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Following the seven million pound investigation into Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC) and its attempts to prevent the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969, two of its bombers were martyred, two, including the leader John Jenkins, were in prison, and two cells out of five or six were put out of action.

After the marching and explosions of the previous decade, the 1970s found Welsh nationalists focussing on Y Fro Gymraeg-the Welsh-speaking heartlands. Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and Adfer fought language campaigns including paint-daubing and advocating that stocks of affordable homes be made available for local people. Tensions between Welsh speakers and monoglot English speakers influenced the result of the compromised devolution referendum of 1 March 1979. Welsh Labour MPs were especially vocal in opposition to an outcome that, in their view, would lead to domination by the minority, native language and hamper their party’s efforts to further culturally assimilate the Welsh into the British way of life. Many nationalists were daunted by the 4 to 1 vote against devolution. Gwynfor Evans, the leader of Plaid Cymru, even contemplated suicide. What ensued was a return by some to violent methods that were this time carried out on a more personal level.

The first fire attack on a holiday home occurred at Nefyn in the Lleyn peninsula on 13 December 1979. Initially, wax fire bombs were used that were filled with sulphuric acid and placed within condoms. Later incendiary devices incorporated timing devices and chemical explosives but most were unstable and the damage was not always extensive. A group calling itself Meibion Glyndŵr (Sons of Glyndŵr) claimed responsibility for the arson attacks. There was a theory that some of the new insurgents had been formerly connected to MAC and the police guessed that there were three cells of arsonists in operation.

Most of the attacks on holiday properties took place in North and West Wales in the winter months when it is was more likely that they would be unoccupied. The aims of the arsonists were to enable local people to afford to buy houses which were currently being snapped up by wealthier English incomers for second homes, and to resist the impact of inward migration on the Welsh language and culture. 16% of houses in Meirionnydd and Dwyfor were holiday homes. There were 20,000 such properties in Wales and 50,000 people on council house waiting lists. Meibion Glyndŵr believed that what was happening in rural Wales was ethnic cleansing and “cultural genocide”.

Operation Tân (Fire), a massive roundup of known Welsh nationalists on Palm Sunday, 30 March 1980, was the first use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1976 in Wales. This law started life in 1974 as a temporary measure, a year of the worst violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Suspects were picked up in dawn raids but no evidence was found and no one was charged in connection with the arson attacks as a result of this activity which led to allegations of a “police state”. Papers obtained recently by Radio Cymru contained the following observation from a Home Office civil servant on the police view of patriots:

"As a result of my attendance at the last meeting of the committee of chief constables, I was left with some anxiety that the police generally and Mr. [name redacted] in particular, does not understand fully the….distinctions involved in studying subversive and criminal elements within a wide, legitimate political movement. Mr [...] seemed to think that the presence of law-abiding Welsh nationalists in influential positions in, for example, education and broadcasting was a matter worthy of notice by the police."

This operation, however, would eventually lead to the arrest of Dafydd Ladd who was found guilty of unrelated bomb attacks in the period from 1980 to 1982. British Steel offices and three Conservative clubs in Cardiff, another in Shotton and an Army Recruitment Office in Pontypridd were attacked. More chillingly, an explosive device was slipped through a window at the home of Nicholas Edwards, the Welsh Secretary. The Welsh Office building in Cardiff, a Severn Trent Water Authority building in Birmingham and National Coal Board offices in Stratford-upon-Avon and London were also bombed with a resumption in the use of gelignite in these attacks. Ladd was sentenced to nine years in prison and was connected to the Workers Army of The Welsh Republic.

In 1988, Meibion Glyndŵr changed their tactics. On 3 October, they attacked on a 250 mile long front, firebombing seven estate agents over the border with England-in Wellington, West Kirby, Chipping Camden, Neston, Worcester and Bristol. They associated these offices with the marketing of holiday homes in Wales and of course brought more police constabularies into the investigation.

On 26 November 1988, six estate agents in London’s West End were firebombed and a fireman was injured trying to tackle one of the blazes. Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Squad was recruited to the effort to detect the arsonists as were MI5 who provided 38 agents to assist the Welsh police. Taking their campaign of destruction to the English capital ensured publicity for the Meibion Glyndŵr cause that any number of attacks in the media ghetto backwater of Welsh-speaking North and West Wales would not have excited.

Letters signed “Rhys Gethin” (Owain Glyndŵr’s standard bearer and general) were received, stating that “English incomers and their businesses were in the firing line”. At this time, 57% of respondents in a HTV poll said they supported the aims of the arsonists.

In 1990, a letter bomb was sent to Land and Sea, a centre connected with yachting in Abersoch in the Lleyn peninsula. Sion Roberts, a known nationalist from Llangefni aged 21, was suspected and his flat was bugged by MI5 who also found bomb-making equipment. Further letter bombs were intercepted by a postal worker-the addressees were the head of North Wales CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Gwyn Williams, Detective Chief Inspector Maldwyn Roberts, the senior detective leading the hunt for Meibion Glyndŵr, and Conservative Party agent Elwyn Jones. Sion Roberts, who denied the accusations, was jailed on 26 March 1993 for 12 years. His co-defendants, Dewi Prysor Williams and David Gareth Davies, were acquitted of all charges. MI5 agents gave evidence from behind screens.

The arsons continued during the fifteen months the three accused were awaiting trial. In 1992 and early 1993, letters signed by Meibion Glyndŵr were sent to nineteen English families living in the Lleyn peninsula ordering them to leave Wales by 1 March 1993 or be burned out. These threats were written in Welsh and had to be translated as most of the recipients were unable to speak that language.

In 2017, the Welsh heartland has shrunk and changed shape, maybe ceased to exist. In the decade to 2013, it is estimated that more than 5,000 Welsh speakers left their country for England each year. In 2011, 21% of Wales’ population had been born in the neighbouring country. According to the Big Issue, more than 15,000 people become homeless each year in Wales. At the same time, Gwynedd is the county with the highest number of second homes in Wales-5,626.

