Cambria Autumn 2009 by Chris Jones

WALES’S MAGAZINE c a m b r i a

cambria The National Magazine of Wales OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009 HYDREF/TACHWEDD

o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r

Cylchgrawn Cenedlaethol Cymru £3.50 €3.50

Remembering Dic Jones

2 0 0 9

Princess Nest ‘Helen of Wales’

h y d r e f / t a c h w e d d

Homage to Patagonia Swansea Jack Wat’s Dyke

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THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES CYLCHGRAWN CENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

CONTENTS VOLUME 11 NUMBER 3

8 8 8

EDITOR’S LETTER

LETTERS

POLITICS& OPINION

CLIVE BETTS, SIÔN JOBBINS, EURFYL AP GWILYM, CYNOG DAFIS, DENIS CAMPBELL

WAT’S IN A NAME? on Wat’s Dyke - the ditch-and-rampart earthwork, one of the most puzzling historic features of the northern Welsh borderlands.

KEITH NURSE

SWANSEA JACK - CANINE VC DAVID JONES tells the story of one of Swansea’s most famous characters, Jack, the life-saving dog which apparently gave the city’s sons their familiar sobriquet

31 8 8 8 8

Sleeping around in Cowbridge

PATRICK THOMAS

Mr Pughe and the Prophetess

TRAVEL

RHOBERT AP STEFFAN

LITERATURE

NATURE

38 46 47 50 54

ART

LAURA GASCOIGNE

on William Brown

GARDENS

CAROLINE PALMER:

The Flowering of Aberglasney

MOTORING

JOHN E. EDWARDS:

The Real Rolls; Suzuki Alto

DIRECTORY

The best places to eat in Wales

FOOD

DOROTHY DAVIES

HOTELS

Llandrillo’s Tyddyn Llan

ONLOOKER

National Eisteddfod; Smithsonian Festival; The Royal Welsh

WEB DIRECTORY

cambria’s Welsh website guide

DYSGU’R IAITH

MIRANDA MORTON:

POETRY

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

THE HELEN OF WALES Princess Nest remains one of the great heroines - and one of the great enigmas - of Welsh history. GWENLLIAN MEREDITH tells her story.

ROY NOBLE

BOOKS

MUSIC & OPERA

and DIARMUID MCCONCHUILL on Patagonia

JON GOWER on Pwll; PAUL GROVES MEIC STEPHENS

66 on Anna Wigley; Book reviews

on the publishing scene in Wales

SHEENAGH PUGH:

Book; DAVID FAIRFAX: The Lake

NORMA LORD

on Mal Pope; DAVID PETERSEN on Clerorfa

CHRIS KINSEY

Fungi among the harebells

on the super apple

Lesotho gefell Cymru

Y CLAWR / THE COVER: STATUE OF TEHUELCHE BRAVE SIGHTING THE ‘MIMOSA’, PORTH MADRYN, PATAGONIA

CONTRIBUTORS VOLUME OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

is Canon Librarian of St Davids Cathedral and a cambria veteran.

11 NUMBER 3 2009 HYDREF-TACHWEDD

PATRICK THOMAS

FOUNDER & PUBLISHER

is a journalist and poet and has written, edited and translated some 150 books about our country’s culture.

Henry Jones-Davies

represents cambria in the press section of the National Assembly.

Jan Morris D. Huw John Siân Phillips Dr R. Brinley Jones Professor Hywel Teifi Edwards John Elfed Jones John Hefin Dr Arturo L Roberts Mary Lloyd Jones Meredydd Evans

MEIC STEPHENS,

PATRONS

CLIVE BETTS

is a regular and valued contributor to Welsh periodicals. SIÔN JOBBINS

ROY NOBLE is one of Wales’s best-loved radio and television personalities. JOHN EDWARDS is a Welsh motoring journalist of many years experience.

is a garden historian who writes extensively about Welsh gardens. DR CAROLINE PALMER

EDITOR

Frances Jones-Davies POLITICAL EDITOR

Clive Betts FEATURES EDITOR

Frances Davies LITERARY EDITOR

Meic Stephens EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Siôn T. Jobbins RESEARCH EDITOR

is a professional photographer specialising in extreme sports photography. CARL RYAN

ADVISORY BOARD

Professor Meic Stephens Aneurin Jones Jonathan Adams Myrddin ap Dafydd Wil Aaron Menna Elfyn Elisabeth Luard David Gravell

NORMA LORD is a lifelong opera lover and music journalist.

is a poet who won the 2008 BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year Competition.

CHRIS KINSEY

is a professional photographer specialising in the landscape of Wales. MARI STERLING

MOTORING EDITOR

John A Edwards ART DIRECTION

Simon Wigley PHOTOGRAPHY

EURFYL AP GWILYM sits on the boards of a number of public companies and is a Plaid Cymru finance adviser.

David Williams, Carl Ryan, Mari Sterling, John Keates

DENIS CAMPBELL is American Editor-in-Chief of UK Progressive e-magazine.

WEBMASTER

cambria - THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES © 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without the prior permission of the publisher in writing. cambria is published bimonthly by Cyhoeddwyr Cymrica Cyfyngedig, PO BOX 22, CAERFYRDDIN/CARMARTHEN, SA32 7YH, Cymru/Wales. ISSN: 1366-0675. All material submitted must be accompanied by a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The publisher will not be held responsible for loss, damage or any other injury to unsolicited manuscripts or artwork (including drawings, photographs, and transparencies). We cannot guarantee a response to unsolicited matter. cambria magazine has made every effort to ensure that proper permission has been obtained for the reproduction of all illustrations in this issue, and we apologise unreservedly for any errors or oversights. Views and opinions expressed by individual writers in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the publisher. All information in this publication has been verified to the best of the authors’ and publishers’ ability; however Cyhoeddwyr Cymrica Cyfyngedig does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from reliance on it. Subscriptions for 6 issues: British Isles £18 - All other countries £28. Single copies: £3.50 plus 70p postage. The first copy of a new subscription application will be mailed by second class post for addresses in the British Isles, and by surface mail for the rest of the world. Please allow 6 weeks for overseas delivery. Argraffwyd gan: HSW Print, Tonypandy. TM

Rhobert ap Steffan

Chris Jones

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FROM THE EDITOR A WONDERFUL SYNCHRONICITY OFTEN COMES INTO PLAY WHEN PUTTING cambria TOGETHER.

