Blogs
Currently doing a few blogs on Welsh church leaders who also worked with churches in New England in the mid 17th century.
Here is one of them, about the Baptist leader John Miles who started the first Baptist church in Wales before fleeing to New England and starting churches in Massachusetts:
http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-miles-and-welsh-pilgrim-fathers.html
In spite of its title, which alludes to the true story from Japan upon which it is based, this film is shot entirely in Wales. The Preselis in Pembrokeshire, the Lleyn peninsular and the environs of Newcastle Emlyn in Carmarthenshire are all featured.
Details can be found at
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/tatsuko-652
Please share this information on your social networking sites; there are a lot of unique pieces of artwork available in exchange for pledges -and the opportunity to see your name, or that of your business on the film's credit roll.
http://tatsukoproj.blogspot.com/2012/03/crowdfunding-tatsuko.html
Many thanks 
Ellis is in for the shock of his life
Just Imagine published by Pont Books is award-winning author Paul Manships fourth novel for children, and follows the adventures of Ellis and best friend, Jay .
Much to the irritation of his teachers, science-mad Ellis isnt a fan of fantasies, stories and poetry he likes facts. But when world-class storyteller Daniel Morden comes to school, everything changes in Elliss world. Drawn in by Daniels magic, he finds himself in the fantasy world of Phantasmagoria which is quite unlike anything Ellis has ever experienced in school! Dragons and dwarves are the least of his problems, however, as he gears up to face the most daunting task of all, his final quest to a mountain-top castle, home of the all-powerful Originator. In the course of his adventures Ellis learns the value of the imagination and the power of a love which can survive any challenge . Theres one more twist at the very end when fact and fiction merge to create the best conclusion Ellis can possibly imagine...
As a primary school teacher himself, Paul Manship credits his experiences in the classroom as inspiration for much of his work. Paul lives with his wife and three daughters in Rhiwderin near Newport. His previous three novels have been very well received. His debut Rewind was short listed for the Glen Dimplex Children's Book Award 2006, and his second The Cube was selected for the 2008 School Library Associations Boys into Books Initiative. In 2010 Dear Mr Author won the Welsh Books Councils Tir na n-Og Award for the best English Language Book of the Year.
Just Imagine is available to buy from all good bookshops and online retailers.
For more information please visit www.pontbooks.co.uk
The big BBC Wales TV series (made with the cooperation of the OU, Uncle Tom Cobbley et al) has shown two programmes out of the six so far -- and it's proving to be a grave disappointment. The BBC calls it one of the most ambitious series ever produced in Wales. Hmmm. It's full of technical wizardry -- history and archaeology programmes these days clearly have to have computer generated reconstructions of absolutely everything, so as Huw Edwards paddles around in a little rowing boat on Llangorse Lake, a leafy island is miraculously transformed into a busy crannog. You know the sort of thing.....
I think this series is closely modelled on a series last year about the History of Scotland (wasn't the OU also involved, and wasn't Neil Oliver the front man on that one?) Well, this is very much in the Neil Oliver mould -- but this time there's far too much Huw Edwards and far too little of everything else, as Huw struts manfully on top of beetling cliffs, wanders across mountainsides and through verdant pastures, holding forth about this and that. You know the sort of thing...... the trouble is that it's all very shallow and actually rather boring, and I'm beginning to long for just a little humour -- and maybe even a little scepticism and discussion of some issues where there may actually be a little disagreement. Come back, Neil -- all is forgiven!! The commentary (who wrote it, I wonder?) is so terribly sincere and EARNEST.........
There are so many pious platitudes and portentious pronouncements that I am already tearing my hair out, just after two episodes. You know the sort of thing: "This was now the beginning of the end for the world as they knew it....." -- "Nothing would ever be the same again...." -- "For the first time in the history of Wales, something new had happened...." -- "and so the ancient order was swept away..." -- "the old world was disappearing, to be replaced by the new..." --- "This great new leader stirred the soul of the nation as never before..." and so on, and so on, ad infinitum. Seldom can so many cliches have been fitted into a single hour of TV time. I'm actually quite impressed -- is there a BAFTA for cliche density?
