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We would like to take this opportunity to thank Lloyd Jones for judging the Short Story Competition for the past five years. Diolch yn fawr Lloyd.

Today we are immensely proud and pleased to announce that in 2014, author Mike Jenkins will judge the entries in the West Coast Eisteddfod Online Short Story competition.

Poet, story writer and novelist. Mike is a former teacher at Comprehensive school level for nearly 30 years and is now a fulltime writer and is available for readings and workshops at any time. Mike has lived in Merthyr for over 30 years and was winner of an Eric Gregory Award in 1979 and the Welsh Arts Council Young Writers Prize in 1984. Mike also won the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry and the 1998 Wales Book of the Year (English section) for Wanting To Belong (Seren, 2000), a book of interlinked stories for teenagers. He was a runner-up in Academi's 2009 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition.

He is a former editor of Poetry Wales and has coedited Red Poets magazine for many years. His latest novella The Fugitive Three centres on three young people in a South Wales Valleys estate whose stories intertwine and who, despite the odds, refuse to live lives of quiet desperation. It is fast-paced and written in a tight dialect in the third person narrative. Mike is a Fellow of Academi. Read his poem for Glyn Jones here .

Mike and painter Michael Gustavius Payne have recently been successful in an application to the Arts Council of Wales to tour a body of work across Wales in 2011 and 2012. The exhibition, currently being developed, will be titled 'Dim Gobaith Caneri', meaning no hope like a canary exploring ideas inspired by traditional Welsh idioms and phrases. Mike's latest book Barkin is a collection of poems and short stories published by Carreg Gwalch.'( Read our review of Barkin )

JOIN THE WCE ONLINE SHORT STORY

COMPETITION GROUP HERE

( You will need to be logged in to AmeriCymru to join the group. If you wish to enter externally please read the submission guidelines on the above linked page )

The Welshman whose engineering feat in 1613, brought clean drinking water to London and thereby helped save thousands of lives. 

Sir Hugh Myddelton (1560 – 10 December 1631) the sixth son of Richard Myddelton, governor of Denbigh Castle, travelled to seek his fortune in London and embarked on an entrepreneurial career which took in textiles, mining, engineering, jewellery and politics, succeeding his father as the Denbigh Boroughs MP and being appointed Royal Jeweller by King James I.  

In the early 17th Century, London's population had exploded and sanitation was a serious problem. It was decided that the answer was to construct an artificial river to bring clean drinking water into the heart of London. Myddleton's idea was to divert the water from the River Lea in Hertfordshire to Clerkenwell in the city of London and he was also able to persuade King James to invest 50% of the capital backing which swept away all objections from land owners along the route. 

At almost 35 miles long, the New River travelled at a gradient of just five inches per mile and used systems of culverts and aqueducts which hadn't been seen in Britain since Roman times. Myddleton's artificial New River took five years to construct, but had an almost instantaneous benefit, as by 1614, deaths, which can now be attributed to water-borne infections, had halved on the previous year. Sir Hugh Myddleton is still remembered in the names of streets and buildings across the English capital. 

On 10th December 2007,  Cardiff University Professor, Sir Martin Evans received the Nobel Prize for Medicine from His Majesty the King of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm.

Professor Evans's ground breaking work on embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. is helping in the treatment of cancers, diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases.  He has also been instrumental in making Cardiff University a world-leading centre for biomedical research.  

On 10th December 1880, a gas explosion took the lives of 101 miners out of the 106 who were working at the Naval Colliery in Penygraig, Rhondda.

A history of coal mining in Penygraig;

1857  Coal mining began when Thomas Ellis sank a drift mine.

1858  Moses Rowlands and Richard Jenkins discovered a seam and opened the Penygraig Colliery, after which the village was named. It was later owned by the Naval Colliery Company

1875  On 4th December, a flood broke through into the mine, resulting in two miners drowning.

1879  After the Penygraig Colliery showed a successful profit the Naval Colliery Company opened a second deep pit, The Pandy.

