Forum Activity for @gaynor-madoc-leonard

How to appear to be Welsh (advice in The Times today) - probably first and last time in our lives!

Humor

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:37:56PM

What’s happening to all the Welsh societies in America??

Promoting Wales in the USA

I agree about Chicago Tafia. Dave Parry does work hard to promote all things Welsh and makes it fun too. I follow CT on Twitter.

What’s happening to all the Welsh societies in America??

Promoting Wales in the USA

Okay, now I get the references to the University of Rio Grande. I was wholly ignorant of the Madog Center for Welsh Studies but then I do not live in the USA! It was all a bit cryptic before.

What’s happening to all the Welsh societies in America??

Promoting Wales in the USA

Let's hope Wales's success in the Rugby World Cup will help matters. I don't think you'll get any grief from Wales itself; Wales is not just about the church/chapel (probably a declining influence in any case) and choirs although singing in general is still very much a part of our DNA.

Welsh people have played an enormously important role in the history of the USA, from those who were involved in its inception to those who worked hard to set up businesses, farms etc. The vast majority of people possibly don't know about these things. I was saying only yesterday that a great many of my mother's American relatives didn't realise that they were descended from Welsh immigrants until a member of the family in Wales arranged a huge party in Carmarthen to celebrate their connection. Since then, there's been an enormous amount of enthusiasm for Wales and a willingness to learn about it.

Events like the West Coast Eisteddfod can help to get the message across and a new-style society like your own is a very good step forward, in my view.

Get cooking those Welsh recipes, do some clog dancing and inform your fellow Welsh-Americans about pre-Roman Britain.

The Orphans of Carmarthen (WB Baker - Xlibris)

Welsh Literature

Hallo Matthew

Yes, that is the name. I was a bit taken aback by the price, considering it's paperback, but I bought it anyway! I got it from Amazon.

All the best

Gaynor

The Orphans of Carmarthen (WB Baker - Xlibris)

Welsh Literature

I came across this book while I was looking for something else on the internet (this sort of thing happens a lot to me!) and, despite the cost of the novel, I sent for it. Baker seems to be one of those people who has so many accomplishments (both academic and otherwise)that it doesn't seem possible to have achieved them all in one lifetime! The story is a very interesting and absorbing take on the life of one Myrddin Emrys (aka Merlin) and ends with him still as a young boy, wise beyond his years. There are sequels so I shall certainly look for them.

The novel rightly takes place in the Towy Valley and Carmarthen. As I've said, Baker is academically accomplished so I am not the one to argue with him about what Carmarthen might have looked like in the 5th century but I would imagine that the Roman influence might still be there at that stage and there would be Romano-British people still living there to some extent. I didn't get that impression from this tale. Emrys and his canine companion, Woof, are the orphans of the title. In the meantime, Vortigern is ruling Britain and is the most unpleasant character one can imagine.

I certainly enjoyed reading the book and would be interested in seeing what happens to Emrys in the next one, given that he is still a young child at the end of the first novel.

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:37:54PM

"If You Fall I Will Catch You" by Eifion Jenkins (Seren Books)

Welsh Literature

I've already tweeted about how much I like this book and I'm sure that Ceri could give a much more erudite and considered review but I would like to say that once I started the book, I resented having to put it down for any reason!

It's a very imaginative novel and to call it science fiction (which, in a sense it is) would not do it justice. Set in 2084, we meet Gwidion who lives in a Welsh village made up of roundhouses. Slowly, we discover that the village lies within a bio-dome. Up to 70% of the world's population has been destroyed by a mumps-like virus, leaving the remaining people with uncertain fertility. There are very few males in his village and people do not speak of father figures.

In the village, the languages spoken are Welsh, Spanish and American (the latter being mainly confined to technological talk). What was Wales is now part of the Hispanic Republic, ruled from Madrid and South America.

Gwidion is very intelligent and he has an extraordinary gift which the Republic wants to make use of. I can't give anything else away!

I really recommend this book.

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:37:54PM

Through the Decades: The 20th Century Story of Swansea and South West Wales (compiled by Eifion Jenkins)

Welsh History

Hallo Gillian

I just looked up True as a Turtle as I'd never heard of it and I'm a bit of a film fan. It seems to be available on DVD.

I used to go to the Capitol (no longer a cinema) and the Lyric in Carmarthen. It was a big treat to sit upstairs but of course a lot cheaper downstairs and we might have Kia-Ora or an ice cream in the interval from the woman with the tray. Not like these days where people have a year's supply of popcorn and gallons of cola with them.

Things aren't all bad these days though; my local boutique cinema here in London has armchairs with space for your gin and tonic and tapas!

The Globe cinema in Cardiff was close to where I lived as a student, on Wellfield Road (Roath). It's a bar or something now. Then, you could rely on the seats being half-broken and the film slowly breaking down halfway through. Great fun.

Through the Decades: The 20th Century Story of Swansea and South West Wales (compiled by Eifion Jenkins)

Welsh History

Hallo Swansea

It is on www.amazon.co.uk (used copies at a reasonable price). If it's a problem for you to buy from the UK one, I could get it for you and post it on.

Yes, anyone who remembers the very old days of Coronation St will recall the "snug" next to the bar where Ena Sharples and co drank their stout. But my mother (who never had more than shandy anyway and doesn't drink at all now) remembers that women didn't go into pubs if they valued their reputations. Thankfully that attitude (and pubs) have changed quite a bit since then. Sadly, a lot of pubs have closed recently; it's partly because of the smoking ban I suppose. Others have had to up their game, serve breakfast and so on. The days of sticky, swirly carpets are passing, thank heaven!

Through the Decades: The 20th Century Story of Swansea and South West Wales (compiled by Eifion Jenkins)

Welsh History

Eifion, who is currently editing and advising me on the sequel to my grand opus The Carmarthen Underground, is also a journalist and author. He's sent me a copy of Through the Decades, which I'm going to enjoy looking at today. It's a compilation of articles, memories and photos of the area. I don't think he'll mind me quoting from 1953:

" No discos or drugs, one rugby club dance a week, no drink. The band stopped playing for about 20 minutes to have a quick pint in a local pub. No one could enter the dance after 10.30pm. Dances finished about 11.30pm. The pubs closed early and the street lights went out at midnight till about 5am.

Gorseinon had two cinemas, the Lido and the Cinema (now the billiard hall). Films changed mid-week at each. Seats were about 9d in the very front and the best were about 2s8d or 3s. My local swings and roundabouts were padlocked on a Sunday as youngsters were expected to go to church or chapel.

In pubs women were not allowed in the bar area, in fact women in general would be frowned upon even if accompanied by their husband. If a single or unaccompanied woman went in her good name was gone. Pubs catered for the workers in heavy industry so there were no frills, fancy drinks or jukeboxes."

Just to clarify for non-Brits, 9d was worth about 3.5 pence in current money (5p = 1 shilling, 12d in a shilling). Not sure what that is in cents at the moment.

It's a shame that the book is now out of print but it might still be available online.

updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:37:52PM