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Pritchards Nose , the debut novel of Sam Adams, tells the tale of a man who lost his nose in strange circumstances.

Intrigued by the mysterious legend of the man with a hole where his nose should be, Martin, a literary researcher, goes on the trail of a long-lost manuscript belonging to Thomas Prichard, the 19th century author of the tales of the Welsh highwayman, Twm Sion Cati . Woven into this literary detective story is the fictional autobiography of Prichard himself, following him from his childhood in rural Wales, along the drovers' road to London and a career on the stage. The novel ends with the puzzle of how Prichard ended his days down and out in Swansea and without his nose.

In this revealing story, Sam Adamss nose for the Welsh past is combined with his poets eye to bring the nineteenth century alive to all our senses.

Sam Adams said, This is a book that had to be written in order to satisfy an obsession with Prichard that has extended over thirty years. What I knew of Prichard when I began looking into his life was that he had written a novel called Twm Shn Catti about a remarkable, eccentric character well remembered still, especially in Tregaron, his home patch, who in real life, as Thomas Jones Esq., 400 years ago, had been a poet, antiquary and genealogist, but in legend became famous as a merry rogue who, by disguise, mimicry, trickery and wit, and no little courage, overcame his enemies and won at last the hand of a grand lady.

The little we know for certain of the history of Prichard himself is almost as strange and fascinating as that of Twm Shn Catti, and I have not been able to let go of it. Prichards Nose is an attempt to fill in all those gaps in his life that research could not bridge. Why was his childhood spent in a remote farm high on the mountain above Sennybridge? How did he find his way to London as a boy? Why did he hate the Reverend Benjamin Jones of Builth? Why did he choose Jeffery Llewelyn as a pen name? How did he become an actor? And how did he lose his nose?

Sam Adams comes from Gilfach Goch, Glamorgan and is a former editor of Poetry Wales and a former chairman of the English-language section of Yr Academi Gymreig. He edited the Collected Poems and Collected Stories of Roland Mathias, is the author of three monographs in the Writers of Wales series and is a frequent contributor of poems, criticism and essays to a number of magazines. He published his third collection of poems, Missed Chances in 2007.

Pritchards Nose (9.95) will be published by Y Lolfa on the 16 March 2010

We were pleased to receive the following communication from Paul Durden today ( reproduced below ). We believe he has a point! St. David's Day is a fitting occasion to remember the Welsh 'working class' heroes who suffered and in some cases died, fighting for social justice. Paul is sponsoring a petition to move the grave of Dic Penderyn to his home town of Merthyr Tydfil. Richard Lewis ( a.k.a Dic Penderyn ) was almost certainly the victim of a judicial murder by the English government for his part in the 'Merthyr Riots' of 1831. You can read more about him here and here . Paul Durden feels that his grave should be moved back to Merthyr Tydfil, "the town that loved him" . If you agree please sign the petition below:-

" Hi ya all over the pond, I went along to lay some flowers at the grave of Dic Penderyn last Monday afternoon (St Davids day) The church was closed, and there had not been anybody else there. So much for the Welsh patriots. I also lit a candle and some nice vanilla incense. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Paul Durden.

P.S. I also dragged a film crew along with me, and I fired of a 21gun salute. Oh what fun we had. I think my next move is to get someform of petition together to have his body exhumed and re buried in Merthyr Tydfil, the town that loved him. This is the link for the petition. Please feel free to spread it about, if you get my drift."

( Reproduced with permission )

Television producer and director Richard Lewis, whose autobiography Out of the Valley is published by Y Lolfa this week, cares little for the seamingly endless reality TV and soap opera offerings laid before television audiences these days. This self-proclaimed media man indeed watches very little television and his written reminiscences of a golden age in broadcasting give us clues as to why.

With the Welsh television industry lurching from one crisis cut-back to another, Richard Lewis recollections are a timely reminder of an era long since gone, when the pioneering spirit spawned initiative, idealism and enterprise, with results which were obvious in the quality of programming on our television screens.

But this is a man who is now rather disillusioned with the television industry. He says, I occasionally watch television, carefully pre-selected and, preferably, pre-recorded. I have come to the conclusion that television is very much a creature of its time and even the best archives tend to lie forgotten in dusty vaults.

Richard Lewis, who was born in Ton Pentre, Rhondda trained with the BBC and in his book, he takes us on his and the BBCs journey of discovery in Wales during the 1960s and beyond, and through to the day in November 1988 when he walked out of the BBC as its Head of General Programmes after nearly 30 years of service. Amongst his many achievements at the Beeb were UK Network productions such as Dylan , Nye , The Extremist , Babylon Bypassed and The Fasting Girl . After then joining an independent television company, he oversaw the production of classic drama series such as Y Palmant Aur , Halen yn y Gwaed and the BAFTA award winning Nel on S4C.

Now retired, Richard Lewis shares his time between Llandaff and the South of France. His autobiography Out of the Valley will be published on the 11 ^th of March 2010 by Y Lolfa, priced at 8.95.