1880  On 10th December, a gas explosion took the lives of 101 miners out of the 106 who were working in the mine at the time.

1884  On 27th January, another explosion led to the death of fourteen men.

1887   The Pandy was sold to the New Naval Colliery Company, which then opened three more deep mines The Ely, the Nantgwyn and the Anthony Pits.

The New Naval company later become part of the Cambrian Combine, owned by Viscount Rhondda and the Ely Colliery would be the centre of the Cambrian Combine dispute, which in turn would lead to the Tonypandy Riots in 1910.  

Edmund Mortimer, born 10 December 1376 at Ludlow Castle was the great-grandson of King Edward III and son in law of Owain Glyndwr. 

Both Edmund Mortimer and his brother-in-law, Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, fought for Henry IV against Glyndŵr. However in 1402 Mortimer was defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of Bryn Glas.  He transferred his allegiance to Glyndwr, after Henry IV, refused to pay a ransom for his release and married Glyndŵr's daughter, Catrin.  He then proclaimed his intention to make his nephew, also Edmund Mortimer, King of England. 

In 1405 Glyndwr, Mortimer and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland entered into an agreement called tripartite indenture which proposed a threefold division of the kingdom in which Mortimer was to have most of the south of England.  However, Mortimer died in 1409, either during or shortly after the siege of Harlech Castle by Henry, Prince of Wales (the future Henry V). 

Edmund Mortimer and Catrin ferch Owain had one son, Lionel, and three daughters and after Mortimer's death, the King had Catrin and her children brought to  the Tower of London, where she and two of her daughters died in 1413 and were buried at St Swithin. 

Born on this day 1753 in Ynyscynhaearn, Caernarfonshire.

Richard Thomas - Anglican priest and antiquarian, whose catalogue of important Welsh manuscripts from the library at Peniarth, along with his own collection of manuscripts, were used by the editors of the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales.

The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales is a printed collection of medieval Welsh literature, published in three volumes by the London-based Welsh cultural group, The Gwyneddigion Society, between 1801 and 1807, who searched Wales for manuscripts. Although the majority of its material is genuine, it does contain some of Iolo Morganwg's forgeries, but was a respected and respectable companion for writers and scholars in Wales and beyond during most of the nineteenth century.

Volume one, published in 1801, attempted to collect all Welsh poetry prior to 1370.

Volume two, also published in 1801, refers to chronicles and other documents of a historical nature, including the Welsh Triads, Brut y Brenhinedd and Brut y Tywysogian.

Volume three, published in 1807, contained didactic literature, laws and music.  

On 10th December 1768, The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through a personal act of King George III.  The distinguished landscape painter, Richard Wilson from Penegoes, near Machynlleth, was one of its 34 founder members. 

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. It is an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects, with its purpose to promote appreciation of the visual arts.   

The New Theatre, Cardiff, was officially opened on 10th December 1906.  It has a capacity of 1,144 and was the venue for the world premiere of Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming on 26th March 1965.

 Before moving to the Millennium Centre, the.Welsh National Opera had its headquarters at the New Theatre and in 1993, Sir Anthony Hopkins unveiled a bronze bust there of the writer Gwyn Thomas.  The theatre has been a Grade II listed building since 1975. 

Written and directed by Ifan Huw Dafydd. Following on from the success on YouTube of the excerpt from The Last Prince of Wales , Huw Davies would like to make it known that he still has several copies of the original full video available for sale. To purchase please contact Huw Davies via his AmeriCymru page here:- Huw Davies

An ideal aid for planning your itinerary when you next visit the land of your fore fathers.

We also hope that the DVD will be a valuable resource for Welsh learners the World over. Whilst impossible to make exact translations from any language to another, care has been taken to make both language commentaries as close as possible. Welsh learners will be able to hear the Welsh commentary spoken by a native Welsh speaker, whilst having an English translation on the other channel.