One starts with an idea of what is going in the magazine several months ahead - the production list - but then it almost acquires a life of its own, and the end product tends to become something quite different from the carefully planned version. On our way to Bala for the Eisteddfod, Alison Mostyn of our editorial staff put forward the idea that there should be more about women in Cambria. I had never particularly thought about this one way or the other, but a few days later the matter was raised again by Gwenllian Meredith when visiting our stand. She suggested a series on women in Welsh history, starting with Nest. I have an innate belief in the parity of men and women, accompanied by a reverence for ‘la difference’, but I am inclined to think that a true belief in equality actually means that the gender of itself is of little consequence, although it is not of course that simple, for by its very nature gender gives differing points of view and action, all of which contributes to a balanced whole. As the artist, Philippa Jacobs says ‘Balance is at the root of why we are here’.In any case you will find Gwenllian’s feature on Nest in this issue. There is much talk of improving the infrastructure of Wales, the creation of better north/south links, improving the speed and service between west Wales and Cardiff and on to London, Clive Betts lays out plainly the plans covering the latter, for electrification as far as Swansea. The trains between north and south involve a ridiculously circuitous route, with several changes , a crossing into England and many hours of travel, and there seems no remedy in view. The silver lining is the beauty of the view. Whichever route you take the scenery is phenomenal, making the journey a pleasure. Much of what I have said about rail is applicable to road travel especially the point about scenery. The approach to Bala and the view of the Eisteddfod pavilion rising from the woods across the lake, framed by mountains was as if out of a fairy tale. Thanks to David Williams’s wonderful photographs you can get a sense of what a successful Eisteddfod this was in Bala. Due to popular demand Miranda Morton is returning as a regular Cyfeillion Cambria, Owain Glyndw ˆ r Day 2009 contributor. Her articles in iaith y nefoedd will follow the same format as before with a glossary for those wishing to build on their Welsh. Recently returned from Lesotho she talks here about the links between our two countries. Her articles are designed to be of general interest, simple enough for those who have done a year of Welsh but want to build up their vocabulary and knowledge of idiom. Reading through the proofs of Cambria this edition is tinged with sadness: it was a terrible shock to hear, only days before the Eisteddfod, of the sudden death of Keith Nurse, a regular contributor and correspondent. Keith had just sent us a fascinating article on Wat’s Dyke, which is reproduced in this issue. His friendship and support will always be warmly remembered. Shortly after the Eisteddfod that ‘master of the traditional metres whose like had not been seen since medieval times’ Dic Jones, Prifardd and Archdruid of Wales also died. Meic Stephens looks back on his life and achievements. The day of the inaugural Friends of Cambria lunch was glorious, sunny and warm, making lunch in the garden possible. Hywel Teifi was,as always, in fine good humour; our thanks to him for a rousing and amusing speech. Sadly, being a weekday - and lunchtime - there were many who couldn’t make it, but thank you to everybody who came or couldn’t and especially to the Friend who sponsored the lunch but wishes to remain anonymous.

EMRYS BOWEN

FRANCES JONES-DAVIES

MYFYRDOD

In its truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

(1882-1945) President of the USA

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THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES CYLCHGRAWN CENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

letters it’s the sun stupid!

request for help with Evelyn Calcabrini’s appeal against the Border Agency’s decision to deny her entry to the UK. CYFEILLION

We write to thank your readers for their generous contributions for Evelyn Calcabrini and Shirley Edwards from Patagonia. Following the refusal by the Border Agency to grant 6-month visas to the two girls earlier this year, their cases are proceeding separately. Last month, Shirley Edwards, who has relations resident in the UK, was granted a visa after a long campaign by her family. As for Evelyn Calcabrini, her case will probably have to go to appeal. We ask for your help to show the Border Agency that there is no shortage of people in Wales who will vouch for her, and who will help her in other ways, e.g. extend an invitation to their home for a few days. This is only necessary because the Border Agency is acting in a way that defies common sense. We need to show them that there is huge support for Evelyn, otherwise, we fear that there is little hope as she has no relatives in the UK to speak up on her behalf. Evelyn is a 20 year old whose father has passed away, whose mother is a cleaner and who is from a poor and decent Welsh family (like her forebears who came from Wales). Of course she has no assets or property in Argentina - what 20 year old anywhere does?! But she has a good job, as her employer has attested, and she lives at home with her mother and sister. She just wants to improve her Welsh language skills here in Wales. At Heathrow Airport she was treated virtually as a criminal: by the

/ FRIENDS, fact that no one made it clear to her for some considerable period of time why she was being detained; by the fact that she was given no opportunity to lie down and rest after an allnight flight from South America; by the fact that she was terrified by the hostile nature of the Border Agency’s interrogation; by not being given the opportunity to contact anyone (including her embassy and her sponsor) for a period of almost 5 hours, and then only on the condition that she could pay for a phone call with British coins; and by the fact that her luggage was searched and contents removed without either informing her or seeking her permission. Evelyn was unceremoniously put on the next plane back to Argentina having spent all her savings on the flight to the UK. We ask you to send a short email/letter in Welsh, English or Spanish in support of Evelyn Calcabrini’s appeal to the following address headed ‘FAO UK Border Agency’: JONATHAN EDWARDS, ‘CILGWYN’, 17 PARC Y FFYNNON, CAERFYRDDIN SA31 1DS. EMAIL:

jmge@btinternet.com

If you would like to contribute to Evelyn’s expenses, please send a cheque made payable to:

THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES CYLCHGRAWN CENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

WHERE’S THE GOODWILL NOW?

to the following address: 7, NANT FFYNNON, NANT PERIS, GWYNEDD, LL55 4UG.

PATAGONIA SUPPORT GROUP

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It’s the sun, stupid! Whilst the deluded supporters of large-scale wind generation continue to proclaim this medieval wind technology will save the planet from anthropogenic global warming (AGW), they enigmatically appear to be very silent to what is currently happening on the sun. But then it would not be surprising if they are totally ignorant to the workings of our nearest star, and the possible consequences of the current alarming lack of sunspots! Therefore if they wish to be meaningfully concerned about our planet, then I would recommend they educate themselves accordingly in the new field of science of cosmoclimatology the insights of this new discipline will surely give them something to truly worry about. For example, the last time there was a dearth of sunspots happened during what is known as the Maunder minimum (1645 -1715) - when the northern hemisphere experienced what has become known as the Little Ice Age. To be sure, the sun is experiencing a very quiet period and as a consequence a lessening of the solar magnetosphere which encompasses the whole solar system. The attenuation of the solar magnetosphere and/or the earth’s

CAPEL REHOBOTH-CRONFA PATAGONIA

Diolch o galon, Eilian Williams, Rhobert ap Steffan, Jeremy Wood, Jonathan Edwards

EDITOR

First Minister Rhodri Morgan sends a ‘Message of Goodwill’ to the people of Y Wladfa. Note Argentinian and Welsh flags .

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letters magnetosphere allows more cosmic rays through the atmosphere from outer space with the consequence, according to a Danish scientist and his supporters, of producing (seeding) more clouds on Earth, which in turn will lead to a drop in temperature, and hence produce a cooling period, or possibly another Little Ice Age! The case for AGW has yet to be proven, but even if it is, will the lack of sunspots be the cavalry riding to our rescue? Either way, large-scale wind generation is the playground for fools and does not enter the equation - enlightenment lies approximately 8 light minutes away. Dave Haskell Boncath Sir Benfro

oh so noble kinnocks EDITOR

As one who holds Tyrone O’Sullivan in high regard I was surprised to find him describing Neil Kinnock’s lucrative post as European Commissioner as the British Establishment’s reward for his failure to support the miners during the 1984 strike. Steady on Tyrone. Those that want to see a weak and divided Wales have any number of other, equally good reasons, to be grateful for Lord Kinnock’s efforts. Naturally Tyrone is most familiar with his abandonment of the miners, but please, let’s not forget his other contributions. Start by appreciating his momentous efforts in gaining a No vote in the 1979 Devolution Referendum, leaving Wales totally defenceless in the face of the ravages of Thatcherism. Then marvel at his complete betrayal of his CND “beliefs” at the first whiff of real power. Then wonder as his devotion to