No expense has been spared in this series. Every now and then, so that we can get a few seconds without Huw on the screen, there are a few flashing images of hairy fellows dressed up as warriors, or monks, or priests, or Roman legionnaires, with mighty sounds of battle, flames, screams, and flashing weapons. I'm sure I've seen the same faces twenty times already in different guises ..... by the end of the series we'll all be very familiar with them. The other technique is to have some sturdy fellow (they all seem to be men) in fancy dress gazing manfully into the camera lens as it zooms in on him........ It might be Hywel Dda, or Llewelyn the Great, or Owain Glyndwr..... but these fellows do look very fierce and very imposing. Sometimes they look pensive, or even enigmatic, with furrowed brows and a grim set to the jaw. Did any of them ever smile, I wonder, when they were alive?
Lighten up, chaps! History should be fun!!
Seren News - March 2012
Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus / Happy Saint David's Day
Good News
 | Congratulations Robert Minhinnick! Robert Minhinnick is one of twenty authors long-listed for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2012. 'El Aziz: some pages from his notebooks' is the long-listed story from his new collection The Keys of Babylon. The 2012 list includes Diana Athill, Lionel Shriver, Emma Donoghue and Will Cohu. The shortlist will be announced on the 4th March, with each shortlisted author receiving a 1,000 prize. The winner will be announced on the 30th March. |
With The Keys of Babylon being long-listed for the Sunday Times Short Story award, we are celebrating short story collections this month. Over the past few years we have published some fantastic short story collections by prize-winning authors.
Touch by Graham Mort (Winner of the Edge Hill University Short Story Prize 2011 including the Bridport Prize winning story The Prince). The Great Master of Ecstasy by Glenda Began, Pumping up Napoleon by Maria Donovan, spooky anthology Sing Sorrow Sorrow edited by Gwen Davies and My First Colouring Book by award winning author Lloyd Jones.
International Women's Day
To celebrate International Women's Day on 8th March 2012, we are offering you 10 titles published by Seren women writers for 5 each. Click here and get some fantastic books at a great price.
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If you are feeling the Rugby Fever and have been enjoying watching Wales, you might be interested in a fantatsic book of images from Wales' Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand. The images capture some of Wales' highs and lows and illustrate why the Wales' Rugby team were one of the most talked about teams during the World Cup. Heads Held High is 16.99 or only 13.59 if you join Seren's free online bookclub. |  |
First Poetry Collection of 2012 available now paperback and ebook
 | Regeneration by Meirion Jordan Regeneration is Welsh poet Meirion Jordans take on the medieval manuscripts known today as Llyfr Coch Hergest and Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (the Red Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch ). This collection is not a reinterpretation but a re-imagining, inspired by the source material that include the stories of the Mabinogi (first made famous by the Victorian translations of Lady Charlotte Guest) as well as by Mallorys version of King Arthurs tales. In Red Book we meet characters drawn from the eleven stories of the Mabinogi, like Arawn, lord of Annwn; Rhiannons gossips and Blodeuedd (the woman made of flowers). White Book, gives us a cast of kings, queens, knights and companions of the round table. This long poem treats themes of love, betrayal, friendship, kinship, and the vexed question of leadership, in poems that revolve around the contentious figure of King Arthur. ISBN: 9781854115553 |
Forthcoming Titles