MADOG, our first hero. A visit to Dolwyddelan, the site of two Welsh castles and the birthplace of Prince Madog the discoverer of The Americas over 200 years before Columbus even set foot on a ship! We see the site of his birth and upbringing and follow his journey to Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, from where he departed for unknown lands in 1170.

LLANDDWYN ISLAND, an astoundingly beautiful location on the south western tip of Anglesey and the home of the patron saint of Welsh lovers Dwynwen. It overlooks the Menai Straits and the mountains of Snowdonia on the mainland. A place youll definitely want to put on the itinerary for your next visit to the Land of Your Fathers!

THE GOWER and the search for the RED LADY OF PAVILAND. Theres far more to the Red Lady than meets the eye - shes definitely no lady! But she does give us a chance to show you the gorgeous Welsh countryside of the GOWER peninsula, visiting Langland Bay, Three Cliffs Bay, Oxwich Bay, Port Eynon, Goats Hole, Worms Head, Rosili, and Penclawdd.

THOMAS TELFORDS FANTASTIC AQUEDUCT at FRONCYSYLLTE. Finished in 1805. An amazing feat of innovative engineering. In 2009 it was recognized as one of the wonders of the modern world when it joined the Great Wall of China as a World Heritage Site!. We also pay a quick visit to the home of the International Eisteddfod Llangollen.

Our last hero is fittingly LLYWELYN THE LAST PRINCE OF WALES. His death being the nadir of Wales history. We try to unravel the mystery that surrounds the last two days of his life. Was it treachery or chance? We visit Aberedw, and the ruins of another Welsh castle , the location of the enigmatic meeting that was to take place between Llywelyn and Edwards allies, the chase through the Welsh countryside to the fateful dingle at Cilmeri, and finally the grave where his headless body lies in the emotion filled ruins of Abaty Cwm Hir. Plus a bonus montage of photographs from around Wales set to Russell Sheppard playing the song thats close to every Welshmans heart and guaranteed to bring on a bout of inconsolable Hiraeth.

Hello everyone, I found this site last night and have spent some time reading some interesting stories and other entries within the site - it's great for people that have left Wales but are still hankering after their roots.

I started a website called All things Pembrokeshire, it's a community website with information about people, places, pics, history etc in Pembrokeshire. It's at www.allthingspembrokeshire.co.uk .

Also due to my love of arts, crafts and designs, I opened an online shop promoting and selling products made by Pembrokeshire people. I hope you will like it at www.made-in-pembrokeshire.co.uk

There is also a blog on made in Pembrokeshire and you can click the RSS feed at bottom left of the page to follow.

Lovely

Bye for now

Jayne from faraway Pembrokeshire

Born on this day 1946 in Swansea

Mervyn Davies - former Wales captain and Lions international, who was instantly recognisable with his thick white headband and moustache.

Davies was educated at Penlan Boys School and Swansea College of Education, after which he secured a teaching post in Guildford and began playing for London Welsh.

Davies was a sensation, earning the nickname "Merv the Swerve", due to his deceptive running and was given his international debut, within 3 months.  He went on to win two grand slams, with Wales and was a crucial member of the Lions series winning teams in  New Zealand in 1971 and  South Africa in 1974. 

Davies suffered an injury which caused bleeding in the brain and ended his career in 1076 and in a poll of Welsh fans in 2001, he was voted the greatest ever Wales No 8 and captain. 

Donny Osmond was born on this day 1957 in Ogden, Utah 

Osmond with his six older brothers and younger sister were raised as Mormons by their parents Olive May Osmond (née Davis) and George Virl Osmond.

Along with five of his brothers, he was a member of the popular singing group The Osmonds.   Donny went solo in the early 1970s, with hits such as "Go Away Little Girl"  and "Puppy Love", before performing with his sister Marie, as Donny & Marie, an act that has been headlining in Las Vegas since 2008. 