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democracy vaporised when he became the un-elected Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty, giving credibility to the undemocratic medieval farce that is the House of Lords. Watch the master at work as he used scare tactics to try to divide Welsh and non-Welsh speakers, convincing some non-Welsh speakers that their interests would somehow be trampled on by the 20% who speak Welsh. At times his powers appeared nothing short of magical. Take the case of the amazing disappearing dossier. This file, claimed by the Kinnocks to contain evidence of all sorts of crimes perpetrated by nasty Welsh speakers on defenceless nonWelsh speakers, has disappeared into thin air. And it was such a good trick that, even after three decades, no one can find any evidence of its existence. In Tyrone’s mind the millions of pounds bagged by the Kinnocks in salaries, allowances, expenses and pensions was “crazy money that made ordinary people sick”. But looked at from the point of view of those that want to see Wales as a divided, subjugated, region of England, it was a real bargain. The cost was recouped many times over by just one event when Governor General John Redwood returned millions to his Tory government, as he could find no use for it in our deprived, under-invested country. Without our hero’s vital contribution to the referendum defeat of 1979 we wouldn’t have had to put up with Redwood at all and we would have an assembly able to help the miner’s in their struggle. So, rewarding Lord Kinnock with a first class ticket on the gravy train was the very least John Major’s Tory government could do. Anyway they’re not paying for it. We are, in more ways than one.

cliff path folly EDITOR

A High Court judge has ruled that a public path should be created along the coast of Cardigan Island Farm Park, a tourist attraction at Gwbert, Cardigan. The park’s operator, farmer Lyn Jenkins, has spent over £70,000 fighting the decision. The same High Court judge has ruled that any path should be closed if it is within 2 metres of the edge of a cliff, in accordance with Ceredigion Council’s own safety statement criteria and the words of a WAG Planning Inspector. However, the path is being created inside an unfenced 320 metre length of the farm park, largely within 2 inches, not 2 metres, of the crumbling cliff edge! Thus, the Planning Inspector, the judge and the council are ignoring documented ‘Health and Safety’ rulings. Understandably, we are not allowed to sue judges. However, when someone falls and is killed or seriously injured, who can be sued for compensation? Obviously, not the judge. Not Lyn Jenkins, one hopes! Ceredigion County Council? The Wales Assembly Government for driving through this dangerous scheme? The answer is none of those - walkers could well die and get injured - and the taxpayer will, as usual, pay for any failings in common sense. Terry Breverton Glyndwˆr Publishing (Wales Books) Cowbridge

We are always delighted to receive letters of every opinion. It may prove necessary to edit letters for space and clarity. Letters should be exclusive to

Denver Thomas Caerdydd.

cambria

magazine.

POLITICS

Clive Betts

Switching on

he trip by train to Cardiff by premier Gordon Brown was merely a gimmick, one of a publicityobsessed series which is besmirching the name of London’s dying Labour government. But his doubleannouncement, first at Paddington station, and then at Cardiff Central, was no such mere headline-grabber. For the announcement - tied in with one of Labour’s “regional” cabinet meetings - was far more significant. It marked the latest in a series of policy triumphs for the Welsh government in Cardiff Bay. Perhaps, indeed, the greatest ever. For Wales has won electrification to Swansea by end2017 in the face of official figures which prove that it would have been much better value-for-money if London had poured its £1bn into electrifying the Midland Main Line from London St Pancras to Nottingham and Sheffield. And not only that. The Department for Transport in London - a real Victorian relic with its colonial attitude to Wales - initially believed that, if the Great Western line out of Paddington were to be electrified, the first stage would halt short at the Severn Tunnel. Firstly, the economic justification for proceeding quickly beyond Bristol into southern Wales was much less (far fewer daily commuters to London, for instance). And the four-mile-long Severn Tunnel was seen as a costly problem owing to its wetness. So why did Wales win? Perhaps because of two factors. Most obvious, Wales had its own elected Assembly with a cabinet and capable ministers able to negotiate head-to-head with London ministers. Secondly, earlier this year the Bristol region abolished its regional assembly of non-elected councillors in favour of a much smaller strategic board of council leaders - hardly a body of equivalent stature, although it fits better with Labour and Tory ideas of how to deal with the English regions. And, perhaps, best of all, the London department got rid of its Secretary of State Geoff (“Buffoon”) Hoon, a Nottingham-area MP. His place was taken by Lord Andrew Adonis - more policyman than politician, who once worked as a journalist on the Financial Times. The campaign for the line to Swansea to be electrified has been running for years. Adam Price - MP for Carmarthen West and Dinefwr, and surely Plaid’s leader

The Department for Transport in London - a real Victorian relic with its colonial attitude to Wales initially believed that, if the Great Western line were to be electrified, the first stage would halt short at the Severn Tunnel. of the future - provided he can find a way of switching from Westminster to Cardiff Bay when he makes a promised return to politics - has reminded us it has been party policy for over 20 years. Before then, the party plugged dual-carriageways everywhere, including one from Cardiff to Llandudno, but let’s forget that. At the turn of the year, it seemed as if the Midland main line had won. Hoon made a big look-forward announcement in January on road and rail transport plans, - the line taken by his local daily in Nottingham. After all, it was the sensible policy. The value of the Midland project was costed at 2.9 -1, compared with 2.6 - 1 for the western project (the higher the figure the better). It is unclear when the Assembly’s front-man for railways - Plaid party leader Ieuan Wyn Jones and Deputy First Minister - first got involved in detail with the runup to this summer’s announcement that Swansea has won. Adonis did not take over from Hoon until the beginning of June, but he had previously been second in the department, and had undertaken his famous railtrip around Britain to see the network at first hand. Jones made several trips to London for face-to-face talks with him about ‘what-next?’. At that time, London mooted a competition between the Midlands and western schemes. But Adonis knew about the issue from the time when, last year, he appeared before the Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee. There he was quizzed by Albert Owen, Labour MP for Ynys Môn, on electrification and, specifically, on fears that the project would halt at the tunnel. A quasi-official map exists revealing that the department’s thinking did indeed split geographically at the tunnel. However, it seems that no-one realised the significance of this dual answer. First, that the tunnel was “in

good shape; by rail standards, it is a very young tunnel”. And second that the Swansea-Paddington line was being examined as a whole - “We are certainly not stopping to look at the case for electrification west of Bristol - we will look at the case west of Bristol and east of Bristol”. Yet the fear that Bristol might be considered as a temporary (and, it was feared, permanent) terminus for electric trains continued. The map appeared in public, with the western part of the line in a lighter colour than the section between London and Bristol. Justification for such use of ink was revealed when Network Rail published the consultation document for its electrification strategy: “The case is stronger for Maidenhead [where the London Cross-rail project ends] to Bristol given that it involves the conversion of less mileage and carries more traffic.” As Professor Stuart Cole of Glamorgan University points out, it’s at Bristol that London-bound commuters invade the trains, taking up all the seats left empty out of Wales. Network Rail continue, “The incremental electrification from Bristol Parkway to Swansea is a relatively low value for money element of the overall scheme.” In other words, droppable. The Commons committee - who would not have had access to the figures or even the argument - let it be known that chopping the line was unacceptable. But the only man on the spot would have been the Welsh minister. To liken him to a Welsh country solicitor is seen as a positive, for to a solicitor it is a case of getting the facts, then hammering them into the heads of the magistrate, or judge and jurors. And the basic fact is that - with Swansea the eventual destination - any dividing up of the scheme would add significantly to the costs. The battle for the West to conquer the Midlands has taken place underground. According to the Nottingham press: “The Welsh and Western lobby has stolen a march on the East Midlands to get electrification first despite the strength of the East Midland case.” Quite

correct, except the West is dead; so it was all left to the Welsh Mr Jones who argued so well that the Department of Transport totally ignored the Bristol issue when it came to making the big announcement and concentrated purely on Welsh issues. The Midlands are now smarting badly. With no regional voice, their complaint has been left to Bob Poynter, a retired senior Great Western official. Writing in Modern Railways, Poynter says that starting a rolling programme of British electrification with the Swansea scheme is “illogical” and could “confirm fears that the department has completely lost touch with reality”. He fears for the reaction when the Treasury finds out the logical implications of the decision - particularly when compared with the host of add-ons which could follow a Midlands project. And it is those add-ons which could make so much difference to the Great Western scheme. In their consultation paper Network Rail even talk of further examining the idea of electrifying the Kemble line which is used for diversions when the Severn Tunnel is closed. Also listed - but as a very long term possibility - is the line to Milford Haven, and, given a more favourable economic ranking, the Valley lines, which is where the future battle may lie. The Department of Transport says that the Great Western electrification “will be co-ordinated with the Welsh government’s own rail plans”. The next stage of those plans should surely be the electrification of the Valley lines out of Cardiff and Bridgend, which in the 1970s, was being actively planned by the local authorities, using trams running along the railway lines - as well as down Bridge Street, behind Queen Street in the Capital. The councils - now combined for transport purposes as SEWTA - are again urging electrification. On a grading of six tiers, Network Rail rank the Valleys as tier five, but Professor Cole says that so much money would be saved by using trams that the economics would be drastically improved.

