What's New/Beth sy'n Newydd?
For anyone who's interested, I'm giving a talk/lecture on what it means to me to be Welsh-Italian and how it inspired my novel The Hokey Pokey Man, the story of Welsh-Italian immigrants from the late 1800s to the War in Wales. The talk is at Cardiff Uni Humanities dept, room 2.01 this Tturs12/05/11 at 6.30 pm. Diolch.

What a fantastic picture! It reminds me in a way of the one I have of my grandfather playing his 'one-man-band' paraphernalia. Ironically, almost everyone in my family can play at least one instrument. My father played the accordion & piano, his two brothers teh accordion, his sisters the mandolin. My brother also plays both and my sister and I both play the piano. Must be genetics!

Hope you enjoy the book. I usually have more than one on the go, too.

Anita

Anita

I thought you might like to see this picture. I found it in a compilation of The Saturday Book. I'm still reading your book (I have a bad habit of having at least 2 books on the go at the same time!).

Best wishes

Gaynor

Hallo Anita

I apologise for not responding before now. I'm very glad your book is so successful; I shall get it and I'm sure that an Italian friend of mine will be also interested in it as her family was in the restaurant business (in London). I'm afraid that I have issues with Waterstone's and never set foot in the place these days! I confine my patronage to independent bookshops as far as possible, and of course online shops are very convenient.

I wish you lots of luck.

Gaynor

Hello Gaynor, Anita here. Thank you for drawing attention to my novel. If you'd been in Carmarthen the Satuday before, you'd have found me doing a book signing session in Waterstones. I'm of Welsh-Italian heritage and have been asked to lecture in Cardiff Uni in May on this subject. If you Google my name, you'll find this link and many others which will give you quite a lot of detail about the novel, including reviews. It sold out of the first print run in five months and is still selling very well on Amazon & in Waterstones expecially. It's also in many libraries, so if you do get hold of a copy, would love to have your feedback. It is set in 3 areas, Italy, London & Wales, over a period of around 50 years, so should interest you on at least two counts. My current work in progress concentrates more on Swansea, Carmarthenshire & Ceridigion. Take care. Anita

We are hoping to feature an interview with Meic on AmeriCymru very soon

I just got back to Carmarthen today and I've been looking through the Western Mail's weekly magazine. A couple of items caught my eye. First, a new book by Anita Arcari called "The Hokey Pokey Man" which tells the story of her family's immigration to Wales. Apparently, the Italians have a word that corresponds with "hiraeth" and that is "lontanaza". The book is published by Y Lolfa. Sounds worth reading.

The second item is in the TV pages. Those of you fortunate enough to be able to watch S4C on Friday will be able to see a Wedi 7 documentary about Meic Stevens and his life in Vancouver. That is on at 8.25pm here in the old country.

Hope you are all having a good start to the week.

Gaynor

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 12/04/15 03:57:45PM