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Mari: Yes, to both parts of that question, Ceri. You last interviewed me on the web site in August of last year, on the publication of my second novel The Witch of Eye . But the reason why I have an exciting announcement has more to do with my very first novel, Root of the Tudor Rose . When you interviewed me about that one, I told you that I was committed to spreading the gospel about the Welsh origins of the Tudors, the most famous dynasty in "English" history. And it's this missionary zeal that's bringing me to the US at the end of June, to address the American Conference of the Historical Novel Society with a presentation entitled The Tudors: an English dynasty? (I shall be saying this with the same imperious expression used by Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell in the Importance of Being Earnest when she pauses, looks down her nose and says disdainfully "... a handbag!" If you don't know it, you'll find it on YouTube - A Handbag )
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the HNS and the conference?
Mari: The HNS is the international Historical Novel Society, which exists to promote and encourage the reading and writing of historical fiction. They bring out a review every quarter devoted to new historical fiction and they've said some nice things about both my books in that.
Root of the Tudor Rose was featured in their 'New Fiction' section and the review of The Witch of Eye in November last year hailed the book as "... a thoroughly enjoyable read, a very well-researched story, where the narrative licks along irresistibly." I was delighted by that, of course. The Society holds a conference every year, alternately in the UK and in the States. Last year it was held in Oxford and the American visitors raved about the magical 'dreaming spires' of that lovely old university city. This year the conference takes place in Portland, Oregon, which gives me the opportunity of visiting a part of America I've never seen before. I'm told it's wonderful and I look forward tremendously to seeing it for myself.
Mari: No, it will actually be my fourth. The first three were all in order to make programmes and I particularly enjoyed making a documentary programme for S4C about the Welsh/American baritone Thomas Ll. Thomas. His middle name was Llyfnwy but not many Americans could manage that! The reason why I was so interested in him was that he came from my own home town of Maesteg in the Llynfi Valley and the family emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the 1920's when Welsh mining engineers were much in demand. "Llyf", as the family called him, didn't go into mining: instead he became one of the most famous singers of his generation, often featuring in opera and concerts in New York and all over the country. Eventually, he became known as "The Voice of Firestone" because he presented and sang in "The Firestone Hour", the hugely popular television programme of light music, transmitted live every Sunday evening and seen from coast-to-coast. Not bad for a little Maesteg boy! You've never heard of him? Tell you what, I'll write an article for you one of these days ... or perhaps he should be the subject of my next historical novel? Now, there's a thought!
AmeriCymru: Sounds like a fascinating story. But, to get back to what we were talking about - do you have any other plans while you are in the States?
Mari: Well, the HNS Conference itself only lasts for three days which means that I'm going to have quite a lot of free time on my hands, depending on how long I decide to stay. I rather fancy making that wonderful train journey down the coast to California to take in a few places I've heard of but never visited. Then perhaps a week in San Francisco before flying home because my other half, Jonah, describes himself as an ageing hippie and nothing would please him more than to have his photograph taken somewhere significant in Haight-Ashbury. So we're likely to be kicking around the area for a week or so and, of course, this gives me the opportunity of visiting some Welsh Societies in the area if anyone would like to invite me to come along and talk to them. Believe me, I could talk the hind leg off a Welsh dragon about all sorts of things - my old career as a broadcaster, my 'new' career as a writer, the origins of the Tudor dynasty and why I wanted to write the first book ... or even Thomas Ll. Thomas' career if need be. In Welsh or in English, of course. Just get in touch via my web site at Mari Griffith
AmeriCymru: Any final message for our readers?