Osmond traced his family ancestry back to Merthyr Tydfil, during a documentary for BBC Wales entitled, Donny Osmond Coming Home.   

  On 9th December 2007, "Joe" Calzaghe became BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Joseph William "Joe" Calzaghe is a former undisputed Super Middleweight Champion of the World, who retired in February 2009 with an undefeated record and the longest continual time as world champion of any active fighter.

"Super Joe" is sometimes referred to as the "Pride of Wales," or the "Italian Dragon" in reference to his mixed heritage.  He was born in Hammersmith, London, to his Sardinian father Enzo Calzaghe and his Welsh mother Jackie and the family moved to Newbridge when he was two years old.  Calzaghe was the first person to be awarded the Freedom of Caerphilly in 2009.   

During World War One, the 53rd (Welsh) Division was one of the three Divisions which bore the brunt of the fighting against the Turkish army in Palestine, prior to them capturing Jerusalem on 9th December 1917.  

  Born on this day 1575 in Abergavenny. 

David Baker, who as Dom Augustine Baker, was instrumental in re-establishing the Benedictines in Britain. 

Father Baker studied law at Oxford, where he also lost his faith in the existence of God, but refound his faith after surviving a near death experience and gave up his work  to become a Benedictine monk in Italy.  He then traveled the Continent, giving  legal advice to Benedictine Houses.

Then in 1638, Father Baker was sent on a mission to England, to re-establish the Benedictine order.  He lived constantly under the threat of being discovered and after three years, he was on the point of being captured when he contracted a contagious fever which scared away his persecutors.  However, Father Baker was to subsequently die in concealment.

Born on this day 1760 in Llanbradach, near Caerphilly

Morgan John Rhys - radical evangelical Baptist minister, who emigrated to America in 1794 after falling out of favour with the establishment for his views supporting the French Revolution, the abolition of slavery and parliamentary reform.  In America, he changed his surname to Rhees and is crediting with establishing the Welsh colony of Cambria in Pensylvania, where the language, culture and religion of Wales was dominant.  

Born on this day 1977 in Aberystwyth

Stephen Jones - former Wales rugby captain and Lions international.  Jones won 104 caps and two Grand Slams with Wales in 2005 and 2008.  He is also the second-highest Wales point scorer.  Jones played the majority of his career with Llanelli Scarlets, apart from short spells at Clermont Auvergne, where he was chosen by French journalists as the fly-half of the season and at London Wasps, where he retired from professional rugby in 2013 to take up a coaching position and more recently, The Scarlets.  

Richard Llewellyn (real name Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd) was a novelist, born of Welsh parents in Hendon, north London on 8th December 1906.

Llewellyn is best remembered as the author of the internationally acclaimed novel "How Green Was My Valley", which was later made into a classic Hollywood film, depicting life in the South Wales coal mining communities.   

On 8th December 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before laying in wait and killing him.

One of John Lennon's Welsh connections, was his maternal aunt, Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Smith (both maternal grand parents were Welsh) who was also Lennon's parental guardian.  Lennon lived with Mimi and her husband George Smith for most of his childhood, after his mother Julia had handed him over to them and when The Beatles became successful, Lennon bought her a home in Poole in Dorset.  

The monastery on Caldey Island was first established in the sixth century and the Welsh name for the island is   Ynys Bŷr,  named after St Pyr, an early abbot.  Also located on the island, is St Illtyd's Church, which contains the Caldey Stone, which dates to the 5th or 6th Century.  It has inscriptions both in Latin and in the ancient Ogham script which originated in Ireland, bearing the name of ‘Dubricius’ (St. Dyfrig) who was an early Bishop of Llandaff and who would visit Cadley Island each year for Lent. 

Other points of interest regarding Caldey Island; 

*   Caldey Island consists of two islands which are separated at high tide, they are called Caldey Island and Little Caldey Island. Little Caldey Island is also known as St Margaret's Island. 