There were 197 acts of arson attributed to Meibion Glyndŵr between 1979 and 1992-134 in North Wales, 43 in Dyfed-Powys police area and 20 in England but, to date, no one has been convicted of these offences. Like Owain Glyndŵr himself who disappeared into the mists of history, his “sons” seem to have adopted the same response to the end of their particular rebellion.

A new, comprehensive and revelatory biography of Maestro Carwyn James is published just as Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions take on the All Blacks in the latest test series. As Gatland’s Lions take on the mighty New Zealanders, thoughts inevitably go back to the one and only time that the Lions have beaten them in a Test series, under the leadership of the inimitable Carwyn James. Under his coaching, they secured a historical 3-1 victory in 1971.

Into the Wind: the life of Carwyn James  by Alun Gibbard, is a thoroughly researched, comprehensive look at the life of a man who influenced rugby throughout the world. It contains new material relating to various aspects of his life, such as his time working for the Secret Services and his life in Italy. It also contains photographs and documents not seen before.

‘He was, say many, the greatest coach rugby has known. Not only did he mastermind the Lions first ever series victory on New Zealand soil, he then went on to coach his club side, Llanelli, to beat the All Blacks at Stradey Park Llanelli’ said biographer Alun Gibbard.

‘And, as this book confirms, he was also unofficially asked to prepare the Barbarians to face the All Blacks, as traditionally the Barbarians are not supposed to be coached. He therefore guided three teams to victory over the All Blacks’ added Alun.

The book has already recieved praise from the likes of Professor Dai Smith who praised it as being ‘Revelatory in its fresh information and sensitive in its interpretation, so that now, at last, we can see Carwyn whole. A triumph of a book.’

This book looks at the way his rugby acumen and insight developed from his wartime Primary School days, through Grammar and University education, National Service and teaching at Llandovery College, to the time he then became the coach of Llanelli, one of the first first class coaches in Wales. In doing so, it sheds light on rugby in three different decades in Wales and beyond, before we get to the decade the whole rugby world got to know of his genius, the Seventies.

But this biography argues that rugby was not the only drive in Carwyn’s life, in fact, Alun Gibbard argues that rugby wasn’t indeed the main love of his life.

‘He was, at heart, a man or literature with a poet’s spirit. He loved the literature of his native tongue, Welsh, but also the English classics’ explained Alun, ‘When he learned Russian in the Navy, he fell in love with Russian literature and when he coached Rovigo in Italy, he turned to the written word in that country’s language. He was also a prolific broadcaster from the late Fifties onwards and he stood as a Welsh nationalist candidate in a General Election.’

Into the Wind deals with the episode in his life when he was rejected as coach of Wales, making the point that he actually wasn’t rejected because he withdrew his own application. It then goes on to argue however that this does nor excuse the WRU for not utilising the rugby talent that Carwyn had more than others. It argues that he was let down by this Welsh organisation.

Into the Wind also argues that he was let down by another Welsh establishment, the BBC. This leading sporting figure and academic was employed to present sports bulletins are every hour of the day by the BBC, in a way that abused his obvious talents.

On a personal level, Into the Wind looks in depth at the popular, sometimes sensationalist claim that Carwyn James was gay. Alun Gibbard rejects any pressure to conclusively prove that he actually was gay, saying that it is not the biographers duty to come to a conclusion that the person himself had not come to.

Into the Wind doesn’t hold back however. It honestly analyses the battle with sexuality that raged inside Carwyn and which caused him such painful turmoil towards the end of his life. It states that Carwyn was facing a struggle to understand what he could feel happening to him, both rejecting and accepting sexual tensions that were raging inside. He never got to the point where he could resolve such tensions. His death in a bath in Amsterdam happened before he could reach such a resolution.

‘He was a genius but also a tortured soul’ added Alun, ‘Into the Wind brings Carwyn James to life once again, in all his genius and complexities.’

Alun Gibbard is a full time author from Llanelli who has published almost thirty non-fiction titles and one novel. He contributes weekly to the Welsh magazine Golwg. A broadcaster for over 25 years before he began his writing career, he still contributes to radio and television.

Into the Wind – The Life of Carwyn James by Alun Gibbard (£14.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

The Hay Festival is a two-week affair. I spent the second week at the festival working as a steward. Thus, I was able to experience the festival for free, and get fed along the way. I worked two, sometimes all three shifts, on most days. Consequently, breakfast, lunch and dinner were covered by the event. They treated us well, and I ate far more than I am normally used to eating. And being able to experience the events completed my intellectual feasting as well. Y Teithiwr Twp slowly became Y Teithiwr Tew (The Fat Traveler).

My first stewarding stint at the festival was with the kids. Someone needed to watch the ‘Make and Take’ door. As children came in and out from Make and Take tent, I monitored them to make sure no one was lost, or was purposely being left behind to have the festival babysit as the parents got all intellectual. Needless to say there were always a few free-range children pecking around the Make and Take tent, and typically it was not the children, but the parents who were lost. I greeted the children and parents with a “bore da”, a “p’nawn da” or a “croeso”. Some of the people responded back in Welsh, and did so with huge smiles. I joined the kids for a class on drawing unicorns one afternoon, because – well, everyone should know how to draw unicorns. I now have a book I have written about Spikey the Unicorn whose dream it was to play lead guitar for Metallica on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

One afternoon and evening was filled with an India/Wales mashup: poetry and music from Indian and Welsh artists working together. The night ended with the group Khamira, a combination of the Welsh jazz/folk group Burum, and musicians from India. (YouTube link to Khamira here)

The next few days I spent at the BBC tent. On the last weekend of the event, Saturday became Bernie Sanders day. The crowds were huge, the events were sold out, and everyone wanted to talk about American politics. Bernie is a rock star in the UK, and the excitement was almost as large as Bernie’s campaign on the way to the Democratic National Convention. In the end, the stewards all decided that Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbin were the really same the person, as were Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. Clearly there are competing conspiracies happening here.