Mari: My best regards to them all, as ever. And if anyone takes a particular delight in historical fiction, they can find out a lot more about the Historical Novel Society and its American conference by following the link below. And, if you do decide to come along, be sure to come and find me to say "hello". Historical Novel Society
There used to be giants
nimbly rolling the rocks
around the known landscape
to cap water spirals
the people used to be giants
now they were not
or so they thought
though suspicious of Rome
they went about unarmoured
along forest tracks that led back to them
they strained to hear the bells
of the sixteen wall towns
of the kingdom they were told lay
under the shallow bay
they believed though no sound came
save the mourning of gulls
and the collapse of waves
he took his first steps and was injured
his father and his uncle
battled against snow to get his face sewn up
but a crucifix injected itself into his arteries
and travelled those routes for many years
forcing him out of shape
to grow tall and crooked
trying to sink into his shoulders
as his mother had done at that age
the shadow of smoke
he recalled Jesus
how gentle he’d seemed
the women loved him
still he couldn’t understand why they did that to him
he was obliged to follow the old religion
though more drawn to Hell
he looked like the Turin Shroud when asleep
he kept telling them he was dead
in a country with a higher number
of castles than any other
he played at the cottage of his great grandmother
and the motte and bailey castle
next door after which it was named
the comfort of grass and a six hundred year gap
and discovering gooseberries for the first time
both his grandfathers died at the wheels of their cars
without a mark in almost inexplicable accidents
when this curse outlived its usefulness
he would learn to drive
in order to get out of this valley
where everything was washed down slopes
into the river into the sea into the ocean
into rain back to this place again
TV was new wall-to-wall war every night
Vietnam and Ulster
and the offerings of producers
who had survived the “last” war
he in turn re-enacted liberation
and freedom fighting with comrades
and guns left over from the resolved
and unresolved conflicts
of previous generations
providing ammunition
for their imagination
he put knives in his pockets
his belt his eyes
to steady his nerves
to ward off his father
whom he had exceeded in height
he was not taught the story of his country
but guessed at its events
and found that his broad accent
was nothing to be embarrassed about
he spoke two languages
but wanted to renounce one
until he learned to love it again
to revere his birthplace for what it was
and not dismiss it for what it wasn’t
at the beginning of the space age
his parents acquired labour-saving devices
that helped them in their daily chores
and in the raising of their children
but these machines took over their time
and sucked out the soul of family life
they looked after a chapel
next to their home
the silhouettes of tombstones
dancing around his bedroom walls
illuminated by car headlights
the new people arrived
they had always been there
but now seemed to be everywhere
speaking the language his tribe had absorbed
they took over abandoned farms and chapels
and the leaderships of some of the hundreds
the inflexions and drive of a different gang
he pretended he was like them
but in the uncertainty of changing North Atlantic culture
his tongue fumbled some of the old words
in their unfolding
in the summer he slept with windows open
in the mistaken benevolence of electric light
beyond which night creatures
exhaled their excited air
and burned empty homes
he grew into song
into words and deeds
his chewing gum grin
glossing over his mistrust in his seed
until the egg begged
now the blood of princes runs through him
carries him shoulder high to computer-enhanced
mountains blue with rain
where they do not overwinter sheep
the blood of princes runs him through
...
Return from Darkness by Graham Jones is based on the story of the Twrch Trwyth, a deep vein in Welsh Mabinogi folklore.
The publishing of the novel follows the Welsh Government’s 2017 tourism campaign celebrating the ‘Year of Legends’.
‘I learned Welsh after I moved to Pembrokeshire and relished exploring the county and beyond on foot. As time passed I learned more about the myths and traditions associated with Wales until it became such a fascination that the seeds of this book were sown’ explained Graham.
‘The American writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell said once, ‘ Myths live in all of us, in our darkness’ I realised that my novel had been waiting in my own darkness for the right time to re-emerge’ said Graham, ‘I then started to write inspired by the Mabinogi story’.
The novel begins when schoolboy David’s life is changed for the better by an encounter with the guarded and mysterious headmaster of his school. A storyteller and mystic, he opens the timid boy’s eyes to the reality of ‘other worlds’ beyond our own. Twenty-five years later, having returned to Pembrokeshire, David embarks on a quest that will take him deeper into these alien realms.