*  The name Caldey is derived from the Viking  keld eye , meaning "cold island"

*  In the 12th century, a priory was established by Benedictine monks, which lasted until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536.

*  The current abbey was built in 1910 by Anglican Benedictine monks but financial problems beginning in 1925 led to the 1929 purchase of the property by Belgian Cistercians.

*  Caldey Lighthouse was built in 1828.  The light was intended to help coastal traffic trading limestone and coal to mid and north Wales, but it also helped long-distance and north American traffic identify the Bristol Channel and avoid confusion with the English Channel. 

*  The island issues its own postage stamps and has its own currency called the Dab meaning “flat fish”,

*  The island’s economic activity is supported by tourism and agriculture and has factories and farms, mainly involving the monks, who make cheese, perfumes and other products. 

On 7th December 1203, Geoffrey de Henlaw was consecrated as Bishop of St David's.

His appointment is significant, as it ended Gerald of Wales's (Giraldus Cambrensis) own ambitions for the job and sealed the final subjection of the Welsh bishops to the archiepiscopal jurisdiction of Canterbury.

From 1199 to 1203 Gerald’s life was clouded by his frustrated ambition to become bishop of St. David’s.  This ambition led him to reject four Irish and two Welsh bishoprics, before being nominated for St. David’s in 1199, however, the archbishop of Canterbury promoted a rival candidate and Pope Innocent III quashed both elections in 1203, after King John of England had declared that Gerald was an enemy of the realm.

On 7th December 1916, with the support of the Conservative and Labour leaders, David Lloyd George replaced Herbert Asquith as British Prime Minister.  Lloyd George was 54 and at the height of his powers. His energy, eloquence, and ability had already made him the leading statesman of the day, and his accession to the premiership was highly popular in the country generally. He was the first and to date, the only Welshman to hold the office of Prime Minister.

 Though Lloyd George was not on good terms with the generals fighting the campaign on the Western Front, they respected the energy he brought to the political side of the campaign and his achievements in persuading the Royal Navy to introduce the convoy system and the unification of the Allied military command under the French general Ferdinand Foch, were both instrumental in him being acclaimed as the man who had won the war.

Penarth pier was opened in 1894 by the Penarth Promenade and Landing Pier Company.

The pier proved an immediate success, attracting thousands of holiday makers.  However, this was dramatically affected by the outbreak of World War One, when all the paddle steamers that used the pier, were commandeered as mine sweepers and the pier itself was used to protect the approach to Cardiff Docks. 

After the war, the pier was in a bad state of repair and in order tp repair the damage, the Pier Company claimed £7,228 from the War Compensation Court.   However on 7th December 1922, a decision was made to issue only £353.  The people of Penarth were outraged, but even an appeal to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Baldwin, did not see the decision reversed.   Undeterred the work of repairing the pier was undertaken and the paddle steamers returned, but the heyday of the pier was over and it was sold to the council in 1924.   

Born on this day 1912 in Pembroke 

Daniel Jenkyn Jones - one of the most distinguished classical composers of the 20th century, whose song settings were used in Dylan Thomas's play, "Under Milk Wood" 

Jones attended the Bishop Gore School in Swansea, where he formed a close friendship with Dylan Thomas, both becoming part of the informal group of aspiring artists called the Kardomah Gang.  Jones left Swansea to study music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1935, which allowed him to study in Czechoslovakia, France, the Netherlands and Germany, where he was also able to develop his linguistic skills.

During the War, he served as a captain in the Intelligence Corps at Bletchley Park as a decoder of Russian, Romanian and Japanese texts.  After the War, Jones published his memoir, My Friend Dylan Thomas, his fourth symphony, which is dedicated to the poet and also edited a collection of Thomas' poetry.  Charles Fisher another member of the Kardomah gang, described Dan Jones as a genius.   