Meanwhile, a Dalek from the Dr. Who stood at the entrance to the BBC tent. I was briefly accosted by the Dalek, and lived to tell about it. Steven Moffat the former and most recent writer for Dr. Who and the current writer for Sherlock closed out the BBC tent sessions on Sunday Morning.

The last event of the festival featured comedian Bill Bailey. A thousand Brits laughed uproariously, as he talked about American actors mumbling through their lines. As he pranced around mumbling like Vin Diesel and Helen Mirren from Fate of the Furious, I couldn’t tell where his thick West Country mumbling began and Vin Diesel imitations ended. Everyone howled while I understood one word in a hundred. I finally decided that he was speaking Cornish, and I was in a room with a thousand radical Cornish nationalists, which is apparently more than double the number of Cornish speakers who actually exist, but my personal conspiracy theory still made more sense to me than his West Country mumbling.

Throughout the week at Hay, I found myself repeatedly being asked if I was the American who: 1) spoke Welsh, and 2) was sleeping in a hammock in the trees above the Wye river. At one point the Quaker tent at the festival needed a Welsh sign to say that their Welsh language brochures were free. They approached the Steward tent to ask if there was a Welsh speaker who could help write the sign. The fact that an American was sent to handle the task became a source of jokes for the next couple days.

My experiences in Welsh ranged from a Welsh speaking father and son who stared at me as though I was an alien speaking Clingon, to a conversation with pair of couples from North Wales who told me that I spoke quite well and should continue to embarrass the Welsh people who have forgotten their Welsh.

In the evenings, I typically went into town. My favorite watering hole was a pub called Beer Revolution. It has a nice little garden out back, and a fine line-up of ales for nerdy micro brew lovers like myself. Then I spent one late night at Kilvert’s with my friends Stephen and Jed, whom I met from the previous years stewarding at the HowTheLightGetsIn philosophy festival.

I’ll be back at Hay-on-Wye next year for both festivals: The Hay Festival, and HowTheLightGetsIn. It is a place that feels like a home for nerds. Hay! Are you coming next year? Perhaps we could form an AmeriCymru takeover.

For now, hwyl fawr from Y Teithiwr Tew.

Link to Khamira: <a href="https://youtu.be/BzuyOt5ov30" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q

Link to Hay Fest: https://www.hayfestival.com/

Link to HowTheLightGetsIn: https://hay.htlgi.iai.tv/

On my third day at Hay-on-Wye, The New Welsh Review hosted a writing awards ceremony. The ceremony was sponsored by AmeriCymru and Aberystwyth University. I puttered my way to the Summer House. It was a particularly warm Welsh day. The festival had seen little rain, which may be attributed as a minor miracle. At the festival in Cornwall, I found an injured pigeon, jokingly presented it to the set up crew as dinner, but when I let it go, it flew away. With the pigeon healing event I had already considered calling the pope to ask for the canonization process to begin, but now good weather was following me through Cornwall and Wales. I figured I had two minor miracles under my belt at this point.

A pretty lady in a beautiful peach dress met me at the door of the Summer House. Gwen Davies turned out to be the judge of the contest and the editor of the New Welsh Review. She introduced me to the three short list finalists for the novella prize, which was co-sponsored by AmeriCymru. Nicola Daly wrote The Night Where You No Longer Live . Olivia Gywne wrote the The Seal . The winner of the prize was Cath Barton from Abergavenny who after retiring has pursued writing as a new career. Cath had been a contributor to the former Celtic Family Magazine out of Los Angeles. Her book The Plankton Collector is a fantasy realism piece about a magical individual (The Plankton Collector) who appears as a variety of everyday common people to bring help to others in need, and the resolution to their difficulties comes in common ways. The prize-winning piece was good for a £1,000, plus an extended excerpt of the book was professionally read and placed into a beautifully animated video. Catherine Haines won the New Welsh Review Memoir Prize (co-sponsored by Aberystwyth University) for her book My Oxford about a young woman studying at Oxford who survives severe anorexia.

As the ceremonies began, we drank wine and nibbled on tasty bites. Then the awards were announced, as the photos were snapping. I caught Cath Barton after the event in a nine-minute interview, which you can watch here. She is a gracefully engaging woman. I made a point of asking her about her emotional acceptance speech. She cried, she laughed, and she made us all love her to pieces. Her short thank you was my personal highlight for the afternoon ceremony.

The New Welsh Review describes itself as the foremost English language Welsh literary magazine. It seeks out the best in new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, and offers a vibrant outlet for expression and discussion. Gwen Davies is a wonderful host as are the other staff members: Marketing Dude Jamie Harris, and Administration Maven Bronwen Williams. (I suppose I should admit to Californizing their titles.)

Since I am traveling, I signed up for the New Welsh Review in digital format, which was only £6.99 for the year. If you are a writer or an avid reader with a serious case of Cymrophilia breaking out all over your body like a Red Dragon rash, then you should consider signing up. You can go online to www.newwelshreview.com and find the link to sign up for hard and digital copies for £16.99, or if you want to get the e-format only, you can contact Bronwen Williams at admin@newwelshreview.com .

Next post, I will finish up my thoughts on Hay-on-Wye and the Hay Festival. I somehow became mildly famous for being the American Steward who spoke Welsh and slept in a hammock in the trees. Bernie Sanders spoke at the event. It turns out that he is a rock star in the UK, and I had to answer all kinds of questions about American politics. Then I tried to follow the cawl thick accent of a British comedian, who told jokes about American actors mumbling.

For now, hwyl fawr from Y Teithiwr Twp.

The video for Cath's book can be found at http://www. newwelshwritingawards.com/

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1. In red: Olivia Gywne, in black: Nicola Daly, in pink: Cath Barton

2. Jamie Harris and Gwen Davies

3. The beginning of the award ceremony in the Summer House

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I was flying United.