Pressing into the darkness, he is menaced by cruel ancient enemies desperate to possess his power for their own ends. And following him is a beast formed from the very fabric of Celtic mythology − the animistic form of a great boar, Twrch Trwyth.
An adventure story of a journey into Celtic mythology, Return from Darkness has been described as ‘a spellbinding journey to find the shining light inside all our darknesses’.
‘Mythology can be seen as a series of ancient messages passed down by our ancestors to help future generations through the challenges of life’ added Graham, ‘and perhaps this book may help to draw some of these messages out of the darkness so we can ‘read’ and understand them’.
Graham Jones was born in Cardiff. He taught Physical Education and Outdoor Pursuits before taking early retirement and settling down in north Pembrokeshire. He now lives in the White Mountains of Crete.
Return from Darkness by Graham Jones (£9.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.
Thomas Jones of Pencerrig: artist, traveller, country squire by Richard Veasey is the full-length biography of the eighteenth-century landscape painter and seeks to draw together the different threads of his life.
Born in September 1742, Thomas Jones moved with his parents from Llandrindod Wells to Pencerrig close to Builth Wells when he was around seven years old. He was educated first by Dissenting ministers before being sent with his elder brother to Christ College in Brecon.
Following in the footsteps of his master Richard Wilson, he travelled to Italy and spent six and a half years there first in Rome among English artists then in Naples where he was welcomed into the local artistic milieu.
His career led him to return to London in 1783 until the unexpected death of his elder brother in 1787. Thereafter he had to assume responsibility for the running of the family estate of Pencerrig in Radnorshire, where he remained until his death in 1803.
Two of his most prominent works include The Bard (1774) and A Wall in Naples (1782).
He was the first Welsh - and British, artist to write his memoirs.
‘As an artist Jones has come to be recognised above all for his striking images of buildings in Naples and for the freshness of his pictures of the Radnorshire countryside’ said author Richard Veasey, ‘But the view we now have of him runs somewhat counter to the story he tells in his memoirs of a thwarted professional career.’
‘There is indeed a tension between the pictures he produced largely for his own pleasure and what he achieved as a pupil and follower of Richard Wilson. It is the difference between his own direct and personal vision and a classically derived and idealised one’ explained Richard.
The memoirs, which he wrote when he was settled at Pencerrig, offer a vivid account of his life in London, of his travels through France to Italy, of what he did in Rome and Naples and of the long journey home by boat. The Day Book provides a similar record of life on the estate in Wales.
Together with a handful of other documents, these give us further insights into the life Jones led when he set up home with Maria in Naples and what was involved in the running of a large country estate.
Richard Veasey was a lecturer in French and European Studies at the University of Sussex. After he retired, he lived for a number of years in converted farm buildings on the former estate of Thomas Jones and became familiar with the landscape the artist both transformed and painted. He currently lives in Kington, Herefordshire.
Thomas Jones of Pencerrig: artist, traveller, country squire by Richard Veasey (£12.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.
I leave this river
that nourished my upbringing
and inspired my imagining
as you arrive,
or, rather, return to its banks
in the valley where the sweat
of the labour of our forefathers
mingled with sweet meadow streams,
helping to replenish this waterway,
its stately, muscled progress,
trout breaking its surface
on warm, dreaming evenings,
in circles, those lines without end,
the flash of the kingfisher,
the seemingly stilted flight
of dragonflies,
the ancient, narrow bridges,
arches leading in,
leading out,
persisting, permitting.
...
Prior to forming Allen-Ramshaw, the two musicians had previously met in London and performed together in various outfits. Their new endeavor is the fruit of them now writing and recording as a duo. Ramshaw, an outstanding classically trained musician and composer, cites eclectic influences rooted in acts like The Beatles and Elvis Costello.