CLIVE BETTS and others with much more on Welsh Politics

.com Irreverent and relevant ! THE political blog of Wales!

OPINION

Eurfyl ap Gwilym

Funding: they need to hear your views THE HOLTHAM COMMISSION IS CARRYING OUT A REVIEW OF THE FUNDING OF DEVOLVED

‘F

GOVERNMENT

WALES.

unding formula’ sounds a pretty dry subject, but the fairness or otherwise of the way Wales is funded is of vital importance for the delivery of public services such as education, health and transport. A commission of enquiry into the funding of devolved government in Wales was a key commitment in the One Wales Agreement, and part of the basis upon which Labour and Plaid Cymru pledged, in 2007, to work together in coalition government. Plaid Cymru has for many years been highly critical of the way in which increases in the funding of devolved services were determined, and used its bargaining position to secure a commission of enquiry which was established under the leadership of Gerald Holtham, a distinguished economist with extensive public policy and City experience. Other members of the team were David Miles, another distinguished economist and a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee and Bernd Spahn, a German academic expert in fiscal devolution, and an adviser to many governments around the world. The Commission’s terms of reference were: to look at the pros and cons of the current formula based approach to funding the Welsh Assembly Government (the Barnett Formula); and to identify possible alternative funding mechanisms including the scope for the Welsh Assembly Government to have tax varying powers as well as greater powers to borrow. The Commission published its interim report in July 2009 and the findings were widely welcomed. The Commission concluded that spending per head in Wales on devolved services would be 112% of the England average in 2010-11 compared with the con-

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2% may not appear to be much of a funding gap, but it represents a funding shortfall of £300 million a year. And bear in mind that relative need in Wales is probably higher - and relative expenditure probably lower than the numbers given by the Commission

servative estimate of relative need of 114%. Now 2% may not appear to be much of a funding gap but it represents a funding shortfall of £300 million a year. And bear in mind that relative need in Wales is probably higher - and relative expenditure probably lower - than the numbers given by the Commission, and every one per cent represents £150 million a year. Importantly, the Commission drew attention to two of the other features of the current funding formula. First, funding is not related to relative need but is simply a function of population; and second, over the years, relative spending in Wales will automatically converge to the England level despite our greater need. The Commission forecasts that within a decade if the formula is not changed, Wales will suffer a cumulative under-funding of between £5.3 billion and £8.5 billion - depending on by how much overall UK public expenditure grows. It is for this reason that the Commission called that the socalled Barnett convergence be stopped. The second - and final - report of the Commission will review ways of improving the way funding is determined, and will also consider giving the Assembly Government borrowing and tax varying powers. The Holtham Commission is now embarking on this work, it wishes to hear the considered views of the people of Wales and is inviting written evidence by 31st October 2009.

Canolfan Rhiannon Centre Tregaron SY25 6JL 01974 298415 post@rhiannon.co.uk

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OPINION

Siôn Jobbins

A Song for Wales

In 1969 along came the

‘T

Red Dragon. Men were

hank the Lord, we are musical nation,’ for as unintended as it was colourful, the crowning of Prince Charles as the Prince for Wales in 1969 set up a new Welsh musical institution. You’ve all heard of the Eurovision Song Contest, well, the Investiture played a small part in setting up Cân i Gymru (A Song for Wales Contest) and Wales’s participation in a musical Celtic UDI. The Student Prince’s pageant of peasants and protests took Wales the closest it’s been in centuries to civil war. But the peacock empire’s spectacle gave voice and focus to a Singing Revolution where the language of the chapel came the voice of change. At its centre, conspicuous but not centre stage, was Meredydd Evans, father of Cân i Gymru. Now 90 years old but with the strong noble look of Caractacus about him, his life and career stretches a breadth of experiences which I doubt any Welsh generation will be able to match for decades to come. Raised in the slate-quarrying village of Tan-y-grisiau to the sound of his mother’s folk songs he was, like many prominent Welshmen, a conscientious objector during the War. He wasn’t rationed in the 1940s and sang with the much-loved post-War Triawd y Coleg appearing in the popular series of Welsh Schlagermusik, Noson Lawen. His love of song and erudition lead him to marrying an eminent American musicologist, Phyllis Kinney and by the 1960s he was Head of Light Entertainment at BBC Wales. Although no longhaired teenager he was a man with a burning ambition to place Welsh language pop music in the mainstream of Welsh life. Meredydd Evans, or Merêd as he’s known to all, as Commissioning Editor had overseen the broadcast of Disg a Dawn, based weakly on Top of the Pops. But his ambitions for Wales were greater. He wanted Wales to sing her song in sequins and mini-skirts on the increasingly popular Eurovision Song Contest - the annual televisual event which brought an exotic glamour to the uncentral-heated homes of 1960s Wales with songs of denied lands and lands which now no longer exist. He made enquires in 1965 and ’66 if Wales could be represented and compete as a nation at the Eurovision, citing our own unique language and musical tradition. However he was told that the BBC, as the only recognised state broadcaster, were responsible for the one entry from the UK. But, that wasn’t the end of the song. In 1968 Disg a Dawn launched an annual song com-

Investiture - the red rag to the marching, bombs were being planted, families were split. It gave Merêd an idea.

petition, and in 1969 along came the Investiture - the red rag to the Red Dragon. Men were marching, bombs were being planted, families were split. It gave Merêd an idea. ‘There was plenty of money available to celebrate the Investiture,’ he remembers from his home in Cwm Ystwyth. ‘So, we took advantage of this and set up Cân i Gymru - a ‘song for Wales’ competition. There were six programmes and we received some 700 songs for the competition! A hell of a lot of them were about Charlie and I made sure not one of them got through! Not that they were any good in any case - they were stomachchurning sycophantic, chwydlyd.’ Eventually, the 700 were weeded down to 30 and the historic winning song for the first Cân i Gymru was Y Cwilt Cymreig - a historic, though not the best Welsh song ever. It was sung by young Margaret Williams of Anglesey - who is now, in best Eurovision Song Contest tradition, something of a gay icon. The Investiture having motivated the first ever Song for Wales competition came into contact with an unlikely request from Republican Ireland in 1970. An Irishman, Con O’Connell, was keen to set up an Interceltic Music Festival at Killarney in County Kerry. Con got in touch with Merêd and Phyllis. ‘We decided to combine Disg a Dawn and Cân i Gymru into one competition. The first winner of the newly amalgamated competition in 1970 was Eleri Llwyd (who is now the wife of Elfyn Llwyd MP) with Nwy yn y Nen. It was, and still is, a great song but it unfortunately came second to a Scottish group in Killarney.’ Merêd’s baby has become a regular feature in Welsh music and is broadcast every St David’s Day with all the