That was a paragraph in itself, don’t you think? I tried to pack everything as tightly as possible. I was planning to have nothing but carry-ons. I am a ridiculously passionate tea nerd that hates coffee. (Na, dw i ddim yn hoffi coffi. Dw i’n casau coffi!) The day before traveling, I stuffed eight ounces of loose-leaf tea into the metal canister for my small camp fuel stove. It wasn’t until I arrived at the airport that I nervously stood in the TSA line wondering what they would make of a canister of dried leaves. Fortunately, United shuffled me off to Air Canada, and apparently the Canadians don’t care whether I transport dead leaves.

After 36 hours, I arrived at my first destination: bus to plane, plane to plane, plane to train, train to bus, bus to Cardiff. In Cardiff I helped my friend Charlie pack his van full of lighting equipment for a festival on an estate in Cornwall. Charlie, Paul, and I arrived at Boconnoc Estate at 3:30am. I stumbled around the in the woods looking for a place to hang my hammock tent, and finally climbed into it as I saw the morning light beginning to break on the horizon.

Over the next week, I ran into only a few Welsh speakers. I was speaking with a girl who grew up near Llanberris one night. I asked, “Ti’n siarad Cymraeg?” She responded, “tipyn bach.” Then I launched into my best excessively mediocre Welsh. Behind her thick glasses, her big doe eyes got wider – not in some romantic way, but more like a deer in headlights. Somehow this stupid formerly monolingual, barely Welsh speaking American scares the daylights out of those who feel like they have forgotten their Welsh.

After a week in Cornwall, it was time to make my way to Hay-on-Wye – the famous little book town with the famously big book festival. Y Gelli (the Welsh name for Hay-on-Wye) must be the place from which the words were penned, “You can’t get there from here.” After being dropped off in Exeter, I went to the train station, and asked how to get to Hay-on-Wye. The man in the train station said, he had no idea, and never heard of it. So, I bought a ticket to Bristol. At Bristol, I asked the lady in the train station how to get to Hay-on-Wye. After asking me to spell the name, she said that I couldn’t get there from Bristol. I had to take a train into Wales and back out again in order to find a bus to Hay. Six hours later, a train from Exter to Bristol, another from Bristol to Newport, a third from Newport to Hereford, and a couple hours waiting for the last bus from Hereford station to Hay-on-Wye and I arrived at the Hay Castle at 10:30pm. A pint of Butty Bach at The Three Tuns later, and I was hunting for a tree to hang my hammock tent in again.

It’s now my third day at the Hay Festival. I am able to experience events for free, because I volunteered as a Steward. I’ve been working shifts watching the door at a Children’s area called the Make and Take tent. I think I might be the only Steward greeting people in Welsh. Yesterday, a mother and her two young girls beamed when I said, “Bore da. Croeso.” Mom then asked her oldest daughter, about six years old, “Do you remember your Welsh from school?” The young girl nodded, and smiled a smile to melt your heart, and then a conversation at my level of Welsh began.

“Wyt ti’n cael hwyl yma?” (Are you having fun here?)

“Ydw. Mae’n hwyl iawn.” (Yes. It is very fun.”)

And this deeply philosophical discussion continued for a few minutes. I am not sure whose world was impacted more: mine, or the little girl who was able to use her Welsh with an American in an English language event on the borders of England and Wales. Okay, that’s not true. I know that my world was impacted far more than hers, for sure.

Hay-on-Wye is the quaintest little book town. It sits on the river Wye on the Welsh/English border, and the Hay Festival is one the most influential literary festivals in the world. It is an example of one more way that Wales punches above its weight in respect to influencing the world. For two weeks every year the sleepy little book town, filled with antiquarian bookshops of every kind, is inundated with nerdy people who love books and attend the Hay Festival just outside town. On most years, a Philosophy Festival called HowTheLightGetsIn occurs at the same time inside the village, and that is typically where you can find me hanging out. This year the Philosophy Festival took a year off, and I jumped over to the book festival.

You my not be able to get here from there, but when you finally arrive, this is one of the most quaint little villages, with two of the most vibrant festivals for nerdy people you will find anywhere.

In about two hours, the winners of a novella competition sponsored by The New Welsh Review and AmeriCymru will be announced. So, I will sign off until next time. Hwyl Fawr from Y Teithiwr Twp.

Malad Valley Welsh Festival

 
Photos: 9

Adult and student poets may submit 1-5 works in any style or format before the June 10 deadline. Please send them to Welsh Festival Poetry Competition, Malad City Hall, 59 Bannock Street, Malad ID 83252.

Presentations this year will also emphasize poetry. Lucie Thomas Washburn’s topic is “The Welsh: Poetry in Their Souls.” John Good will talk about “Songs and Tales of Wales.” John Good, formerly of Oceans Apart, will also perform on the outdoor amphitheater on both days of the Festival.

The Festival will host many opportunities to hear excellent music. The choral concert, youth concert, and the piano duet concert will feature outstanding vocalists and instrumentalists. Celtic musicians will perform toe-tapping traditional music outdoors on the amphitheater.

Welsh castles will be the theme of the displays in the Cultural Hall this year. Pedigree charts and census information about early Malad Valley Welsh pioneers will be displayed. The photography exhibit will feature photos of Wales.

Activities for kids are planned this year, including pioneer games, face painting, bouncy castles, and painting dragons.

The popular wagon tours will take visitors on historic routes around Malad. The Oneida Quilters quilt show and bake sale will be held at the Senior Center. Samaria will also host events, including tours of the town, the Jenkins-Davis cabin, and a Welsh Children’s Farm. Tours will also be conducted of the historic 140-year-old Presbyterian Church.

The Senior Center will sponsor a community cookout on Friday, and the Samaria Community Foundation will sponsor a community breakfast on Saturday. Home craft and food vendors will have booths in City Park throughout the Festival.

