Memories of revolution

Chris Keil and Julian Preece in conversation with New Welsh Review editor Gwen Davies.

As markets collapse and bankers gorge themselves on bonuses, Chris Keil and Julian Preece look back to the 1970s, when revolution seemed about to change the world.

Chris Keils latest novelFlirting at the Funeralis set against a background of global crisis and the power of the super rich; its a narrative haunted by memories of revolution and terror Portugal in 1974, Germany in 1977 and by the ghostly presence of the Red Army Faction and the Captains of April. Professor Preeces non-fiction titleBaader Meinhof and the novelis a study of the bombings and kidnappings of the German Autumn as reflected in literature, and explores forty years of myths and conspiracy theories around the German terrorist movement. In times of chaos and financial corruption, the powerful resonances between these two books should make for a fascinating and provocative discussion.

Born this day, 1747 in Llancarfan, Glamorganshire

Iolo Morganwg ( Edward Williams )  creator of the Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain.

Morganwg was a stonemason by trade and his work took him to London, where he came into contact with the Gwyneddigion Society and he began to socialise in the cities cultural and unconventional circles.

Iolo Morganwg was also one of the founder members of the Unitarian movement in Wales, a supporter of the French Revolution, a hymn-writer and  poet whose addiction to the drug laudanum must have affected his view of the world and led to his creation of the Gorsedd of the Bards which established a glorious ancient past for Wales and Glamorganshire in particular and deceived even the most learned scholars of his time into believing that it was an authentic institution.   

Guardsman Lovell Everson from Machen near Caerphilly was killed in action on 10th  March 1918 at Arras.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.  

It is thought that Lovell Everson was killed during a trench raid by 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards who were capturing a prisoner for interrogation when they were hit by German shells.  

The daguerreotype of Margam Castle taken on 9th March 1841, by Calvert Jones is credited with being the first photograph taken in Wales.

Calvert Jones, who was born in Swansea, was a mathematician, painter and photographer.  When he became rector of Loughor, he took up photography as a hobby and took many photographs of the Swansea area, as well as in France and Italy. He also developed his own technique  of overlapping photographs to give panoramic images.

After inheriting the Heathfield estate in Swansea in 1847, he was responsible for developing the area and named Mansel Street after his brother.  He died in Bath, but was buried at St Mary's Church, Swansea, however, the grave was destroyed during the bombings of World War II.  

Born this day, 1942 in Garnant in the Amman Valley

John Cale, OBE - musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the rock band The Velvet Underground. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.  

On this day, 1950 Timothy Evans was executed by hanging but was later granted a posthumous pardon. The case is now acknowledged as a major miscarriage of justice and was instrumental in the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom in 1965.

Timothy John Evans, from Merthyr, was tried and convicted of murdering his wife and infant daughter at their residence in Notting Hill, London and sentenced to death by hanging. However, three years later, John Christie, a downstairs neighbour was found to be a serial killer who confessed to murdering Mrs. Evans and was subsequently found to have also murdered Evans's daughter.  

Born on this day 1910 in Aberdare

Sir Rhys Llewellyn- mining executive, soldier and author.

Llewellyn was the Managing Director of Graigola colliery in Merthyr, an officer in the Welsh Guards during World War II, the High Sheriff of Glamorgan and author of a book on horse racing entitled Breeding to Race.  

Born on this day 1949 in Fleur-de-Lis, near Blackwood.

Mostyn Neil Hamilton (born 9 March 1949) - barrister, teacher and Conservative MP.  

Hamilton's father was a chief engineer for the National Coal Board and his grandfathers were both coal miners, however at the age of 15, he joined the Conservative party.  In 1997, Hamilton became involved in a political scandal known as the Cash-for-questions affair, after which he and his wife Christine sought to become media celebrities.

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Our taxes went up at the beginning of this current year--2013. As a result, our disposable income will be about $1,250.00 less this year than it was last. It may not be an enormous increase but it means we will have to adjust our spending downward in order to compensate. I haven't complained about it because what good would it do? Taxpayers are always given the same, coy answer. They are told resolutely that "for the greater good" they must learn to tighten their belts: Economize, economize, economize. And any suggestion, even the tiniest hint, that the tax collector, himself, should likewise economize--even a little, results in immediate shrieks of pain!