fun and Byzantine politics of the European voter phonein. Like all phone-ins, there’s predictability about it. In the Eurovision, Greece always gives douze points to Cyprus; in Cân i Gymru familiar composers get votes of Scandinavian mutual back-slapping size from the audience. Piano-playing school teachers from the Welshspeaking areas can likewise rely on Hellenic-style Enosis support from friends and family whilst the unknown from the un-mental-mapped South East are as likely of winning as Turkey are of voting for Armenia; they smile excitedly to the camera innocent that they are dead men walking. But for all the failings of Cân i Gymru and the Interceltic Festival it still beats the Eurovision Song Contest which has descended humiliatingly to having to ‘ironicise’ itself to be accepted. It’s like a fat woman deliberately dancing the belly dance; flab flapping, bellybutton-less, to get noticed … in an ‘ironic’ way of course. It’s unedifying. It’s humiliating to European culture and once proud nations. The culture of the Nations of Springtime now seems in the autumn of their life. Like mutton dressed as lamb or people speaking posh when they answer the phone, it’s just embarrassing. In the Newspeak of massculture, which it helped foster and which has now devoured it, ‘international’ means sans national. Multinational means to sing in one language, not many. It’s not even amusing any more. Once a schoolchild’s yearbook of ‘foreign people and places’ it’s all become an out-of-town retail park of music. Not even the guilty pleasure of prejudice, once suppressed like farts, has evaporated as most singers sing in English. If the BBC was serious about winning the Eurovision it could opt for the Stalin UN-style option. You’ll remember that Stalin, having killed maybe 10 million Ukrainians in the Holodomor, felt a pang of Ukrainian patriotism during the formation of the United Nations and insisted Ukraine and Belarus be given seats (and unswerving pro-Soviet votes) on the new body. Why not make Merêd’s dream come true and give Wales and Scotland Eurovision independence then? Owing to the English Diaspora in Wales and possible reciprocal votes, it would give an almost certain douze points every time for one of the Britannic nations! Maybe (OK, I am) too cynical, but would we want to compete at the Eurovision? The other option is for Wales to take more seriously events such as the

Interceltic festival in Killarney. They may not be as glamorous nor widely known but similar festival such as Liet in Friesland and Blas in Inverness do have integrity … and are more interesting. But then, is integrity isn’t glamorous. The Welsh genius is to adapt, translate, colonise musical forms from the Italian triple harp of the seventeenth century, which we made our own, to sea-shanties, hymns, Handel’s Messiah to rap and pop. And maybe, in a world of global culture, of which we’re an integral part, that’s all we can aspire to now. But I feel something is being lost in the Welsh singing world today. Despite today’s bravado, Welsh singing is suffering from a lack of self-confidence. The new wave of sweetsmelling young mixed-sex choirs give the impression of a healthy tradition, but how many of them are now part of that tradition and could sing a ‘traditional’ Welsh

Our Assembly, seems shy - or downright embarrassed - about promoting and financing Welsh music or arts. The Irish Republic’s arts council in 2005/06 spent £10.72 per head of population on the arts. Wales’s spent £8.80. tune? When the last of our sweaty, blazer-wearing Male Voice Choirs fade away in twenty years time, who will sing our hymns and Lieder? What will have replaced them? Songs from the musicals (the Babycham of music) for telly votes; American gospel (but never the true soulful music of Russian orthodox church or Russian folk music) for ‘passion’ and modern compositions as unlistenable and unloved as they are ubiquitous, for the judges? Like Robert ap Huw transcribing the last golden droplets of harp music from the courts of our princes, should we not now save the best of Welsh choral music before it is lost in the Eurovision of choral music? Our Assembly, seems shy - or downright embarrassed about promoting and financing Welsh music or arts. The Irish Republic’s arts council in 2005/06 spent £10.72 per head of population on the arts. Wales’s spent £8.80. Where money is spent, priorities are skewed. Adam Price MP felt the full-force of the fat lady sit on him when he questioned the cultural priorities and strategy of the Welsh National Opera in July this year. Price noted that our national opera company has never appointed a Welsh Musical Director nor ever staged a Welsh opera.

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Adam’s argument wasn’t against the WNO staging foreign operas. He wasn’t advocating, as some implied (often with snide remarks to Welsh culture which betrayed their scarcely colonial view of Wales) Hywel and Blodwen on loop. His argument is simple: where’s the national platform and the support for a Welsh Dvorák or Sibelius? The National Opera’s budget is £6.3 million of the Welsh Arts Council’s money. But the budget for ‘traditional’ Welsh music foundation, Trac, is £274,000. I’m certainly not arguing for cutting the Opera Company’s budget but rather increasing the money given to forms of music, which are only played in Wales. With the current recession and the talk of slashing budgets, some predictable politicians want to ring-fence the budgets of health and education. But we’re a People not patients. If any budget should be ring-fenced then it surely must be Heritage. It’s a mere £160m - less than 1.5% of the Assembly’s budget. When I read that hospitals such as Addenbrookes in Cambridge spent £190,452

on wasted food in one year, I can’t believe that Welsh hospitals aren’t also as wasteful. Moreover, any saving in Heritage is neither here nor there in the Assembly’s £16bn budget. Forty years after the first Cân i Gymru arrived we’ve taken two steps forward but one step back. In being rejected from one institution, Meredydd Evans, with others, created an alternative on; so, maybe, being accepted by the mainstream isn’t always the best option nor outcome for a culture or an artist. Mêred’s Grundgesetz, basic law, like thousands of others is, ‘popeth yn Gymraeg’ - everything in Welsh. Through the National Eisteddfod’s ‘Welsh only’ rule and the elasticity of the Welsh language, we’ve converted all musical forms into Welsh. But are we in danger of being a culture of translation? Is it that deep down, we really are, just too embarrassed to sing as Welsh people? It makes you almost wish the House of Windsor and a subaltern mother-loving MP had another Investiture to get the juices flowing again!

OPINION

Cynog Dafis

Declaring for Welsh Democracy CYNOG DAFIS seeks the support of Cambria readers for the activities of Cymru Yfory-Tomorrow’s Wales and for the Declaration for Welsh Democracy.

e are entering a critical phase in the history of our nation. During the next two years we have the opportunity to transform our National Assembly into a proper legislative parliament. In June 2007, the new One Wales coalition government committed itself to seeking primary law-making powers for the Assembly and ‘to campaign for a successful outcome’ to a referendum on that subject. By the end of November, it is anticipated that the AllWales Convention, chaired by Sir Emyr Jones-Parry, will have reported on its finding to the Government of Wales, and it is likely to come out in favour of law-making powers. But even then there will be a number of major hurdles to cross before the finishing line is reached.