The finale event on the Saturday evening of the Festival will be a gymanfa ganu and the “chairing of the bard,” honoring the winner of the adult poetry competition.

The Festival is partially funded by grants from the Idaho Humanities Council, the Idaho Commission on the Arts, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, Southeast Idaho High Country Tourism, Union Pacific Foundation, and donations from businesses and individuals in Malad and elsewhere.

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New Welsh Review, in association with Aberystwyth University and AmeriCymru, announced the winners of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2017: Aberystwyth University Prize for Memoir, and AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella, at a ceremony at the Hay Festival on Thursday 1 June.

The Prizes celebrate the best in both Memoir and Novella from emerging and established writers, and received entries from both new and established writers based in Wales, England and the US. New Welsh Review editor Gwen Davies judged both categories with the help of students from Aberystwyth University. The Novella Prize was co-judged by Welsh-American writer David Lloyd. David is the author of nine books including poetry collections, a novella and novels, and directs the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.

Catherine Haines, a dual English-Australian citizen, won the Memoir Prize, for her account of a young woman’s experience of anorexia while at Oxford University, entitled ‘My Oxford’. Cath Barton, from the English Midlands and now living in Abergavenny, south Wales, won the Novella Prize for her story ‘The Plankton Collector’, a gentle pastiche of an idyllic world populated by archetypes who will help us heal and learn.

Both writers were given cheques for £1,000, as well as e-publication by New Welsh Review on their New Welsh Rarebyte imprint. They will also receive a positive critique by leading literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown

NWR Editor Gwen Davies said ‘In our two winning entries in the novella and memoir categories, chosen from nearly all-woman shortlists (putting our political parties to shame), healing, trauma and the fluidity of memory and experience predominate as themes.

‘On our memoir shortlist were true accounts of bad luck, eating and Cold War paranoia, all taken to extremes. From it triumphed a rigorous, philosophical case for regarding eating disorder as pilgrimage. Our four-minute animation [https://vimeo.com/219528361] of ‘My Oxford’, made by Aberystwyth University graduate Emily Roberts, uses typography to show the to-and-fro of academic discourse and the skull of Yorrick from Hamlet to illustrate Catherine’s experience of how anorexia started turning her into ‘a floating head… devoid of emotion.’

‘On our novella shortlist were dark stories of sexual abuse, grooming and escaping domineering fathers. From it triumphed a beautifully controlled mix of magical realism and nature writing about time, healing, trauma and the fluid, unreliable nature of memory. Our four-minute animation [https://vimeo.com/219525617] of ‘The Plankton Collector’, made by Aberystwyth University graduate Emily Roberts, deploys 1960s-style children’s book illustration to depict a lost natural golden world of childhood and the healing Everyman that Cath’s mysterious Plankton Collector represents.’

Second Place in the Memoir Prize was awarded to Mary Oliver for ‘The Case’, a ‘cross-genre fictionalised memoir’ that is ‘innovative, affecting, with depth of heart and breadth of research’. In the Novella Prize, Second Place was awarded to Olivia Gwyne for her story ‘The Seal’, a tale of ‘complex, nuanced characterizations and a narrative that expertly builds tension and suspense’. Mary and Olivia will both receive a weeklong residential course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre in Gwynedd, north Wales

Third Place in the Memoir Prize was awarded to Adam Somerset for ‘People, Places, Things: A Life With The Cold War’, a memoir that ‘paints a sweeping landscape of the Eastern Bloc as experienced through the eyes of a British backpacker.’ Nicola Daly was awarded Third Place in the Novella Prize, for her ‘innovative style and the masterfully-created, surreal world’ in her novella ‘The Night Where You No Longer Live’. Both Adam and Nicola win a weekend stay at Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire, north Wales.

All twelve nominees will be published in extract form in upcoming editions of New Welsh Reader; all six shortlisted writers will also receive a one-year subscription to the magazine.

New Welsh Review also reminded those present of the winners of their New Welsh Readers' Poll 2017: Best Memoir & Novella, originally announced in spring. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Vintage Books) is the winner of the Best Memoir category and received 50% of the vote. Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (Faber) is the winner of the Best Novella category with 55% of the vote. Congratulations to Marjane Satrapi and Max Porter.

http://www.newwelshwritingawards.com/ #newwelshawards

The 2017 New Welsh Writing Awards are sponsored by Aberystwyth University, the core sponsor and host of New Welsh Review, and US online magazine and social network AmeriCymru. The Awards are run in partnership with Curtis Brown, Gladstone’s Library and Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre.

For images, more details on the Prizes, Readers’ Poll and for interview requests please contact Jamie Harris on marketing@newwelshreview.com or 07812 804505. Please note that Catherine Haines is currently in Hong Kong but is available via email and video.

FISRT PLACE MEMOIR

CATHERINE HAINES (CHARING, KENT), ‘My Oxford’

A young woman’s experience of anorexia while at Oxford University enriches a lively account of student life with literary, philosophical and existential questions. As the Cambridge Weight Plan spins out of control, a post-grad’s academic subject, ‘the mind-body problem’, goes through an existential phase to become ‘extraordinary morality’ rather than a mental health problem. Catherine Haines developed anorexia and underwent religious conversion while facing extreme academic pressure at Oxford University. She wrote it in tribute to a male friend who died from the condition, to explore her own experiences deeply and as self-vindication against friends’ harsh judgement of her in the light of her work at the time as a model. She feels that eating disorders may be regarded as a ‘pilgrimage’ rather than being a ‘media-inspired dysfunction’. ‘My Oxford’ augments a cool, detached style in order to emphasise the rigour of the author’s academic training and the physical process of anorexia which made her ‘something of a floating head… devoid of emotion’. This is a rigorous, perceptive, original and truly felt piece of writing from a very fine mind.

Catherine Haines is a dual English-Australian citizen. She studied Philosophy at the Australian National University and took her Masters Degree in English at the University of Oxford. Catherine currently lives in Hong Kong, and will shortly begin a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham. Her work has been published in Needle in the Hay, Cherwell and Woroni. Her debut novel, The Wicked and the Fair, is currently being circulated.

