-
The Boy From The Coach is a delight to read. If you have ever wondered how life is lived in the innumerable small pubs and Inns which dot the Welsh countryside this book is for you. The author,, J.A.S. ( Tony) Rees, was a frequent visitor to the pub in the late 40's and 50's when he stayed during the school summer holidays. The pub was owned and run by a relative of his mother, May Morgan, who greeted him every summer, "with a Craven A cigarette lodged at the center of her mouth" . The book provides an insight into many of the colorful aspects of rural village life in Wales at...
Read MoreRead our interview with Matthew G. Rees here Not to be confused with the recent, wildly acclaimed Welsh language horror movie of the same name ( Y Gwledd ), this is Matthew G. Rees' third published anthology of short stories. You will find reviews of his other works here The Keyhole and here Smoke House & Other Stories We have expressed the opinion that Matthew G. Rees is a major new talent elsewhere and this new collection confirms our estimation. The Feast is a deliciously dark and frequently amusing collection that leaves one in no doubt that Rees is a...
Read MoreRead our interviews with author Rhys Hughes here and here ... In this collection of bizarre tales from the Welsh master of the absurd we are introduced to a Professor with a small class and an unusual subject matter. Rhys explains thusly: There are few students in my class. When one considers what the subject is, this isn’t surprising. I teach myself. In other words, I impart to my students facts and fancies based on my life and ideas. It’s the least popular class in the university and I doubt it will be funded for another term. As a homework...
Read MoreRead our interviews with author Rhys Hughes here and here ... In one of his finest collections to date Rhys Hughes treats us to a cornucopia of Western whimsy and wierdness. Weirdly Out West , published by Black Scat Books is available now from Amazon.com Rhys Hughes latest offering comes complete with all the standard delights we have come to expect from his writing. There are the wonderful guffaw provoking titles such as 'Phony Express', 'Like a Rhino Cowboy', 'For a Few Hollers More' and 'Tom Cabin's Uncle'. There is also a very catholic...
Read MoreClick here to read our interview with author David Jones Author David Jones is most insistent that this is a 'people' book. A brief perusal of the Contents list reveals how accurate his assessment is. We are introduced to a cast of characters whose challenging and inspirational experiences are recounted in sections on Personal Histories, Family Histories and Covid-19 Heroes. Overall the book is a tribute to the small Welsh community of Cwmbwrla in Swansea and chronicles its response to the 2020 pandemic. There are also contributions from local artists and poets, and...
Read More"Henry Hoffman was walking on main Street and his nose was on fire. This fact apart, he was proceeding quite normally. He smiled genially and nodded as he passed by Michael Maguire." From the moment we read the above intro to Matthew G.Rees' 'Smoke House' we are aware that we are in for a strange journey. Readers of Matthew's debut collection 'Keyhole' will perhaps be better prepared for the bizarre and other worldly tales recounted in these pages. In contrast to 'Keyhole', in which all the stories were set in Wales, the tales in this collection are set in America, Russia,...
Read MoreClick here to read our interview with Brian Jarman ... .. Brian Jarmans' fifth novel, Saturdays Are Black or White is set in the Eastern Black Mountains in south Wales. It opens with a chilling phone message:- ‘Hullo. It’s me. I haven’t got long. Cancer. Thought you’d like to know.’ Twin brothers Bren and Arwyn are brought up together on a remote hill farm. Arwyn leaves the valley to pursue a career in journalism which eventually takes him to London and around the world. As a consequence of his globe trotting lifestyle he loses contact with...
Read MoreClick here to read our interview with Authors Rob & Meagan Davis ... A must read for anyone contemplating a Welsh themed tattoo. This book has everything you will need! In the foreword we learn that: "This book aims to help you choose a Welsh tattoo wisely, confidently, and safely. It offers a glossary to help you. Beyond the glossary, this book provides enough of an introduction to the Welsh language to support you in your desire to honour it. You may even be interested in learning how to join the hundreds of thousands of people who speak it."...
Read MoreClick here to read or interview with Matthew G. Rees ... BUY 'KEYHOLE' HERE ...the unknown world is in truth, about us everywhere, everywhere near to our feet, the thinnest veil separates us from it, the door in the wall of the next street communicates with it. 'The London Adventure', Arthur Machen ... I saw a star shining over our valley, a keyholeful of light, telling me I was home. 'The Water Music & Other Stories', Glyn Jones It is always a pleasure to welcome a major talent to the Welsh literary scene and 'Keyhole',...
Read MoreRead our interview with author Mike Jenkins here ... The title poem of this collection focuses on two manmade disasters which occurred forty years apart but which revealed the same pattern of callous indifference on the part of the political establishment. The Aberfan disaster which claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults occurred on 21st October 1966 just down the road from Mike Jenkins' home town of Merthyr Tydfil. The Grenfell Tower fire took the lives of 72 people in West London in 2017. In discussing this poem in the short 'Notes' section at the back...