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Before a referendum can be held there is a statutory process that could take as long as 160 days: • The National Assembly has to pass by a two-thirds majority a resolution calling for a referendum • The Secretary of State has to consult and may, or may not, then place a draft order before both houses of the UK Parliament • If (s)he does so, that order, setting the date, the question and time allowed for campaigning, has to be approved by both houses • The Assembly itself must then approve the order, again by a two-thirds majority The first hurdle should present no difficulty but it is far from certain that the next two will be crossed and there might be issues of detail that could make the fourth uncertain. If all of these hurdles are successfully crossed, there remains the task of winning the support of the people if Wales in a referendum. There is every reason to be optimistic about the outcome. Rigorous analysis of public opinion shows a steady and strong growth in support for devolution since 1999, with law-making powers on the Scottish model the most favoured option. At the same

time there is widespread support in ‘civil society’ for a legislative parliament (although the business sector is perhaps more ambiguous). At the same time the current arrangements, whereby the National Assembly has to seek the power to legislate, item by item, from Westminster is widely regarded as cumbersome, inefficient and an obstacle to effective democratic government. However referenda are by their nature unpredictable and it would be the height of folly to take success for granted. It is in this context that Cymru Yfory has launched its Declaration for Welsh Democracy (see panel), which has already attracted thousands of signatures, including prominent people from the worlds of sport, entertainment and the arts, the law, academia etc as well as hundreds of ordinary citizens. Cymru Yfory was established in 2004 to press for the implementation of the recommendations of the Richard Commission on the Powers and Electoral arrangements of the National Assembly. We are a cross-sectoral, nonparty-political body and our able chairman is the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan. Since 2004 we have been active in lobbying for a law-making parliament and have established strong links with civil organisations to encourage a well-informed debate about democracy and effective government in Wales through networking, seminars and conferences. Our Layman’s Guide to the New National Assembly for Wales, the only publication of its kind, is currently being updated. Our briefing papers on various aspects of devolved government have been widely welcomed and we have published a number of popular leaflets. We have been able to attract funding for our activities

from various sources including the Rowntree Charitable and Reform Trusts and a grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has enabled us this year to obtain the professional services of a Development Officer, Elin Wyn. We are in the process of establishing a formal membership system. Cymru Yfory will not be the Yes Campaign which will no doubt be established early next year. We have a broader remit than such a campaign. However we believe we have a responsibility to prepare the ground for the debate that will occur as the Referendum approaches. It is now vitally important that a powerful momentum be created in favour of bringing proper parliamentary government to Wales and to do so we need the support of people from all walks of life and all parts of Wales. Cambria readers can help in a number of ways: • By signing the Declaration for Welsh Democracy which we see as a key tool in building momentum • By asking others to do so: family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Imagine the effect if each of Cambria’s 60,000 plus readers got ten signatures each! • By joining with others to establish a local group to distribute leaflets and gather support • By contributing financially • By joining in the debate on our blog at: www.tomorrow-wales.co.uk/blog

Information on Cymru Yfory and materials, including leaflets and petition forms for the Declaration, can be obtained from Cymru Yfory at Tyˆ Meandros, 54a Bute Street, Cardiff CF10 5AS or by visiting our website www.tomorrow-wales.co.uk

A DECLARATION FOR WELSH DEMOCRACY We the undersigned believe that the creation of a system of effective democratic governance for Wales is a matter of major importance. Such a system should: • • • •

Be efficient in its use of time and resources Be comprehensible and transparent Promote wide participation by the public and civil society Respect the autonomy of the National Assembly as the elected body which represents the people of Wales • Offer constitutional stability and thus a means of concentrating on the implementation of a policy programme that can get to grips with the problems and release the potential of Wales We believe that this would best be achieved by the granting of primary law-making powers to the National Assembly, and we call for the holding of a referendum to that end.

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OPINION

Denis Campbell

A Tale of Two Cities: WHY IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SO DIFFICULT IN WALES?

iming is everything. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) waited until just before summer recess to release details of £700,000+ pounds of credit card expenditures by International Business Wales (IBW) for global trade. It exploded then died over summer break. Dylan Jones-Evans wrote in The Western Mail: “those who accuse some Assembly Members of playing politics with these departments could ultimately have a detrimental effect on business and our economy as a whole.” It was soon business as usual once again. While there’s no smoking gun in the 4,500+ transaction spreadsheet, a pattern of cavalier disregard for the source of those funds was clear. Most items would not pass the Sheldon Schneider “look over his reading glasses” test. Shelley was my managing partner at Price Waterhouse. PW expense rules were quickly learned, especially ‘that look’ and closing line, “if I ever see anything like this again, I will fire you on the spot.” That is a test our “public servants” could learn. What’s missing in IBW and WAG is a clear, focussed concentration on taxpayer ROI for development expenditures. Taking credit for every company that locates or expands in Wales is, pardon the pun, a bridge too far. What, specifically, do they point to as measurable success for millions of pounds spent year upon year? In early September an article I wrote about the development group Cardiff and Co. made headlines and got me wondering about this developmental malaise. The article chided their CEO for pursuing a personal vendetta vs. answering why they didn’t invest in the HSBC 10K? They take credit for everything from St. Davids 2 to the Ryder Cup (one wondered it they eventually will offer national side player suggestions for the Six Nations?). The Welsh Development Agency (WDA) was assimilated into a deep but well-funded WAG abyss. What do these groups bring to Wales and is there a better model all parties could learn from if only they stopped justifying their existence? Yes, there is. In the mid-1980s, Miami, Florida and Dade County were gripped by riots, an explosive ethnic mix of black,

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white and Latinos, suspicious fires and police brutality. Miami Beach was a decrepit strip of land with a spectacular ocean view and dozens of nursing homes where the rich “parked” elderly family members to die. Downtown was where one ventured at high speed, never after dark, to catch a cruise ship. Brickell Avenue and Coral Gables were home to Central and South American banks that were more drug money laundering fronts than real banking institutions. Guns and violence were everywhere. It was a period so grim the punch line of a popular local joke was: “it’s not so bad… What do you do in Miami? Me, I’m a tail-gunner on a bread truck.” We were in deep trouble. A group of business people recognised the depth of the crisis and lured Tom Davis from Ohio (he’d revitalised Cleveland and turned it from the city whose river had caught fire, to a business success story). Tom went from business to business in Miami asking for funding grants. I remember sitting in as he asked our bank for $50,000 a year. We thought he was smoking something funny. When he walked out with that funding, we knew something special was beginning. Tom got us to believe in our community and a fledgling private/public partnership called The Beacon Council was forged to both save and transform the city and Dade County. Wales needs a Tom Davis. We went on trade junkets. We all paid our own way. We needed real targets and a reason to go in the first place. We worked our tails off when we were there. We got huge benefits and businesses committed. We worked with City and County government to build tax programmes, roads and abatements for new jobs. We grew our communities and everyone benefitted. Tom had no staff, there were no political appointees or pre-promises made. He just demanded we all work hard and we all work together. He insisted there was no “I” in the word team, wanted us to produce quantifiable results, upset a number of people in power and… the results spoke for themselves: Miami Beach became THE global fashion trend setter. Stadiums were built for American football and basketball. Miami Vice put the city on the TV map and opened-up motion picture and TV production facilities. 3,000 Citigroup jobs moved in from New York. American Airlines built a Latin American hub. Bayside Market opened to attract those speeding by to their cruise ships to stop and visit. The NBA and Major League baseball took notice awarding franchises… And the list went on and on. $2.3 billion dollar of direct inbound investment and the group gave real assistance to some 690 businesses over 20+-years. Now that’s not so bad.