Allen, a self-taught, incredibly prolific musician, was raised in a family of musical talent. By his mid 20s, he had released two albums and a slew of singles. His career broadened massively from there, including television and festival appearances as the frontman of The Doppelgangers, the official U2 tribute band endorsed by Bono himself.
Aspiring to walk in the footsteps of the artists such as The Shires and Ward Thomas, Allen-Ramshaw is a collaboration poised to be an intricate part of the booming British country music scene. ‘Never To Return’ is due out February 28 and will be available globally to stream and download on all major music platforms.
Fans can connect with Allen-Ramshaw via their website and social media!
Buy Never To Return Here (Click the shopping cart symbol below, right)
Play A Sample
If, like us, you arrive late for your flight at BWI and are desperately scrambling to get through TSA to avoid an eight hour stopover, you might fail to notice the mural at the head of the line. We didn't make our flight BUT we were left with ample time to take the photos reproduced below. Kudos to whoever was responsible for including Cymraeg amongst the languages of the world displayed on the security notice below 
The lonely chapel of Soar Y Mynydd
could be the centre of our country
at least my version of it
the guns of the spare neighbouring farms
twitchiness around their triggers
lest another gun returns
let us acknowledge our killers
for they are of us
and not so different
our trajectories leading to
opposing outcomes
and while we’re facing our violent past
let’s recall our battle sites
not lauded
though they’re here
over a gate or a hedge
under a centuries-deep carpet
down a dip
off a minor road
with the signs deliberately changed
to the wrong direction
we fought too
we died too
but our sacrifices don’t count
in the toxic pre-Brexit empire
those mysterious mounds
those straight roads
the many narrow ways home
this is my country
you can have it
...
The Truth About Eggs - An Interview With Welsh Crime Writer Delphine Richards
By Ceri Shaw, 2017-02-28
Delphine: The Truth About Eggs is a kind of 'follow-up' to Blessed Are The Cracked, in that it features some of the same characters and is set in the same fictional Welsh village in a farming community. Having said that, the era is a few years prior to Tegwyn Prydderch's retirement, so a slight backward transition for readers. Unlike Blessed, The Truth About Eggs is a full length novel, although there are three very definite 'sections' in it. It is probably not necessary to read Blessed first, but it may help with understanding some of the characters.
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about the Devil Tree which features in the book?
Delphine: The Devil Tree didn't actually feature at all in the first draft of the book although the story was otherwise identical in terms of where 'things' happen etc. I have my husband, Hedd, to thank for the Devil Tree! We were walking our dogs one evening as the sun was setting and he said 'I'm surprised you've never commented on that creepy looking tree over there. Looks like a Devil!'
Can you believe it? I'm supposed to be the one with the active imagination and I had never noticed it despite passing it on an almost daily basis!
An idea started to form and I took photos of it in different lights. From then on it seemed to be the one thing that tied the whole story together. Of course, there is no real Devil Tree (just a spooky looking oak on a nearby hedge) but a few readers have said that they tried to find it on Wikipedia! (I haven't enlightened them yet - please don't tell them!).
I gave my photos to Carolyn Michel (the artist/designer) and she turned it into this superb cover that I loved instantly.
AmeriCymru: I wanted to talk a little about the structure of the book. It feels like three closely intertwined short stories which come together on the night of the Young Farmers Club show. In that respect it somewhat resembles 'Blessed Are The Cracked'. How difficult is it, as a writer, to ensure continuity? Can you give us any insight in to your process?
Delphine: A lot of my favourite authors have a few key characters who become 'connected' in some way, so I suppose this method has rubbed off on me. (Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism etc!). Continuity was, frankly, a nightmare! You have no idea how many times these chapters changed positions. One chapter in particular had more moves than John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever!
Another headache was the tense - Anna and Natalie's chapters are written in the past tense while Manon (who is so wrapped up in her own little world) is written in the present tense. Though this was changed a few times until I had enough opinions from beta-readers to decide that it worked better the original way. (I'm sure Sophie Hannah, who uses mixed tenses in her Culver Valley series, doesn't dither as much!).