SECOND PLACE MEMOIR

MARY OLIVER (NEWLYN, CORNWALL), ‘The Case’

Jim, an emigrant from England to Canada, awaits release from a progressive mental hospital and reconciliation with his baby daughter. He is in turns hopeful migrant, stowaway, farmer, thief, hobo, rough poet and ever-loving brother. This story approaches its subject prismatically through different documentary sources, and is based on an historical character. Innovative, affecting, with depth of heart and breadth of research, this cross-genre fictionalised memoir, about ‘one man’s bad luck’ and what his life shows about society, rewards re-reading.

Mary [MJ] Oliver was born in Clun, Shropshire and since then has lived mainly in Scotland and Cornwall. Having gained a BA and an MA in Fine Art from Reading and Falmouth Universities, she exhibited paintings and installations across the UK. Her work was collected by Carmen Callil and some were reproduced as book covers by Virago. To supplement income, she also taught for many years; from facilitating Art Workshops in Barlinnie Jail, Glasgow, to lecturing in Fine Art at Falmouth University. Mary has been writing full time since 2014 and has had a number of prize nominations for her work.

THIRD PLACE MEMOIR

ADAM SOMERSET (ABERAERON), ‘People, Places, Things: A Life with the Cold War’

This memoir paints a sweeping landscape of the Eastern Bloc as experienced through the eyes of a British backpacker. The account is coloured with frequent references to the historical hinterland and details of the author's encounters with the inhabitants of the world beyond the Iron Curtain - all these elements coming together to provide the reader with an immersion into the ‘culture of apocalypse’.

Adam Somerset has lived in Ceredigion for 23 years. His first piece of writing was a play Quay Pursuits produced at the Questors Theatre in Ealing. He wrote an article on national theatre in 2007 for Planet magazine. In the same year he began to write for Theatre Wales, a review site based in Aberystwyth. He is the author of 600 commentary articles and reviews of theatre books and productions. He has written 100 reviews and articles on art, photography, history and television for Wales Arts Review. His reviews of books on politics have featured on the website of the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

FIRST PLACE NOVELLA

CATH BARTON, ‘The Plankton Collector’

“Look,” the narrator directs the reader at the start of this beautifully-written novella. “We are approaching a country house, somewhere in the middle of England.” And with this narrator’s guidance, we enter the house, and enter the lives of its inhabitants - who are ordinary and, it turns out, quite extraordinary. Through an assured combination of magical realism and traditional realism, this story tells of the mysterious Plankton Collector, whose intercessions help members of an apparently conventional family come to terms with debilitating traumas: infidelity, isolation, a closeted gay husband, the death of kin. It is a wise tale of vulnerability, healing, and love. Ultimately, memory and trauma work in tandem, and the power of imagination triumphs. The elegant and finely-tuned prose made “The Plankton Collector” rise to the top of our short-list.

Cath Barton was born in the English Midlands and now lives in Abergavenny, south Wales. Her short stories have been published in anthologies in Australia, the US and the UK, and her flash fiction has appeared on-line in Fictive Dream, Firefly Magazine and Long Exposure, amongst other places. Cath was Literature Editor of California-based Celtic Family Magazine (2013-2016) and is a regular contributor to Wales Arts Review.

SECOND PLACE NOVELLA

OLIVIA GWYNE, ‘The Seal’

This is a story of unequal power, and the grooming of an eleven-year-old girl by a nineteen-year-old male. He spots the source of her vulnerability in her crazy religious Nana and her fearful mother. Strong beach and caravan-site settings coupled with the cat-and-mouse story make compelling reading. ‘The Seal’ is short-listed in second place because of the complex, nuanced characterizations and a narrative that expertly builds tension and suspense.

Olivia Gwyne, originally from Hereford, is now based in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2015 her pamphlet of short stories, The Kittens’ Wedding, was published by Womach Press, and the same year she won the SASH Writing Prize. Olivia has also been shortlisted for the Wells Short Story Competition, the Home Start Short Story Prize and the Horror Scribes Flash Fiction Ghost Story Competition. Her work was recently featured in Halo Literary Magazine. She holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Newcastle University.

THIRD PLACE NOVELLA

NICOLA DALY, ‘The Night Where You No Longer Live’

A first person, dark European fairytale about abuse, cross-dressing and the main character Claudette’s desperate attempts to escape a cruel, deceased father’s shadow and a living brother’s evil intent. Unusual, unsettling language animates each page, as does Claudette’s immediate voice. The novella’s dense texture is further enriched with references to modern Paris as well as Baudelaire and Sartre. This novella is our third place choice because of the innovative style and the masterfully-created, surreal world.

Nicola Daly was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire in 1974. However for most of her life she has lived in Chester. Her short stories, non- fiction work and poetry has been widely published by a variety of publications such as Honno Women’s Press, The North West Arts Council Anthologies, Myslexia, Rialto, and many more.

New Welsh Review was founded in 1988 as the successor to The Welsh Review (1939- 1948), Dock Leaves and The Anglo-Welsh Review (1949-1987) and is Wales’s foremost literary magazine in English, offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate, and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture. New Welsh Review Ltd is supported through core funding by the Welsh Books Council and hosted by Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative Writing. The magazine’s creative content was rebranded as New Welsh Reader in 2015, with reviews moving entirely online. New Welsh Review can be bought by Direct Debit on subscription at £16.99, UK only (£20.99 for all other subscription types, UK) via www.newwelshreview.com. New Welsh Review Ltd, PO Box 170, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 1WZ, Tel: 01970 628410, Email: admin@newwelshreview.com

Sarah Woodbury "With two historian parents, Sarah couldn’t help but develop an interest in the past. She went on to get more than enough education herself (in anthropology) and began writing fiction when the stories in her head overflowed and demanded she let them out. Her interest in Wales stems from her own ancestry and the year she lived in Wales when she fell in love with the country, language, and people. She even convinced her husband to give all four of their children Welsh names."... more Sarah spoke to AmeriCymru recently about her writing, King Arthur and the location of Camelot.

