teller, nervous but also brave – a very likeable survivor.
Paul Manship lives with his wife and three daughters in Rhiwderin Village near Newport. He is a primary school teacher and credits experiences in the classroom with providing inspiration for his stories.
His first novel, Rewind , was short listed for the Glen Dimplex Children's Book Award in 2006 and his second publication, The Cube , was selected by the School Library Association as one of the titles for their Boys Into Books initiative 2008.
In 2010 Dear Mr Author won the Welsh Books Council's Tir na n-Og Award for the best English Language Book of the Year.
Charlie Underwood Fights Back is available to buy from all good bookshops and online retailers.
For more information please visit www.gomer.co.uk
Further Information:
For review copies, jpegs, or any more information, please contact:
Sioned Wyn t: 01559 363090 e: sionedwyn@gomer.co.uk
Bibliographical Information:
Title: Charlie Underwood Fights Back
ISBN: 9781848518278
Author: Paul Manship Price: £5.99 pb
Event HF144 • Sunday 1 June 2014, 10am • Venue: The Cube
Celebrated illustrator Shoo Rayner, whose drawing tips are a big hit on YouTube, and prize-winning author Heather Dyer, will introduce their new books, Dragon Gold and The Flying Bedroom, at a stories-and-pictures event to celebrate the launch of brand new children’s publisher Firefly Press at the Hay Festival this year.
Shoo will demonstrate top tips on how to draw a dragon like the incredibly cute baby dragon Tân in Dragon Gold. Shoo has illustrated more than 150 books, for the likes of Michael Morpurgo and Rose Impey among others, but this is the first longer-length book that he has written.
‘I find I'm becoming more and more influenced by history and the children I regularly meet in schools. They keep changing in subtle ways, always surprising me and making me question my assumptions about writing for them,’ he said. ‘Dragon Gold ended very differently from how I thought it would originally. Now I think it's a trilogy!’
Dragon Gold is one of two titles for seven to nine year olds, set in contemporary Wales, to be published in the Dragonfly series from Firefly Press. The other is Steve’s Dreams: Steve and the Sabretooth Tiger, by Pembroke-based Dan Anthony, author of the Rugby Zombies series. Three more books will follow in the autumn.
Lucy Thomas of the Welsh Books Council says of this new series: ‘We believe it is important for children in Wales to have books they thoroughly enjoy, that make them laugh and feel a sense of wonder, with which they can also identify. We hope that the children of Wales will feel a real sense of ownership of these fantastic books from Firefly Press.’
Heather Dyer’s The Flying Bedroom, complete with wonderful illustrations from Chloe Douglass, is an enchanting book for five to seven year olds, featuring Elinor, a little girl whose bedroom can fly! From talking snowmen to pirates, magical islands and even the moon, Elinor never knows where her bedroom will take her next. Heather's previous books, such as The Girl with Broken Wings and The Boy in the Biscuit Tin attracted widespread praise, and a commendation from Richard and Judy. Her first book with Firefly, The Flying Bedroom ‘was inspired by a dream that a friend’s daughter had, in which her bedroom had detached from their house and could fly through the sky – with her in it,’ said Heather, and her favourite books as a child. ‘I loved reading books with magic in them – especially stories where something magical happens in the real world. I longed for it to happen to me.’
At Hay earlier in the week on Wednesday 28 May, Pembrokeshire-based Dan Anthony will be talking about his book Steve’s Dreams: Steve and the Sabretooth Tiger, as part of the festival’s Writing Squad events. He’ll be reading from this funny fantasy adventure for seven to nine year olds set in Newport and inspiring children to write themselves.
Dan says: ‘The Hay Festival is an incredible international festival for book makers and book lovers and it's a real pleasure to be hosting a writers squad workshop right at the centre of the action. Hay on Wye is a unique place, it's on the border between real and imagined worlds - that's exactly where we're going to go.'
‘We aim to publish beautifully produced, top-quality books for children and young adults,’ said Firefly editor Janet Thomas. ‘All our first authors have absolutely done us proud. We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us get this exciting adventure underway, particularly the Welsh Books Council.’
All four books will also be available as ebooks. For more details as well as games and puzzles for young readers, go to http://www.fireflypress.co.uk/
Trevor Fishlock to launch first full telling of the lives of the Davies sisters of Llandinam at the Hay Festival
By Ceri Shaw, 2015-12-02
A Gift of Sunlight: The fortune and quest of the Davies sisters of Llandinam , written by Trevor Fishlock, gives a voice to the shy and wealthy sisters and is the first full telling of an extraordinary story of love and courage.
The book will be launched on Sunday, 25 May at 11.30am at Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage, the Hay Festival.
Together, Gwendoline Davies and Margaret Davies amassed one of the greatest art collections of the twentieth century. Between them, they bequeathed 260 works to the National Museum of Wales.
Author Trevor Fishlock was commissioned by the Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Trust to write the book and he explains how he came to learn more about these remarkable sisters:
“I was in my twenties when I first saw the Davies sisters’ collection of art in Cardiff. It was a revelation. I began to see that Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were at the heart of a great story of art, wealth and love.”
“Years later, working on a television programme about them, I began to know more. The sisters had non-speaking parts – they were distant figures, like flowers in the garden. They really were as shy as everyone described them.
They were also the richest unmarried young women in Britain. Where, people asked, and still ask, did their fortune come from?
The answer is at the heart of an extraordinary Welsh family saga. The sisters’ grandfather, David Davies, uneducated son of poor hill farmers in mid-Wales, struck it rich, first in railway building, then as a Rhondda coal pioneer – a Victorian hero of Wales.”