It all reminds me of a story Stephen Fry once told:

In the Second World War they would have people form the Ministry of Labour going roundchecking on everybody and particularly on the big estates, to see if all these people, or least some of them, might be released for essential war work. So they went to Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire's estate. They brought a stopwatch and clipboard then checked everybody as they went about performing their duties. Eventually they had an interview with the Duke, and they said; "Well Your Grace, we can understand that you need forty seven gardeners and thirteen under gardeners and you need grooms and you need chauffeurs and you need upstairs maids and downstairs maids and in between maids and laundry room maids, and still room maids and kitchen maids and nursemaids and housemaids and parlour maids. Andwe dounderstand that you need a boy to scrape the knives and boots and that you need a butler and four footmen and an under butler. But we wonder if some economy might be made. Do you, uh...um, does Your Grace necessarily need two pastry cooks? To which he apparently replied; "Confound it all! Can't a man have a biscuit?"

I suppose it's just too outlandish to expect the tax collector to forego an occasional biscuit. Taxpayers are told that $2 million dollars for a single golf outing in Florida is all very reasonable--and even necessary. And, who knows, perhaps it is. But, taxpayers might feel a little better about tightening their own belts if the tax collectors weren't constantly loosening theirs.

Harold Clayton Lloyd (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971)  was born in Nebraska, his paternal grandparents were from Wales. 

Lloyd was one of the most popular and influential film comedians and directors of the silent film era.  His films frequently contained daredevil physical stunts, which Lloyd often performed himself and resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand when a bomb was mistaken as a prop and which he disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove.  

Born this day 1671, in Lasynys Fawr, near Harlech,

Ellis Wynne, clergyman, hymn writer and author, he is remembered primarily for Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc ('Visions of the Sleeping Bard'), first published in London in 1703 and regarded as one of the most important and influential pieces of Welsh-language literature.

The 7th of March 1804 saw the inauguration of the British and Foreign Bible Society, largely at the instigation of the Reverend Thomas Charles of Bala. 

Charles had been greatly impressed by the determination of a poor young Welsh girl, named Mary Jones, who had walked 26 miles to purchase a Bible from him at Bala in 1800 and met with friends in London in 1803 to establish a society to make bibles ready available throughout the world.  Subsequently, the British and Foreign Bible Society was inaugurated the following year.

Charles later edited Welsh language versions of the First Testament and the Bible for the society.  

Born this day,1850 in Funchal on Madeira ( His father, Captain William Matthews was Welsh)

Sir Lloyd William Mathews who was a British naval officer, politician and abolitionist.

Mathews fought for control of what is now Ghana in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War of 1873–4 and afterwards stayed in East Africa to form an army for Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar in order to suppress the slave trade and rebellions against the Zanzibar government.  

Born on this day 1876 in Rhossili, Gower.

Edgar Evans who was a member of Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912. The group of five men selected for the final expedition push, which included Evans, reached the Pole on 17 January 1912. however, all five perished on their return journey to base camp.  

Robert (Bob) Thomas, Welsh international rugby player, died on 7th March 1910. 

Born in 1871,  Thomas was a forward who was part of Wales' Triple Crown winning side of 1900.

A head injury sustained whilst playing and a work injury at Landore steel works, Swansea, when a pair of tongs went through his right hand are thought to have  factors in his premature death in 1910, aged 39.

On 7th March 1695, Sir John Trevor (from the Brynkinalt estate near Chirk in Denbighshire), Speaker of the House of Commons, was expelled for taking a bribe of 1000 guineas (£1.6 million in 2009).  He remained the only Speaker to be forced out of office until Michael Martin resigned in 2009.

Interestingly, Trevor was severely cross-eyed, which caused confusion as to which MP had "caught the Speaker's eye", and led to many speaking out of turn.