 | T he Gospel of Us by Owen Sheers This novella by Owen Sheers retells the Passion, based on the authors groundbreaking National Theatre of Wales play starring Michael Sheen and performed over three days in Port Talbot Last Easter. While the town awaits the arrival of the Company Man, a stranger appears in the windswept dunes, singing songs to the sea. This is just the start of three days of unearthly events in Port Talbot that see the Teacher soothe a suicide bomber and the dead rising from the walls of an underpass. In T he Gospel of Us , Owen Sheers reimagines his three day dramatization of the Passion for the National Theatre of Wales, set in the streets and clubs of Port Talbot. The Gospel of Us is also a major motion picture, starring Michael Sheen. It will be screening at cinemas and arts centres throughout England and Wales during April and May. Click here for the premiere and all other listings. "Owen is one of the finest writers at work today. He always finds the sublime in the everyday and the miracle in the mundane." Michael Sheen, Actor Publication: April 2012 ISBN:9781854116222 Paperback: 8.99
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 | The Book of Idiots by Christopher Meredith In The Book of Idiots , tipsy, sick Wil Daniel tells the narrator, Dean, a tale that may be a ghost story or a romance, a farce or a tragedy. Meanwhile we get glimpses of Deans own half-lived life, and those of friends and colleagues. These threads develop into a dark, offbeat and merciless examination of maleness and mortality. Can Clive regain the triumphs he achieved at the age of nine? Will Jeff stop his swimming trunks from dissolving? Outstanding in its use of dialogue to reveal character, this superbly written novel develops into a meditation on kinds of suffering that are no less acute for being routine. You will sail through this hilarious black comedy at one sitting. It is a literary masterpiece a thriller in which we guess who survives rather than who will die next. This is a fine novel hard to put down and an adventure in meaning. Christopher Meredith is the author of the award-winning Shifts . His other novels include Griffri and Sidereal Time . He also publishes poetry The Meaning of Flight and Snaring Heaven and translations. The Book of Idiots is his fourth novel. Publication: March 2012 ISBN: 9781854115652 Paperback: 8.99
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 | John Ormond: Collected Poems by Michael J. Collins John Ormond (1923-1990) is one of the remarkable generation of poets born in south Wales in the early 1920s which includes Dannie Abse and Leslie Norris. A journalist on Picture Post during its heyday in the 1940s, he was a friend of fellow Swansea writers Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins, both of whom were key influences on a poetry of consistently high standards. A significant number of his poems, many of them elegiac, probe his Welsh roots, demonstrating an abiding concern with family and locality. This Collected Poems draws together all of Ormonds work, including unpublished material. It includes an Introduction by the editor, Michael J. Collins, notes and commentary of the poems re: their geneses, backgrounds, allusions and meanings, and a bibliography of Ormonds prose writing, films and writing about him. An index of titles and first lines completes this essential book. Publication: March 2012 ISBN: 9781854115218 Paperback:12.99
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 | Jack the Ripper: A Hand of a Woman by John Morris The Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 continue to exert a macabre hold on the imagination over a century later. Among the first serial murders, their brutality and bizarreness, and the seeming impossibility of detection have a terrible fascination. Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman is the result of extensive research by author John Morris and his late father. Starting with the many unresolved questions about the murders they concluded that they could be answered if Jack was in reality a woman. But who could she be? The story of their researches includes many twists and turns as they reach an all too plausible conclusion, naming a suspect and answering the question of why the murders started, and just as suddenly stopped. Publication: March 2012 ISBN: 9781854115669 Paperback: 9.99
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Meet the Author
Thursday 1st March 7.30pm: First Thursday The Mabingion reinvented by two of Wales's most talented young authors, Meirion Jordan (with his new poetry collection, Regeneration ) and Fflur Dafydd with her new book in Seren's popular 'Mabinogion' prose series, The White Trail . Come and celebrate St. David's Day with us. Media Point Room, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff 2.50.