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A Hedge Bank of Welsh History or -Wat’s in a Name? KEITH NURSE

fter centuries of obscurity, Wat’s Dyke has at last come of age. The ditch-and-rampart earthwork - one of the most puzzling historic features of the northern Welsh borderlands - has been accorded the wider recognition its role in the ancient battle lines between the English and Welsh merits: it now boasts a recently opened heritage trail. But the raising of its public profile also coincides with new archaeological findings, thus stimulating a renewed debate about its long disputed chronological background. Admittedly, you have to be of an unreconstructed antiquarian inclination to be drawn to an ill-recorded green bank of history from such dark times. And a landmark it isn’t: the 1,200 year-old boundary line is often difficult to distinguish from any other hawthorn-entangled ‘hump in the field’. But it is worth muddying your boots in this hunt for an historical enigma amongst the high hedges of the borderlands: Wat’s Dyke is unique, by any measure of historical analysis. Yet just a decade or so ago, when a disputed archaeological finding produced a controversy, its presence was almost unknown outside scholarly circles. Early maps don’t help in the ‘who-and wat’ search. The early cartographers often confused this quite separate 39 mile-long, continuous earthwork with its famous parallel neighbour, Offa’s Dyke (at one point near

Wat’s Dyke - near Wrecsam

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Ruabon, near Wrecsam, they lie just 1,200 yards from each other. There are other, more other-worldly puzzles. In some areas, Wat’s Dyke has been put down to the work of the Devil; now who, you might ask, was the past cythraul behind that piece of Saeson demonising? Or was it just an example of localised and superstitious name-calling? But there is growing evidence now that the earthwork played a pivotal, if unheralded, role in the consolidation of the north-west ‘frontier’ of Mercia (today the name of the English kingdom only survives as the title of a regional police force). Yet the midlands kingdom, with its royal base at Tamworth, was the most dominant of the early Anglo-Saxon territories, though in its troubled western reaches it incorporated a tenacious Welsh-speaking population. These were the nominally excluded people: unmapped but clearly taxed - in kind at least. Remarkably, the cultural and political tenacity they displayed was enduring, signified, if nothing else, by the survival of two later adjoining medieval border districts: Maelor Gymraeg and Maelor Saesneg - the sort of conjunction only to be found on the outer edges of the early Welsh experience. The oldest surviving reference to the Wat’s alignment is late - Clawdd Wade (1431), subsequently known as Clawdd Wad (1620). Wrecsam, the principal Welsh town of the border, forms an important site here, first recorded in 1161 ‘as the castle of Wristleham’ (‘ham’ representing the Saxon word for settlement)The latter fortress was a Norman timber motte-and-bailey outpost adjoining the line of the then 300 year-old dyke, and stands in the grounds of what is now the noted National Trust property at Erddig. And in the north east suburb of the town at Wrecsam there survived a Cae Wad - still mapped as such as late as 1844. The field lay a short distance from the earthwork then bearing the name of Clawdd Wad. At this point the earthwork formed the western boundary of the burgeoning nineteenth century borough. But centuries earlier, the dyke had marked the westernmost limits of the Mercian expansion and its accompanying taxation system. The progression of the Old English personal name Wad to Wat - recorded in the ninth century - offers background clues, identified as a locative naming pattern observed by place-name scholars in distant and ancient English regions - East Anglia in particular. Geography has always led history by the hand, certainly so here, where history is written into the landscape, the two dykes (both with once deep west-facing ditches) lying along the foothills of Wales that form the timeless interface between lowlander and highlander. Other fac-

tors come into play: the taxing motive was arguably a major driving force for the Mercians, as were the ‘overkingship’ tribute-exacting claims to the mineral-rich rocks of the Welsh uplands. There was lead and silver in those looming and uninviting Welsh hills - and the coinminting Mercian monarchs needed both, to oil the wheels of inter-state-kingdom diplomacy and to win over friends and buy off threatening enemies and armies. The dyke marked the western extent of hidation - an early medieval (hides) land tax unit largely involving the payment of ‘food-rent renders.’ - the hidated medieval manors/villas all lying to the east of the earthwork. It was this economic dynamic, surely, that drove the Mercians to concentrate so much on the seemingly fringe ‘Welsh question’. And this was so even when they were facing the ravaging effects of the Norse raids when, sadly, much of the church-held documentary material of the age went up in Viking smoke and with it, verifiable records of events of the time. Intriguingly, however, as a demarcation barrier, the dyke, gave rise to a crucial side effect:it developed into a marked linguistic dividing line, with almost all ‘Llan’ church or church enclosure - villages lying to the west of its line. Yet the name applied to the earthwork evoked echoes of quite another world, and an Anglo-Saxon one at that - the spectre of a mythical North Sea sea-giant folk hero (emerging as the locative Wade and personal name Wada) from Old English poetry. From this developed an early Anglo-Saxon personal name - Wada/Wat. But just who was directly responsible for the earthwork that bears this name? Two shadowy figures emerge as a possible candidate: one Abbot Wada, mentioned in a papal document, who in the 790s headed an ambassadorial mission on behalf of King Coenwulf of Mercia (AD 796-821) to Pope Leo III in Rome. No surprise there - abbots also performed key roles in government (one early tenth century abbot was killed in Wales while serving as a Mercian envoy). Then there is the evidence of a Northumbrian nobleman (dux) named Wada who was driven into exile - circa 798 - evidently seeking sanctuary in the rival royal court of Mercia. Possibly we are talking about the same individual. Coenwulf - who took over where the ruthless and expansionist Offa left off was deeply involved in ecclesiastical politics and campaigns against the Welsh. Significantly, he died at the fortress (‘werk’) end of the dyke at Basingwerk in AD 821, as he prepared for another assault on troublesome border kingdom of Powys. A plausible historical context thus presents itself. Coenwulf ’s reign is now the favoured era for the building of the earthwork, especially following excavations

Pillar of Eliseg near Llangollen

involving a processes known as optical stimulated luminescence dating of ditch samples from the line of the dyke at Gobowen, near Oswestry. These soil samples have produced laboratory processed date findings of AD 792-852. The defining stretch of the continuous Wat’s earthwork has been traced from Maesbrook, south of Oswestry, on the Shropshire border, to Basingwerk on Deeside, with more than half of its line designated as a scheduled monument. It crosses a contrasting countryside - much of it uplifting and scenic, some of it infinitely less so. In those bleak areas where the earthwork snakes through former coal mining districts, it is now barely detectable. In the countryside, where it closely follows the line of the Welsh foothills, it is more visible, even if its steep, green bank profile has been long eroded by centuries of natural weathering and ploughing. The new heritage trail, reaching from Llanymynech, on the Powys-Shropshire border, to a point near Holywell on Deeside, crosses 61 miles and three border counties, its diverging route taking in adjoining historic and scenic locations. The trail thus places the ancient boundary line on a par with its more famous parallel neighbour (the two are never more three miles apart) the eighth century Offa’s Dyke. The latter boasts a 177mile National trail stretching from Chepstow to the coast at Prestatyn. However, the detected line of the latter earthwork (in places it still acts as the boundary between England and Wales) ends at Treuddyn, Flintshire, some distance short of the North Wales coast. With its often 25 ft high rampart rising from a deep ditch, the Offan alignment was the one by which Wales, on its eastern limits, was popularly defined - a visible deterrent to harrying Welsh raiders in search of cattle and, no doubt, women of the plains - the latter doubtless as important as stock replacement to the men of the

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Offa’s Dyke

hills. Both dykes, however, may well have formed barriers to control trading between the English and Welsh. So the cross-border relations were not always hostile, though it is worth noting that between AD 796 and 1012, some 19 English raids and campaigns were recorded in the annals, many of them long-range incursions into Gwynedd and south west Wales. It was Asser, a ninth century monk at St David’s and biographer of King Alfred,who first attributed the early earthwork to the king of Mercia (Offa, AD 774-794). Intriguingly, Offa is believed to have breathed his last at Rhuddlan. Two all-powerful Mercian monarchs dying on Welsh soil: that in itself tells us something, as does the latin-inscribed Christian cross, Eliseg’s Pillar dating from circa AD 820. (Pillar of Eliseg, CAMBRIA, Spring 2004). This lone monument, close to the Cistercian abbey ruin of Valle Crucis, near Llangollen, is set in the picturesque Dee Valley. Standing some five/six miles west of the Mercian dykes, it bears a now weathered inscription proclaiming the ancient lineage of the House of Powys; importantly, it also records earlier, eighth century ‘fire and sword’ successes in regaining land from the ‘anglo’.