Sarah: I've always been interested in my personal Welsh history. My ancestors left Wales in the early 1600s for Massachusetts. Their lives and the family they left behind in Wales were a focus of my research beginning in the late 1990s. I began writing historical fiction set in Wales five years ago when my children reached their teenage years. I wanted to write books for them to read that were accessible and fun, but gave them something concrete about their heritage to hang on to.

AmeriCymru: In your 'After Cilmeri' series you combine historical fiction with time travel. Care to tell us how this combination occurred to you?

Sarah: It's really very simple: I have always hated that Llywelyn ap Gruffydd died the way he did. Even at the time, it was said that if he'd held on for just a few more days, all of Wales would have flocked to his banner. Who's to say? Perhaps he would have defeated King Edward, who was being pushed to the wall by his English barons (who cared not at all for Wales and thought it a drain on the exchequer) and his creditors. Certain moments in history have repercussions far beyond the events of the time, and the death of Llywelyn is one of those moments. Seven hundred years under the English boot followed. I could have written a straight historical fiction in which Llywelyn died--but where's the fun in that? History changing time travel seemed to provide the answer.

AmeriCymru: Three of your books concern the reign of 'King Arthur' and its aftermath in Welsh history. Care to tell us a little more about them?

Sarah: Historically speaking, King Arthur (if he existed at all--still subject to debate), was Welsh. The historical sources for King Arthur begin with the Y Goddodin—a Welsh poem by the 7th century poet, Aneirin, with it’s passing mention of Arthur. The author refers to the battle of Catraeth, fought around AD 600 and describes a warrior who “fed black ravens on the ramparts of a fortress, though he was no Arthur”. This reference is followed in time by the writings of Taliesin, Nennius, and the tales of the Mabinogi, all written before Geoffrey of Monmouth popularized Arthur in his book dating to the middle of the 12th century. (more on my blog: Historical Sources for King Arthur

Thus, if King Arthur was a real person, he was resolutely Welsh, in which case, he reigned at a crucial time in Welsh history. This story is not the same one that is often told in popular fiction. I wanted to tell the story of the real Arthur, and try to capture what life might have been like in that era. Cold My Heart is set in the time of Arthur himself. The Last Pendragon and The Pendragon's Quest follow Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon who lived in the 7th century. These latter two books are steeped in the pagan and Christian worlds that permeated Dark Age Wales.

AmeriCymru: Many locations have been advanced for the location of King Arthur's Camelot:- Cadbury Castle, Caerleon, Wroxeter and Stirling Castle to name but a few. Where do you think Camelot was located?

Sarah: Geoffrey of Monmouth places Arthur at Caerleon (the Roman fort, Isca) on the River Usk in Wales. Who knows how accurate this assessment is, but at least it's in Wales. Camelot proper is first mentioned in the romance, Lancelot, written by the French poet Chretien de Troyes between 1170 and 1185. He made it up. I placed my King Arthur in Gwynedd at Garth Celyn (Aber), a long-time seat of the the northern kings. Other choices for 'Camelot' could be Aberffraw, Deganwy, or Dinas Bran. As a side note, Dinas Bran is purportedly where Joseph of Arimathea left the Holy Grail.

AmeriCymru: In 'The Good Knight' we are treated to a medieval mystery in the tradition of the late great Ellis Peters. Is this the first of many? And if so will Gareth and Gwen be appearing in future episodes?

Sarah: Most definitely! I am writing the next mystery as we speak for publication in 2012 and hope to continue with many more installments in the years ahead.

AmeriCymru: What title/titles would you recommend to readers wanting to acquire a background knowledge of medieval Welsh history?

Sarah: For historical fiction set in medieval Wales, Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh trilogy (ending with The Reckoning and the story of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd) are required reading. Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books are wonderful; most are not set in Wales but Cadfael is Welsh. She also wrote (as Edith Pargeter) the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet, recounting the story of the life of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. On my bookshelf is also J. Beverly Smith's monumental work, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, (publlication date, 1998).

AmeriCymru: What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?

Sarah: I have just finished the last of Anna Elliott's trilogy of Tristan and Isolde, Sunrise of Avalon. It is wonderful. She follows the more Norman/French tradition, in terms of location and mythology of Arthur, but sets parts of her books in Wales too.

AmeriCymru: Where can readers go to purchase your works online?

Sarah: Everywhere! My books are available in both ebook and paper format at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Sarah Woodbury?

Sarah: I'm writing the next Gareth and Gwen mystery as part of National Novel Writing Month (starting November 1). It is going to be great fun. I'm also well into the third book in the After Cilmeri series (called Crossroads in Time), which follows the adventures of Anna and David, two teenagers transported in time back to the medieval kingdom of Wales.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Sarah: In May of 2012, my husband and I are traveling to Wales for two weeks. It's been too long since I've visited and he has never been. If anyone has a place they think I need to visit, email me (dr.sarahwoodbury @ gmail.com) and let me know! I love hearing from people who've read my books and look forward to connecting with other people of Welsh descent. Diolch yn fawr!

AmeriCymru: Diolch Sarah!

Interview by Ceri Shaw Ceri Shaw on Google+

Brexit and Donald Trump have inspired a Dan Brown-esque thriller set at the heart of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Inspired by political upheavals over the past year, author Ifan Morgan Jones asks what would happen in a Donald Trump or Nigel Farage-esque figure lead a populist government at the Welsh Assembly.

Dadeni by south Wales-based author Ifan Morgan Jones is published this week by Y Lolfa. This is his third novel.

‘I’m not sure Welsh literature has really responded to devolution,’ said Ifan, ‘I wanted o change that by writing a political thriller based around Cardiff Bay.’