The sisters’ upbringing instilled in them a strict Calvinistic Methodist faith and, with it, an iron sense of social responsibility and philanthropy. They supported great causes, health, education and culture and their gift to the people of Wales was an art collection to rival any in Europe.
“In this volume the unique and thrilling story of the Davies sisters of Llandinam is told in its entirety for the first time. It is a story of love and courage. Despite their shyness and their abundance of wealth, the sisters went bravely to war, gave generously to charity and created for their country a celebrated treasury of captivating and immortal paintings and sculptures. The book is packed with splendid pictures and draws on personal papers to reveal new information about unexpected aspects of the sisters’ story, information that will prove an eye-opener to all,” says a spokesman on behalf of the Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Trust.
Bringing Art to Wales: The Davies Sisters , presented by Trevor Fishlock, will be shown on BBC TWO Wales , Saturday 24 May at 7.30pm .
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Trevor Fishlock is a writer and broadcaster who reported as a foreign correspondent from more than seventy countries for The Times and The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of books on Wales, India, Russia, America and on nineteenth-century exploration, and has written and presented more than one hundred and fifty television programmes about life and history in Wales .
A Gift of Sunlight will be available from
all good bookshops and online retailers
For further information about the event at the Hay Festival, please visit hayfestival.org/programme
For more information, please visit www.gomer.co.uk
The Welsh poetry competition organisers have announced the winners of their international competition. The overall winner was Kathy Miles for her poem"
‘There was a very high standard this year so it was a challenge to select the winning entries. The styles were varied but whether they were rhyming, non-rhyming, short, or long, what matters most is that these poems were written by people with heartfelt thoughts and feelings about the world around them. ‘Whether they were big names in the literary world, or new and unpublished writers, each entry was judged anonymously and the winners chosen purely on merit. This has to be the most fair and genuinely open competition in the UK. It's little wonder that its popularity is spreading and so many people from right around the world had decided to enter this year.’ said John Evans, competition judge.
The winners were as follows:
1st Prize – The Pain Game by Kathy Miles
2nd Prize – Albatross by Robert Marsland
3rd Prize – Remembrance: All Hallows by Eluned Rees
John also choose another seventeen poems for the ‘specially commended’ section with winners from all over Wales and the UK, as well as from USA and Australia, which once again highlights the fact that the Welsh Poetry Competition is a truly international event. All winning poems and judges’ comments can be viewed on the competition web site – www.welshpoetry.co.uk
‘The overall standard was once again excellent and this year more than any other we've seen a very high quality batch of entrants. We’ve also had poets enter from every corner of the globe.
To get involved with next years’ competition, buy the anthology or just keep up to date with what we are doing you just need to visit The Welsh Poetry Competition web site, join our mailing list, Facebook group or follow us on Twitter.
Competition Web site - www.welshpoetry.co.uk
Competition Judge – www.johnevans.org.uk
Organiser Web site – www.david-lewis.co.uk
John MOuse releases new album via Crocfingers “The death of John MOuse”14th July
By AmeriCymru, 2015-12-01
‘ The death of John Mouse’ is John MOuse ’s fourth album and first long player since 2010’s acclaimed ‘Humber Dogger Forties ,’ and it finally sees the light of day this summer, a remarkable feat of endurance and persistence: four years in the making and funded by an ingenious Kickstarter campaign. ‘ The death of John Mouse’ is John MOuse’s finest work to date, crafting his unique quirk-pop songs into a grander whole, thus the instrumentals are more muscular, the hooks catchier, the vocals more emphatically delivered. While each song is rooted in John’s brutally personal lyrics that are laced with his witty South Walian slant on life.
The album is preceded by the excellent single “I Was A Goalkeeper” #IWAGK available to download July 7th via itunes is a s parky indie-pop duet between John and Gareth David, lead singer from LOS CAMPESINOS. It’s an anthem to child-parents and childhoods past, urging Steve Lamacq to recently admit ‘Possibly our favourite new football reco rd’. It also features previous single Robbie Savage, a song that Mary Anne Hobbs recently described as ‘an extraordinary piece of poetry’ on BBC 6 Music. J ohn MOuse will perform at GreenMan 2014 Festival alongside BEIRUT , Neutral Milk Hotel and First Aid Kit .
John MOuse, real name John Davies has been described as ‘A Welsh Beck,’ and ‘A Less Funny Half Man Half Biscuit’. Under his previous incarnation JT Mouse he worked with Sweet Baboo (aka Steven Black) while in 2010 he scored as cult hit with a song about a gay romance with another duet, this time with TV presenter Steve Jones . Airplay support for John MOuse includes Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio, Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music and Adam Walton & Bethan Elfyn on BBC Radio Wales.
facebook.com/johnmousemusic twitter.com/johnmousemusic bandcamp.com/johnmousemusic
Logic Puzzle: You are on your way across the Rhinogs to Maentwrog. You come to a crossroads in the mist. You must turn left or right.
Two members of the infamous local Davies family ( Dai & Idris ) are standing at the T junction. There are 2 brothers. One of them always tell the truth and the other always lies. You ask, "Which way is Maentwrog?"
Dai Davies spits his chawin baccy into the dirt and says "Left"
Idris, draining his can of Wrexham Lager, says "No it's not"
After a pause Idris adds "At least one of us is telling the truth"
Which way do you go and why?
( There is a correct answer and there is no trick....it is pure logic )
Puzzle adapted from King Arthur In Search of His Dog by Raymond M. Smullyan