Born on this day 1963 in Neath

Mark Bowen - former Wales soccer international who earned 41 Welsh caps as left-back.  In club football, he most associated with Norwich City, for whom he made 399 appearances and was voted their fans, the clubs best ever left-back.  Since retiring in 1999, he has worked as assistant to Mark Hughes with Wales and at Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Fulham and Stoke.

Seren will be opening a pop-up shop in Castle Arcade, Cardiff, throughout December. The National Theater of Wales have very kindly let us use their shop front at 30 Castle Arcade, for the month of December, while they are busy promoting their latest project, Silly Kings.

In addition to selling great books we will be hosting many author events with Francesca Rhydderch, Rhian Edwards, Robert Minhinick Ivy Alvarez, Damian Walford Davies , Phil Cope and Grahame Davies all due to make an appearance Books make great presents, signed books make even better ones.

We will also be giving out a secret daily discount code to be used in the shop, so keep you eyes on our Twitter and Facebook accounts!

The shop will be open every day up until Christmas from 10am 5pm . So come and join us for great offers, author events and a mince pie.

Author Events @ The Seren Christmas Pop-Up Shop:

Thursday 5th December Robert Minhinnick, 12pm
Robert will be in the shop to promote his latest title, The Island of Lightning , in which he travels all over the world, from Porthcawl, to Argentina, China, Finland, Iraq, Tuscany, Piemonte, New York, Zagreb, Lithuania and the lightning island of Malta A perfect present for the armchair traveller.

Saturday 7th December Festive Fiction, 2pm
Francesca Rhydderch ( The Rice Paper Diaries ), David Llewellyn ( Ibrahim & Reenie ) and Kate Hamer (author of 1976 , our short story of the month) will all be at the shop reading their fantastic fiction. Come and join us for an afternoon of great stories, mulled wine and mince pies.

Wednesday 11th December Rhian Edwards 2pm
Wales Book of the Year Winner Rhian Edwards will be reading from her award winning collection Clueless Dogs . Rhian is a recipient of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, so this is an event not to be missed.

Thursday 12th December Phil Cope, 11am
Phil Cope will be in to tell us about the ancient myths and magic tales behind the sacred wells in the disputed Borderlands between England and Wales. Beautifully illustrated in colour throughout, the wells from Cheshire to Monmouthshire, from the Dee to the Severn are displayed in all their glory, be they in remote countryside or city centre.

Friday 13th December Ivy Alvarez, 2pm
Ivy will be reading from her debut collection Disturbance , a novel in verse that chronicles a murder case, in which the family was gunned down by its patriarch. Each poem plays out like a piece of evidence, slotting together to give us the full case. We hear from the family, the neighbors and the authorities who all could have acted to avoid this tragedy.

Saturday 14th December Short Story Season, 2pm
Maria Donovan and Mary-Anne Constantine will be reading from their short story collections on the 14th. These bite sized stories are perfect for reading in a spare 15 minutes with a cup of coffee and a biccie. Pop in and join us for a minced pie.

Monday 16th December Grahame Davies, 11am
Grahame will be stopping by the shop at 11am on the 16th for a meet and greet. Grahame is the author of several books including, The Dragon and the Crescent, Everything Must Change , Real Wrexham , The Chosen People and Lightning Beneath the Sea as well as co-editing The Big Book of Cardiff with Peter Finch.

Friday 20 ^th December Damian Walford-Davies, 11am
Damian will be signing copies of his latest poetry collection Witch . With the narrative pull of a novel and the vibrancy of a play for voices. Witch offers a thrilling portrait of a Suffolk village in the throes of the witchcraft hunts of the mid-seventeenth century.

Saturday 21st December Dai George, 2pm
Dai George will be calling in to the pop up shop at 2pm . His brilliant dbut novel The Claims Office mixes straightforward narrative with elaborate and strange textures and imagery. This rich surface is undercut by an interesting attitude: a mix of rebellious energy and unflinching satire. His nature poems are often anti-nature poems, there are lively pieces about London and New York and skewed love poems.