Gaynor Madoc Leonards first novel, 'The Carmarthen Underground' was recently published by Y Lolfa. On this page we are pleased to present both a review of the book and a short interview with the author.

Review of 'The Carmarthen Underground'

Gaynor Madoc Leonards first novel is an entertaining and occasionally thought provoking spy-thriller set in an alternate Carmarthen after the 'Battle for Wales' has secured Welsh Independence. Although we are told little about that historic struggle it is evident that Wales' security is still under threat 43 years after the event. The action is largely set in Carmarthen and Myddfai although there are international ramifications and rumblings are heard as far away as Eastern Europe as the perfidious Anglo Saxon plot to undermine the Welsh body politic unravels. The 'unravelling' is effected by agents of Carmarthen Intelligence and the WBI ( Welsh Bureau of Investigation ) with occasional help from WARF (Welsh Assault & Rescue Force ).The labyrinthine plot unfolds over 288 pages steering the reader on a roller coaster ride of conspiracy and intrigue.

The whole affair ends with a spectacular international embarassment for the English parliament which is described in the following terms:-

'The President of the United States and his aides were watching the proceedings from the White House with amazement; in Paris, the French President sat on his wife's knee nuzzling her neck and giggling wildly at the antics of Les Rosbifs. In Rome, the Italian President ( actually there were two that day but the first one had got back into power by the end of the TV broadcast ) threw up his hands and declared a holiday so that everyone could have a laugh at the British Prime Minister.'

There are many humorous touches scatered throughout the book. Special agent Wyndham contacts HQ on his 'Blackcurrant' mobile phone. There is a thriving green tea plantation in Beddgelert and we discover that much of south west Wales is criss-crossed by a secret underground railway network the existence of which is known only to agents of the WBI.

The book is a must for all Cymruphiles with a taste for the whimsical and bizarre.

An Interview With Gaynor Madoc Leonard

Americymru: What is the significance of the title? Why Carmarthen?

Gaynor: I had a plan to go to Cork in Ireland and I thought it might be fun (and polite) to try and learn a few words of Erse. I came across a book (also published by Y Lolfa) called The Pan Celtic Phrasebook. As I was flicking through it, I came across the Welsh section where there was a phrase "Is there an underground train in Carmarthen?". This struck me as very funny and a friend said it would make a good book title. Some time later, still not having made it to Cork, I sat down at my PC and started typing. I knew I had to have a first line or paragraph that would hold people's attention, but, at that point, I had really no idea of what the story would be.

Americymru: How would you describe the book to a potential reader?

Gaynor: It's a light-hearted (and warm-hearted) mystery or thriller with, I hope, the potential to amuse, divert and inform to some degree. Beneath the humour, there lies a message that Wales is a separate nation with a rich history and we should not be ignored.

Americymru: The book is set in an alternative universe and talks about The Battle for Wales in its pages. Do you have any plans to write about that in future novels?

Gaynor: There will be certainly be more about The Battle for Wales in the sequel (which answers another of your questions!). I have a sequel more or less completed and a third novel is well under way. In the second book, I shall be elaborating on the Battle and its effect on Rhian Jenkins and her late husband, Meirion Jenkins. I want readers to understand that while The Battle for Wales is fictional, the fight for recognition of Wales's language and culture has been very real for a very long time. Yes, it is an alternative Wales, an alternative Carmarthen, but all the towns and villages mentioned in the book(s) are real and so are the problems that the Welsh have been dealing with for some 1500 years and even before that, during the Roman occupation.

Americymru: Which writers influence you? Who do you read for pleasure?

Gaynor: My favourite writers are probably Graham Greene, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Gaskell and E M Delafield. If I could write even fractionally as well as they did, I would be very happy indeed. It's really only in the past 3 years or so that I've started reading the thriller or mystery genre. I started with Chandler and, rummaging in secondhand bookstores, found contemporary writers like Lindsey Davis, whose Falco stories set in Vespasian's Rome are enormous fun. I've also discovered Donna Leon and Barbara Nadel, whose books (respectively) are set in Venice and Istanbul and very well-written. And I've become addicted to Alexander McCall Smith, particularly his Scotland Street and Isabel Dalhousie series. There's also a wonderful little publishing house here in London, called Persephone Books, which has some marvellous titles.

I think that if I were to suggest a book or books which would fire the imagination about Wales and its history, I would point people toward Mary Stewart's wonderful Merlin trilogy. I've had these books on my shelf since childhood. In the non-fiction department, Jan Morris would be a good person to read and Terry Jones (historian and former Python) did a very good TV series with an accompanying book called "Barbarians".

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

Gaynor: I would like to thank those people who so kindly sent messages to me when I first joined your site. I'm still getting to grips with it! And I would like to thank you for your interest in my book.

I have scores of relatives in the USA (on my mother's side), many of whom had no idea of their Welsh heritage until fairly recently. In 1999, a large group came over to Wales and several of them are now building family trees.

I don't pretend that my light-hearted little book can make much of a difference to Wales's place in the world but, obviously, the more people who read about Wales and understand that it's a place with its own identity, the better.

Interview by Ceri Shaw Email