Friday 2nd March, 10am - 1pm. 'Walking on Legends' with Paul Henry , Mynydd Llangors, Powys. A literary walk across the hill that shaped Henrys early poetry. Part of the Crickhowell Walking Festival and sponsored by 'Book-ish' book shop. Cost is 5.00 and the meeting point is Crickhowell town centre. Further details: Emma at Book-ish Tel. 01873 811256 or email bookishcrickhowell@googlemail.com . Bookings: www.crickhowellfestival.com
Monday 5th March, 6.30pm. LITERATURE LIVE: Rupert Thomson and Patrick McGuinness . John Thaw Studio Theatre, Manchester University. Tickets 6.00/4.00 available from www.quaytickets.com or from the box office on 0161 275 8951, email boxoffice@manchester.ac.uk
Thursday 8th March 3pm: International Women's Day: 'Poet's Corner' at The Hours Cafe & Bookshop. Brecon Women's Festival are delighted to welcome Ruth Bidgood and Anne Cluysenaar two of Wales' most established and celebrated poets to 'The Hours' to share their work. For further information email: thehours@btinernet.com
Saturday 10th March. 'Teifi Writers' Poetry Workshop with Paul Henry will take place in Llandysul, Ceredigion. For further details contact Kelly Yamazaki - yamazaki.kelly@yahoo.co.uk
Saturday 24th March 7pm: Launch of The Book of Idiots by Christopher Meredith. The Hours Cafe & Bookshop, 15 Ship Street, Brecon LD3 9AD thehours@btinternet.com 01874 622 800
Tuesday 27th March 6.30pm: Book Launch Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman by John Morris. Dubray Books 36, Grafton Street, Dublin 2. Guest Speaker Mr Paul Williams: Journalist & Crime Writer
Friday 30th March 11.30pm: Owen Sheers will be talking to Claudia Winkleman on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show. Owen will be discussing his latest novel The Gospel of Us (Seren, 8.99).
Sunday 8th April: The film version of The Gospel of Us , starring Michael Sheen, will premiere at the Apollo Cinema in Port Talbot. For a full listing of The Gospel of Us screenings in Wales and England click here
Happy St David's Day to all our friends .
What better way to celebrate - Check out Blodwen's new Spring/Summer ' Gwalia ' (Homeland) collection for beautiful handmade products with provenance, made with care in Wales.
Blodwen - Bringing thecraftman's way of life to your way of living
"A new band we love. Bloody lush!" - Lauren Laverne, BBC 6music
MP3 x 3 FOR FREE
This month: more gigs; summer festivals; and not one, not two but THREE free MP3s.
Fresh from triumphant gigs in Camden and Cardiff, and mixing a new album due out in spring, Welsh-Anglo-American psych-punk-alt-rockers Howl Griff mark St Davids Day by giving away their monthly MPfree in both Welsh and English versions. Read on for more information and dont forget, our Welsh-language debut album is still available to hear and buy at http://soundcloud.com/howlgriff and http://howlgriff.bandcamp.com/album/howl-griff .
GIGS & FESTIVALS
Five new shows to announce. Firstly, on Sat 24 March Howl Griff play the O2 Academy 2 in Islington. Next month they'll be back to headline at Camden's legendary Dublin Castle (Thu 19 April).
And just as they did last summer, the band will be bringing their good-time harmonic alt-rock to the festival circuit. The first to be confirmed are the Nibley Festival (Gloucestershire, Sat 7 Jul), Lee Stock (Suffolk, Sun 3 Jun) and the Pie & Pint Festival (Gloucestershire, Sat 2 Jun).
SINGLE & ALBUM
The band are currently mixing their new album, out later this year, but the taster single 'Sharkfins In The Sky' combines thoughtful lyrics with irresistibly uplifting melodic invention. The story of a shooting at an ice-rink disco is soundtracked by a breathlessly catchy new wave / disco crossover, and it's fast becoming one of the band's most popular songs.
"Cleverer than a fox and twice as tuney" - Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
More info: http://howlgriff.com/music/sharkfins.html
A DOZEN FREE SONGS
Every month Howl Griff give away an MPfree , downloadable from http://www.howlgriff.com/freemp3s.html but this month there are three new ones for you. To mark St David's Day we're giving away our classic tune DNA in both Welsh and English versions and because we didn't send a mailout last month, you can also get the shimmering summery special Can't You See Me while you're at it.
That makes it 12 songs we've given away collect them all at http://www.howlgriff.com/freemp3s.html .
CALENDAR
Sat 24 Mar O2 Academy 2, Islington
Thu 19 Apr Dublin Castle, Camden
Sat 2 Jun Pie & Pint Festival, Cheltenham, Glos
Sat 3 Jun LeeStock Festival, Sudbury, Suffolk
Sat 7 Jul Nibley Festival, Nibley, Glos
More details: http://www.howlgriff.com/gigs.html
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MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/HowlGriff
Merchandise: http://howlgriffshop.spreadshirt.net
