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Terry became a full-time writer after a career in industry and academia. He has more than forty books to his credit, many of them about Wales. Terry has appeared at the North American Festival of Wales in Vancouver and Washington. We spoke to Terry about his writing career and future plans.

Buy Terry''s latest book ''The Physicians Of Myddfai'' here.

More Books by Terry Breverton

For more from Terry Breverton on AmeriCymru check out the links below.

AmeriCymru:  We learn from your biography that you have written more than 40 books on a wide range of topics. How do you pick your subjects?

 

Terry:   When I returned to Wales to live, I could find no books to tell my children why I felt Welsh – anything to instil pride in them. I tried to stimulate interest in a Welsh encyclopaedia, with no response, so I wrote An A-Z of Wales and the Welsh, which copied extensively by authors in following years. It was a major problem, taking over 4 years to get it published, so it was outdated and also unknowingly bowdlerised. I had been a management consultant in the production industry, and a marketing director of plcs, so I realised that publishing was not rocket science.

 

Keeping my normal jobs as a university lecturer and management consultant, I also began a small publishing company, Glyndwr Publishing, to publish my books and those of other Welshmen who could not get great non-fiction books upon Wales published. I’m quite proud of what I achieved, but now concentrate upon writing only, as time is running out and there’s so much to write about. I’m 67, and I want to write another 16-17 books, including a definitive one on Arthur, but that is so convoluted that it’ll take at least two years, although I have almost all the materials.
AmeriCymru:  Looking through your titles it would certainly appear that Welsh history and culture have provided your main focus. Would you agree?

 

Terry:   Definitely – most people do not know that British history was rewritten by Bishop Stubbs to bolster the Hanover dynasty. George I was 58 ^th in line to the throne and was a princeling from a tiny country the size of the Isle of Wight. History was altered to take out the native Christian Britons and define its success as the greatest empire the world has seen as stemming from the pagan Germanic invasion of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes etc.

 

Today’s history taught in schools and colleges reflects this opinion that there was nothing except the Romans and Anglo-Saxons before the Norman invasion. Even in Wales, there is no history taught about the British, i.e. Welsh people. Much of the scorn for Iolo Morganwg stems from people being taught the Angle, i.e. English version of history. Welsh academics follow an out-dated English propaganda version of history. Our politicians follow the same line – it’s almost as if we should be grateful to the English for ‘civilizing’ us, whereas the reality is the reverse. We had over a thousand saints before they were even Christianised.
AmeriCymru:  In the foreword to ''The Welsh: A Biography'' you state that the book is ''....a deliberate attempt to rewrite our national history''. Why in your opinion has it been necessary to do this?

 

Terry:   As I noted in your last question, historians are too afraid to upset the apple cart. They are also often not taught to see the big picture. Most academics, whether in engineering, physics, English or history, are specialists in their subject areas, but it normally takes people from outside a specialism to make breakthroughs or see something differently. My book Breverton’s Encyclopaedia of Inventions showed that it was thinkers, not academics, who changed society.

 

History across the world is written by the conquerors. Colonial nations like Wales are taught to accept a different version of history to the historical truth. France and England have very different historical books upon the relations between those countries. The English people think that they always beat the French in battle but the reverse is true. The French people believe in the myth of the Resistance. The French army we rescued at Dunkirk asked to be sent back home and was repatriated as no threat to the Germans, whereas the Poles who managed to escape fought for Britain throughout the war. The French believe that de Gaulle actually achieved something during the war. History is stranger the more you look into it. If you start by questioning everything, you thankfully get some very different conclusions. It helps that I’m reasonably good at languages and look at events from other nations’ perspectives.
AmeriCymru:  You published ''Breverton''s Complete Herbal'' in 2011. Can you introduce this remarkable resource for our readers?

 

Terry:   I wanted to find a publisher for my newly translated and unexpurgated ‘The Physicians of Myddfai’, but had no joy and ended up doing it through an associated company of Cambria Magazine. In the research, I discovered that Culpeper’s 17 ^th century Herbal had never been out of print, but also had never been updated. Culpeper was an outsider, and I came to identify with him.

 

He wanted to demystify medicine, and take it out of the hands of expensive doctors, pharmacists and assorted quacks and give it back to the people. He therefore told people all the plant remedies that were used, and where to find the herbs growing. Herbal remedies have been used for millennia, and those in use had often been developed by the Greeks, Arabs or Romans. It is a fascinating area, and there is an interesting interface with modern drug companies.

 

Many herbal remedies actually work with no side effects, but some have been attacked in the press following ‘scientific evidence’ from researchers in the pay of the drug multinationals. It was a really, really enjoyable project. Also in the other book on the 12 ^th century Myddfai doctors at the court of Rhys Grug of Dinefwr, I found their descendants still practising medicine, including an oncology professor in Seattle! What other country can boast a line of 800 years of doctors in one family? And the original was expurgated – there are over 1000 remedies, but around 40 dealing with sexual diseases were omitted from the last translation in 1861.
AmeriCymru:  One of your books is a biography of renowned Welsh pirate Black Bart - ''Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All''. In what sense was Black Bart the greatest pirate of them all?