Keeping the individual characters' stories fresh and not giving away too much by linking them together too soon was also a challenge for me. Even now I think maybe i should have just changed this or that...... typical Libran!
AmeriCymru: Are Young Farmers events in West Wales really this rough? Care to share any real life experiences?
Delphine: Hmm, the polite answer is - YFC events are well run, enjoyable and educational ones. However, any event that combines young people, alcohol and a sense of competitiveness tends to produce some out-of-character behaviour patterns! Luckily I was helped by a young friend who is a YFC member. She provided me with a lot of factual information - for example, the Famous Five Challenge, Girlfriend Carrying Race and the Reverse Steer Quad Bike course have all happened for real!
I imagine that the officers policing the annual Royal Welsh Show could come up with dozens of entertaining tales that would equal some in this book if we were to ask them! I think any notable bad behaviour that happens in an otherwise quiet location becomes big news and is the one thing that everyone remembers, so I guess that every real life event such as this has a story that is repeated for decades!
AmeriCymru: Tegwyn Prydderch is an interesting character. His stoicism is an appealing characteristic. Any real life or literary models? At one point he opines that none of the events in the book would be happening if it was raining. Does crime in west Wales really come to a halt when it pours?
Delphine: Tegwyn is based on a number of real life characters (to say otherwise would be dangerous!!) in order make him an 'individual'. In many ways, he shares my character too (apart from the fact that he doesn't like dogs - which is a fact that will come back to haunt him when he has to look after someone's dog as part of the next book). I think I wanted him to be a bit of a 'jobsworth' and at times, you want to shake him! Although he is pivotal character, he is not the 'be all and end all' of these books, rather a means of gelling the different storylines together.
When Tegwyn calls rain 'the best policeman', he is repeating a very well used phrase. It is certainly one I and many colleagues have used over the years. Without a doubt, the more petty crimes or those that are 'outdoors based' and spontaneous are less likely to happen when it is pouring with rain - a simple result of people not wanting to go outside if they don't have to. Unfortunately, many serious crimes cannot be controlled or predicted by weather conditions.
AmeriCymru: We last spoke when your first title was released in 2013. How was 'Blessed Are The Cracked' received?
Delphine: I was delighted with the way Blessed was received and the fact that it was in the Amazon Top 100 for several weeks (with a high point of Number 24 for some of those weeks). I was invited to speak on local radio and to various societies such as the WI and other organisations - which was a new experience for me. Just before The Truth About Eggs was launched, I was invited to a live interview on Radio Woking - I did wonder if an area so far away from mythical Llanefa would be interested, but it seemed to go well and there were some interesting questions posed by listeners. During that session, Blessed was also mentioned and that revived a little more public interest despite it having been released in 2013.
AmeriCymru: What are you working on at the moment? Are there any new publications in the pipeline?
Delphine: As I said earlier, I am a typical indecisive Libran! No surprise to hear that I am working on two new projects. The first one (which is about halfway complete) is a collection similar to Blessed (and set in Llanefa, of course). The working title, Never Point at a Rainbow, ( the title of one of the stories which is set in London when some Llanefa residents go away for the weekend) follows Tegwyn's memoirs when he is interviewed on a Radio Station.
The second one has only just been started and was a result of good feedback on The Truth About Eggs and persuaded me to get another full length work out there. The working title is The Donkey Shaped Stone and brings some more familiar characters back onto the page. Which one will I continue with first? Watch this space!
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Delphine: A simple message - please keep reading! It is a delight to know that so many American readers are interested in Welsh fiction and even more pleasing to know that AmeriCymru is the go-to site to keep them informed.
Diolch i chi gyd!
....
The Welsh Pipes - An Interview With John Tose of 'Estron'
...