The novel concerns an archeologist Bleddyn Cadwaladr, and his son Joni Teifi, who ar called in by the Welsh Government to investigate after a theft goes awry.

What they find at the scene of the crime propells them into a race against time to stop a political coup that could change the fate of the country.

Ifan Morgan Jones won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for his first novel, Igam Ogam , in 2008. He published his second novel, Yr Argraff Gyntaf , in 2010.

He said that Dadeni also draws upon his ten years working as a journalist covering Welsh Politics.

‘I originally wrote the novel in 2015, but so much happened politically over the last year or so that I felt that I had to re-write parts of it in order to take the new political climate into account,’ explained Ifan.

‘The novel asks where the boundary lies between the kind of nationalism that is acceptable to us in Wales and the nationalism espused by Nigel Farage and Donald Trump’ he said ‘Is it acceptable to use tactics that take advantage of the masses’ emotional, irrational nature in order to ensure constitutional change for utilitarian and rational reasons?’

Dadeni by Ifan Morgan Jones (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

Dare we dream of independence for our country? Have we the courage to go it alone? King Arthur has not been resurrected. Neither has Owain Glyndwr. We are tired of waiting for Y Mab Darogan, the Son of Prophecy, first predicted many years ago as the saviour of our country in its hour of need. It’s time to realise in fact that we are all the Children of Prophecy and that we need to dare to wake up to our own potential. Confidence is a requisite ingredient to a successful life. Wales has endured over seven centuries of being governed by another country and hamstrung by an inferiority complex which still weighs us down at key times. Following on from the establishment of the devolved Welsh Government in 1999, we must now learn the assuredness of nation builders and the statesmanship of just governance.

The current political situation in Britain forces us to ask why we would actually want to still be associated with this shambles. Article 50 has been triggered and we face almost two more years of wranglings, bitterness and deceit as a grudging member of the European Union.

This presents yet more possibility for the atmosphere to become ever more heated, for the United Kingdom to become even more Disunited. I believe the present state of affairs affords a renewed and urgent opportunity for distinct countries within the Union to plan to begin the walk away from it.

Of course, at the time of writing, nothing is certain about Brexit but the signs are that we are in the process of returning to a time when tolerance and understanding of people who appeared to be different in some way were in short supply. The racism that has always lurked in the background is at large, emboldened by the scaremongering of the conniving amateur operators of UKIP and their sleeping partners. Added to disability hate crime that is encouraged by Government austerity measures, it will help to turn a post-Brexit U.K. into a kind of scruffy, backward, civil warring, bigoted, frontier fiefdom. Let us not forget that an M.P. who appeared to be a decent human being was assassinated by a right wing thug inspired by the pernicious propaganda of Brexiteers. I for one do not wish to live in a country which is a breeding ground for such hatred and lack of culture. “Taking back control” has a number of applications and the U.K. does not enjoy exclusive rights to acts of leaving.

The neurosis of no longer having an overseas empire creates in some citizens a kind of nostalgia for lording it over people they consider inferior, a readiness for violent action and an unwarranted feeling of supremacy. The British Empire still exists-just ask the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish. It’s time to finally dismantle it.

Do we want to be dependent on what is effectively a 4th rate funding mechanism? The batting order of wealth distribution is England (mainly London and the Home Counties), then Scotland, followed by Northern Ireland with us at the bottom of the barrel while England is fast becoming a de facto adjunct as London’s corrupt financial centre dominates the rest of that country. It is not unlikely for the North of England (“ the Northern Powerhouse”), Cornwall and other areas far from the capital to also harbour notions of breaking free from the rest of the U.K.

Independence would allow the Welsh to scrutinise anew the democratic process which has become compromised and almost meaningless in much of the Western world thanks to cynical lobbyists, the psychological warfare and algorithms of companies like Cambridge Analytica and the bias of the media. Additionally, learning from recent money manoeuvres that caused misery to millions of people, any newly created state would benefit from a robust set of financial standards from the outset.

The Scots are interested in attaining independence and one of the arguments the doubters throw in their faces is that they can’t afford it now that North Sea oil revenues are in decline.

They will of course raise similar or even greater objections to the idea of a working, financially fluid, independent Wales. The Bank of England abandoned the Gold Standard in 1931 and governments don’t run the economy in the same way we finance our lives. They rely on a never-ending series of IOUs and they print money. We could do that especially with our own currency. Please see an attached link to tax expert Richard Murphy’s website which gives further information on how British finances actually operate

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2017/05/04/how-are- you-going- to-pay- for-it/

We could also sue the British Government for reparations for coal and other materials taken from our land, for the territory occupied by military bases and the unallocated money and interest from public donations following mining disasters. The fiscal policies of the Tory Government mean that we exist in a decade with the lowest growth in wages in 200 years, with fat cats at one end and the gig economy at the other. We could do better.

Iceland has a population of 333,980 and Luxembourg 583,995 while Wales has around 3.16 million people within its borders, many times more than these tiny, autonomous states.

The Royal Family would have to cease to have any connection or rights to Wales. The non-Welsh Prince of Wales, an imposition of ancient conquest, would be no more. The aristocracy would be dissolved in an attempt to create an egalitarian state. We don’t need them. We never did. Change happens. This time we have to ensure that we are driving it, not having it imposed upon us as we are so used to.

The terrain of Wales is mostly mountainous and lends itself towards being protected by a compact and mobile self-defence force armed with conventional weaponry supported by morally instructed alliances. There are already a number of military bases we could take over and our deep water harbours are valuable assets.

An independent Wales would not need, in my opinion, to be called “Wales” for this is not how we described ourselves in our formative years but rather the suspicious name conferred on us by our Saxon enemies (Old English wealh:foreigner, stranger or slave). Cymru Newydd would be a hopeful, positive title for a forward-looking, tolerant, multi-racial, multi-lingual, creative and free space: a modern, productive and prosperous new country. I look forward to meeting you there some day...