 

Terry:   In researching my 100 Great Welshmen, I came across John Callice of Tintern, who was the most well-known pirate of Elizabethan times, but with friends at court. I knew that in the next century, Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was the most successful privateer in history, but in the following century I came across the most astounding character. When we think of pirates we think of Captain Kidd and Blackbeard, but these were minor league. John Robert, aka Black Bart Roberts of Casnewydd Bach, Pembrokeshire, was captured by a fellow Welshman, the remarkable Howell Davis.

 

When Davis was killed, Roberts was elected captain by the senior crew, the ‘House of Lords’. He almost brought transatlantic shipping to a halt. He attacked heavily-armed French, Portuguese, English and Spanish naval vessels, whereas other pirate captains would flee. He took the King of Portugal’s treasure ship and dressed in scarlet silks for battle. Black Bart took over 400 ships in his short career. A teetotaller, he was trapped in his role, and he was the first to say ‘a short life and a merry one shall be my motto.’ His crews featured in the greatest pirate trial of all time, and in my researches I found that Israel Hands, one of Blackbeard’s crew, sailed with Black Bart before being hung in chains with the other senior crew members. Roberts was a star, worthy of a film.
AmeriCymru:  You have also compiled a Pirate dictionary. Can you give us a few colourful samples of the vernacular?

 

Terry:   The version in England is called The Pirate Handbook and is much longer, and is full of colourful nautical terms. There are hundreds of vernacular phrases from the seas in common usage, but the one I most enjoyed discovering was ‘wanker’. Dictionaries tells us that this is a fairly modern term of abuse, but the privateer Basil Ringrose wrote a journal around 1680, saying that Spanish prisoners were known as wankers. I believe that it is because so many of them were named Juan-Carlos, and it was a shortening of those Christian names. Thus the ship’s hold was full of Juan-Carloses, over time becoming wankers. You heard it here first…
AmeriCymru:  You have been to the States a few times in the past to speak at NAFOW. Care to comment on those visits?

 

Terry:   They are brilliant affairs, but celebrate some sort of myth of what Wales was, rather than how it is now. The nation is on its knees with the lowest socio-economic indicators in Europe. I love the concept of NAFOW, but it is fairly tragic that the overwhelming number of people attending are white-haired like myself.

 

We have a problem across the Western world in that younger people are less and less literate. They have too many distractions to bother with reading, history, heritage and culture. Of course, I’d be the same if I was their generation, constantly scanning my mobile phone or Facebook or Twitter, reading and sending vacuous messages. People of my age grew up with books as their only major form of entertainment. My parents had a TV when I went to university, and it never featured in my life as a source of entertainment until my 30’s. Now people have the latest electronic gadgets, but I got rid of my mobile phone and have no need of any technology except an old television, a landline, fridge-freezer and a 3-year-old laptop computer. I am thought primitive because I do not wish to replace my car, clothes or equipment when there is nothing wrong with them.

 

I fear for the culture of Wales here in Wales, let alone in North America. The language is dying – forget what Welsh politicians say, they are completely wrong. I moved from Glamorgan to the Ceredigion-Carmarthen border as it was one of the last bastions of the language, but it’s virtually gone here. It is the same across Wales – you hear more foreign voices than Welsh language or accents. The powers-that-be think that because Welsh is taught in schools, it is being used in real life, but in-migration has seen it off. In my country lane only 6 of 38 inhabitants are Welsh, and it’s the same across Wales. 90% of population growth for many years has been from outside Wales, but no-one will speak out.

 

The non-Welsh population, if you define being Welsh as having Welsh grandparents, is probably over 50%, and growing. The identity of Wales has been lost in my lifetime – R.S. Thomas saw it coming in his poetry. It is really, really sad. Luckily I can speak out about it because I have no need of honours, political advancement or academic preferment. Unluckily, I am powerless to affect anything.
AmeriCymru:   What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?

 

Terry:   I only read for researching books, so my reading list would be quite boring… I have a load of books on the Plantagenets to work through. My favourite poet is Idris Davies, who was very highly rated by T.S. Eliot – his life and work is an example to everyone. His collected poems are utterly brilliant, and define the Great Depression in the mining valleys. Everyone Welsh should read them. To be honest I enjoy reference books – if I see a different bird or plant or visit a new place, I have to find out about them – I don’t like not knowing about things.
AmeriCymru:  What''s next for Terry Breverton? Any new books in the pipeline?