John: We're basically a family and friends band - I've been doing stuff with my daughters, Micky and Danny ever since they were quite small but in 2012 we started playing with Holly Robinson, a really talented and well known fiddler here in Pembrokeshire, and coined the name Estron for the band. Jess Ward joined us with her harp two years later. I suppose the band really got going after Micky and Danny moved on from the instruments they'd learned at school to things they wanted to play for themselves. Micky learned clarinet to begin with but took up the ukulele and now she plays both with Estron, while Danny abandoned the trombone for the Welsh pipes - she borrowed a spare set I had and taught herself how to play surprisingly quickly. I suppose it helped that she'd been exposed to my own playing her whole life!
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about your most recent album 'Gwawr'?
John: We recorded Gwawr in May 2015. We wanted to capture the music we had been playing since we started and before we moved on to new material. I've been playing this music for a long time now and I guess the reason we're playing this stuff is mostly that the girls have been exposed to it all their lives so that to them this is what they associate with Welsh pipes, whereas for Holly and Jess it was all new and exciting. To Micky and Danny this music is just `normal' everyday stuff. I suppose that's what makes it `folk' music.
AmeriCymru: When did you first become interested in the Welsh pipes?
John: I started playing bagpipes in about 1990. The first set I had was a set of smallpipes from the Early Music Shop which I made from a kit. After putting it together I realised that I could make these things so I then went on to make a set of, I suppose you could describe them as `Border pipes' in G which I mostly played for the Morris team I was a member of. Then in '97 or '98 I met Ceri Rhys Matthews and became a member of Pibau Pencader, a Welsh piping club he'd started. There was something like ten people in it, a mixture of raw beginners and experienced pipers. There was a need for instruments and myself and John Glenydd started making pipes for the other members, and later to sell to other people as well. We were making all kinds of things from simple diatonic clarinets to bombardes and pibgorns, and bagpipes based either on the Breton veuze or ones which used a pibgorn as the chanter. Meanwhile Ceri was teaching us all his Welsh pipe music which by the nature of the instruments is quite a lot different from much other Welsh folk music. It was a great time and later I also played with Ceri in a pipes and drum band called Pibe Bach, playing both here in Wales and further afield. We even got touring work with the British Council in places like Oman, Palestine and Libya.
AmeriCymru: If someone wished to master the instrument, where would they go to acquire a set of Welsh pipes? How hard is it to learn to play the pipes?
John: Acquiring a set of Welsh pipes is not so easy at the moment. I don't know whether John Glenydd in Llanfihangel ar Arth in Carmarthenshire is still making pipes - I don't have his contact details but you could probably find out by contacting Ceri Matthews. I was making pipes myself until a few years ago but I went down with asthma which is very sensitive to wood dust so I've had to keep out of the workshop. Having said that, recently I've been teaching Danny how to make pipes and she's managed to acquire very good woodturning skills so we'll have to see how this develops. There are other people making pibgorns - Gavin Morgan in Merthyr Tydfil springs to mind. A lot of pipers here also play the Spanish Gaita which is pretty good for playing Welsh music on.
The pipes aren't particularly hard to play - they have open fingering much like a tin whistle which beginners find much easier than that of other pipes, such as Scottish ones. The hardest part is disassociating the blowing from playing the tune - with a bagpipe you play the instrument with a constant pressure on the bag with your arm and you only blow into the instrument when you need to keep it topped up with air.
AmeriCymru: Where can readers go online to buy or listen to your music?
John: Gwawr is available as a download (or as a CD) from Bandcamp. There's a link to it from our website ( www.estronband.blogspot.co.uk ). You can also find a solo album I made a few years ago, `Cerrig Dymuniad' on there as well as Jess's first solo harp album `The Mermaid's Lament'.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
John: It's important that we keep this music going in this age of globalisation - otherwise we're going to lose it. Welsh culture has always been under a lot of pressure from across the border in England and it's important that we keep our cultural differences. We all need our roots, our differences.
...