Read MoreWin a signed copy of 'The Moving of the Water' here ... Every Welsh American should own a copy of this book! BUY IT HERE David Lloyd chronicles the trials and tribulations, the triumphs and despairs of several generations of Welsh Americans in this series of interlinked stories. These tales combine pathos, humour, drama and insightful observation in an anthology which is at once masterful, entertaining and illuminating. Set in Utica, New York in the 1960's the book opens with a tragic tale from the Vietnam war. In 'Nos Da' Private Richard Bowen is severely...
Read MoreClick here for more from Mike Jenkins on AmeriCymru Link to purchase on Amazon:- Bring The Rising Home! For anyone who is unacquainted with the historical details of the 1831 Merthyr Rising, the following link should be of some assistance - Merthyr Rising . Of course, the most thorough and authoritative account of these events can be found in Gwyn Williams' - The Merthyr Rising. The Rising is commemorated with an annual festival in Castle Street, Merthyr where twenty four of the protestors were shot and killed in 1831. This collection was published to...
Read MoreWhen I was a lad in Pontypool I would frequently visit 'Aldo's' on the way home from school to play pinball, drink coffee and socialize. I don't know if it's still there but in my youth it was one of many Italian cafe's that graced the south Wales mining valleys. From Pontypool to Ammanford or from Treorchy to Cardiff you would likely spot a 'Rabaiotti's', 'Bracchi's' or 'Carini's'. These cafe's were run by Italian immigrants who left home to escape poverty, Mussolini, or both. 'Hear The Echo' is Rob Gittins' fifth novel and in choosing to set it against the background of...
Read More"It's Marmite poetry....but I like Marmite!" - Mike Jenkins ... ... ... A review of Welsh poet and novelist Mike Jenkins new anthology Sofa Surfin . " A former winner of the Wales Book of the Year competition for 'Wanting to Belong' (Seren), Jenkins is a former editor of Poetry Wales and a long-term coeditor of 'Red Poets'. " ... ... .. The poems in 'Sofa Surfin' are all written in local dailect and they address themes of homelessness, unemployment and general decline in post-industrial Merthyr Tydfil. This is not Mike's first experiment with dialect...
Read MoreRead our interview with author Alan Bilton here ... ... ... ... Alan Bilton is the author of two novels, The Known and Unknown Sea (2014), variously compared to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 1902 movie, A Trip to the Moon, and Dante’s Inferno, and The Sleepwalkers’ Ball (2009) which one critic described as “Franz Kafka meets Mary Poppins”. ... ... Alan Bilton never disappoints and he never fails to fascinate. His latest work, an anthology of short stories titled 'Anywhere Out Of The World' is no exception. Billed as 'a...
Read MoreRead our interview with author Mark T. Hooker here ... Buy Tolkien And Welsh here I like this book. It is challenging but accessible, clear and intellectually good fun. At the outset, the author tells us that this is a “book by a linguist … making the topic accessible to a larger audience.” The truth of this is immediately found in his definition of the traditional Welsh poetic form the cywydd, which “ consists of a series of seven-syllable lines in rhyming couplets, with all lines written in cynghanedd, a concept of sound-arrangement within one line,...
Read MoreBack to Welsh Literature page > Dale and Lucy are two students with an interest in the supernatural. One weekend, they travel to Sker House, South Wales, a private residence with a macabre history which has recently been converted into a seaside inn. They plan to write an article for the university magazine about a supposed haunting, but when they arrive, they meet a landlord who seems to have a lot to hide. Soon, it becomes apparent that all is not well at Sker House. An air of opression hangs over it, the true depth of the mystery going far beyond a mere historical haunting....
Read More1 CommentsBack to Welsh Literature page > This is a great read! It has every variety of chase sequence that 19th century technology will allow, black magic, voodoo and even zombies! I have often thought that Shakespeare suffers from a lack of zombies but Owen Parry knows that good literature cannot be without them. This is the sixth book in a series that features Major Abel Jones, Welshman, British army and American Civil War veteran and investigator extraordinaire. As ever, Major Jones is directly commissioned by Abraham Lincoln and in this instance his mission is to investigate the...
Read MoreBack to Welsh Literature page > Read our interview with author Bel Roberts here From our interview with Bel Roberts:- " Surfing Through Minefields belongs to the hybrid genre ‘reality fiction’. I have set the story in a fictional contemporary comprehensive school in Monmouth and have researched the facts surrounding the Senghenydd Pit disaster of 1913 in such a way that the history of the event is seen from the prospective of a modern teenager and by the residents of an old people’s home who have actual mementos of the tragic event. The heroine,...
Read MoreBack to Welsh Literature page > As I was lucky enough to be building the ebook for this, I got to read them all and this book is absolutely awesome. Poet and reviewer Marc Mordey posted this review on his blog: "I remember reading , and thoroughly enjoying, Lloyd Jones novel, ‘Mr Vogel’ and making the mental note that ‘I must read more of this man’s work’..but then, somehow, the opportunity has not arisen (or I have not made it happen). "Just lately I was gifted a copy of Mr Jones’ new collection of poetry – ‘The Secret Life of a Postman’, and what a fine present...
Read More1 / 2