 

Terry:    There is a semi-hagiographical process going on since they found Richard III’s bones, with cathedrals squabbling for his relics, presumably to attract tourist income. For some reason he has been moved from the status of ‘black king’ to ‘white king’ by recent historical writers. My book Richard III – the King in the Carpark will put him back where he should be, and incidentally promote the misunderstood Henry Tudor, whose army killed Richard at Bosworth. After that I’m doing a history of Welsh rugby. I played until I was 41, and still miss it, but the modern version is far more savage and less spectator and participant-friendly unfortunately.

 

I’m really tempted to walk the Offa’s Dyke Path staying at pubs, writing about the history of the area, but it would be too expensive in alcohol costs. Also the route of Henry VII from Pembroke to Bosworth – 200 miles – would be a good walk that could be developed for tourism, but I need to find suitable footpaths.

 

I’d like to write a book upon the stories of the white Indians – basically because there’s a lot of eye-witness accounts of Welsh-speaking Indians which could just possibly be related to Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd. I’m rewriting my The Book of Welsh Saints and The Journal of Lewellin Penrose as well. The problem is that I live on an old farmhouse in the Teifi Valley and it constantly needs work, along with the garden. There aren’t enough hours in the day.
AmeriCymru:  Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

 

Terry:    Wales is being seriously let down by its elected representatives. Education, health and housing are poor and there are no job prospects in the private sector. No-one speaks for the Welsh people, certainly not Plaid Cymru, or Plaid Gwynt as they have come to be known. Tourism is our only remaining industry, not very successful compared to Scotland or Ireland, and the faceless authorities are even trying to wreck that. I tried to get a version of the following article in the press, with no results, even as a truncated letter:

 

THE WIND FOLLIES OF WALES

( Click above to read the statement on the AmeriCymru Forum )

 

 

After having been told my danglies looked like an elderly Rastafarian I decided to take the plunge and buy some of this as previous shaving attempts had only been mildly successful and I nearly put my back out trying to reach the more difficult bits. Being a bit of a romantic I thought I would do the deed on the missus's birthday as a bit if a treat.
I ordered it well in advance and working in the North Sea I considered myself a bit above some of the characters writing the previous reviews and wrote them off as soft office types...Oh my fellow sufferers how wrong I was. I waited until the other half was tucked up in bed and after giving some vague hints about a special surprise I went down to the bathroom. Initially all went well and I applied the gel and stood waiting for something to happen. I didnt have long to wait.
At first there was a gentle warmth which in a matter of seconds was replaced by an intense burning and a feeling I can only describe as like being given a barbed wire wedgie by two people intent on hitting the ceiling with my head. Religion hadn't featured much in my life until that night but I suddenly became willing to convert to any religion to stop the violent burning around the turd tunnel and what seemed like the the destruction of the meat and two veg. Struggling not to bite through my bottom lip I tried to wash the gel off in the sink and only succeeded in blocking the plughole with a mat of hair. Through the haze of tears I struggled out of the bathroom across the hall into the kitchen, by this time walking was not really possible and I crawled the final yard to the fridge in the hope of some form of cold relief. I yanked the freezer drawer out and found a tub of ice cream, toe the lid off and positioned it under me. The relief was fantastic but only temporary as it melted fairly quickly and the fiery stabbing returned. Due to the shape of the ice cream tub I hadnt managed to give the starfish any treatment and I groped around in the draw for something else as I was sure my vision was going to fail fairly soon. I grabbed a bag of what I later found out was frozen sprouts and tore it open trying to be quiet as I did so. I took a handful of them and an tried in vain to clench some between the cheeks of my arse. This was not doing the trick as some of the gel had found its way up the chutney channel and it felt like the space shuttle was running its engines behind me.
This was probably and hopefully the only time in my life I was going to wish there was a gay snowman in the kitchen which should give you some idea of the depths I was willing to sink to in order to ease the pain. The only solution my pain crazed mind could come up with was to gently ease one of the sprouts where no veg had gone before.
Unfortunately, alerted by the strange grunts coming from the kitchen the other half chose that moment to come and investigate and was greeted by the sight of me, arse in the air, strawberry ice cream dripping from my bell end pushing a sprout up my arse while muttering ooooohhh that feels good Understandably this was a shock to her and she let out a scream and as I hadnt heard her come in it caused an involuntary spasm of shock in myself which resulted in the sprout being ejected at quite some speed in her direction. I can understand that having a sprout fired against your leg at 11 at night in the kitchen probably wasnt the special surprise she was expecting and having to explain to the kids the next day what the strange hollow in the ice cream was didnt improve my statusso to sum it up, VEET removes hair, dignity and self-respect

Jaime Conrad is a young adult fantasy writer. She is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, but now lives in Cedar Park, Texas.

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.

Books by Jaime Conrad

 

AmeriCymru: Hi Jaime and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. What inspired you to set the Copper and Cobalt Trilogy in Wales?

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!

Interview by Ceri Shaw Email