This, indirectly, reveals the broader political context for the creation of the dykes. The two earthen barriers thus gave shape to an emerging yet fragmented Wales, a land powerfully identified by its own robust and vibrant language and enduring customs, a disputed land forged and fashioned by bitter and sporadic conflict. And there is one little known key fact: the significance of Wat’s Dyke outlasted that of the Offa’s dyke - serving as a taxation limit line for some 250 years until the Norman Conquest and Domesday. Whatever else they marked, the two dykes signified, by default at least, the separateness of Wales. Another key ‘separateness’ factor: the Welsh language and the pattern of intermittent cultural fusion that is confusingly still evident in the modern landscape. Sometimes we find Wat and Offa in farm and school names, electoral wards and as the addresses of the cul-de-sacs of modern close living. These lands truly formed a hybrid territory plagued by the persistent paradoxes and realpolitik indignities that the border men have long been obliged to abide by: working with the grain of evolving historical forces. All gloriously ambiguous - and, by that yardstick, arguably all rather Welsh. Not surprising, then, that, the west of Wat’s Dyke, the township names remain predominantly and defiantly Welsh, with long Anglicised Welsh location names persisting to the immediate east, all originating from a time when both Wales and England were composed of rival kingdoms jostling for supremacy - and when the stimulus in Wales, for nation forming was then still some way off. This article was completed just one week before Keith Nurse’s untimely death at the age of 71. We pay tribute to a valued and well-loved contributor to and loyal friend of Cambria. Our deepest sympathy and that of all our readers goes to his family. Illustrations by Emrys Bowen

er serchus gof

KEITH NURSE - 26TH JULY

6TH MARCH 1938

2009

Keith Nurse was a Fleet Street journalist (The Daily Telegraph) who wrote extensively on archaeological and heritage issues, contributing to a range of history journals and magazines, including Country Life, History Today and the leading Welsh magazines Cambria and New Welsh Review. He was a regular contributor to Vortigern Studies, an award-winning Netherlands-based web site devoted to Dark Age studies and also wrote articles for the Clwyd Family History Society. He was the author of two works focusing on Welsh social and family history subjects - Torments Ancient and Modern (1996) and Footsteps to the past - A Welsh quest (1998). His last book, Scorched Earth - the earliest English in North Wales, 2007, examined the key post-conquest aspects of the Edwardian military campaign in Wales of 1277-83. The book also explored some of the complex settlement patterns that followed the English victory, the establishment of the castle-towns and the seizure of adjoining Welsh lands. Born in the castle-town of Denbigh in 1938 and brought up and educated at Grove Park Grammar School, Wrexham, north-east Wales, he was married with two children and four grandchildren and lived in Orpington, Kent.

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‘Olive Groves’ oil/canvas 30”x24”

PHILIPPA JACOBS

- ARTIST

In search of balance FRANCES DAVIES

hilippa Jacobs moved to Ynys Môn twenty years ago where she lives in the isolated abandoned Fog Signal Station sitting on the cliff edge on the north-west side of Holyhead Mountain. There is no road, no mains water, no postman and no rubbish collection, but after twenty years these seem a small price to pay for the peace and beauty. Grief at the loss of a husband and son within fifteen months of each other, coupled with an urge to find a place free of noise, had been the catalyst for this move. A place so remote she could bury herself in her search for a new technical path, for despite fifty years of painting she knew ‘that most at fault was my technique’. As far as Philippa is concerned painting is about a means of expression, of communication: ‘Technique in some quarters is thought to be inconsequential’ but it is important in being able to convey meaning and in its contribution to style. As the days, weeks and months passed, the sound of wind and gulls, the rhythms of the sea, the enormous sky, strength began to return and after nearly fifty years of painting she felt she was beginning again. Looking out of her studio window she knew that ‘the underlying truth that made the miracle of the existence of our planet is balance’. She realised that it was balance that her painting needed. In painting ‘There are three main elements - colour, composition, subject’ all of equal importance. ‘In colour I need to find new harmonies ... a different colour story for every painting. In composition, I need to express the tension in the rhythms of the motif. In subject, the order of emphasissimilar to musical composition, themes, otherwise there would be a cacophony of sound, so in painting the viewer must not be bombarded by too much information. Knowing

‘Junction-Penrhos Wood’ oil/canvas 30”x40”

what to include is as important as what to leave out.’ ‘Copying what is in front of me onto the canvas was nothing to do with painting. That is the reality of photographs. A painter who absorbs reality and allows it to undergo an internal metamorphosis, selecting and carving out a personal reality is creating an abstract work. But because everyone has an unique experience of life and will respond differently, a verbal explanation is inappropriate. Everyone will take, or not, what is relevant to them.’ ‘There is a long way to go before I can really say ‘Yes, that has balance.’ That is why there is no retirement, no holiday for an artist, it is a way of life.’

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS Arddangosfa o lluniau gan

Philippa Jacobs 3 October / 8 November 3 Hydref / 8 Tachwedd

Oriel Ynys Môn Rhosmeirch, Llangefni, Ynys Môn LL77 7TQ Ffôn/Tel: 01248 724444 Ffacs/Fax: 01248 750282

AGOR/OPEN 10.30am - 5.00pm - Bob dydd/Daily www.anglesey.gov.uk

Swansea’s Canine VC DAVID JONES

By the summer of 1935 Jack’s rescues had numbered twenty-one - including a remarkable three within a

ore than seventy years ago, the people of Swansea went into mourning over the death of a resident of the city who, through bravery and heroic deeds had won a place in their hearts and captured the imagination of a nation. The tears of the children and heavy hearts of the adults though, were not for a famous local celebrity, at least not of the human kind, but rather for a very special dog. ‘Swansea Jack’ was a black flat-coated retriever who became a legend in his own lifetime and was even awarded the canine equivalent of the VC for his amazing life saving exploits which are still remembered today. Born in 1930, Jack came into the ownership of William Thomas who was a haulage contractor with premises on Swansea’s North Dock. The stone building which also housed living quarters was literally dockside

Canine legend

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nine week period.

accommodation since it stood just ten feet from the dock edge. Thomas was an animal lover who shared the spartan living quarters with two horses, an alsation, a fox terrier, a dalmation and a monkey. When Thomas agreed to take over the ownership of a fourth dog, a small retriever puppy, he could not have realised the fame, if not fortune, that the future was to hold. As the puppy grew, Thomas became aware it possessed a curious phobia, quite untypical of its kind. Strangely, in the light of events that followed, it appeared Jack had an aversion to water. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Thomas after positioning several wouldbe rescuers, unceremoniously dumped Jack into the deep, dark waters of the dock. The initiation, though a terrifying

experience, had the desired effect, for Jack came to regard the North Dock waters with delight. Several times daily he would go for a swim, often being joined during the summer months by dockland children. They would frolic and play in the Jack with his owner water with Jack, holding onto his collar and hitch a free tow. Noticing this, Thomas, with the collaboration of the children, feigned incidents of the children in difficulty in the water. Each time Jack came to the rescue bringing the ‘victim’ to the safety of the dock wall. One day however Jack’s talent for human retrieval was to be put to the test for real. It was June 1931, when a twelve year old boy was disposing of some over-ripe fruit by dumping it in the dock. Startled by the unseen arrival of a gang of other boys, he slipped, lost his foothold and plunged headlong into the dock. As he did so, Jack who had been snuffling around nearby launched himself into the dock after the boy. On reaching the hapless urchin, Jack proceeded to drag him towards the safety of dry land. This was the first of many heroic rescues. Some weeks later on 7th July, 1931, Jack’s brave deeds made front page headline news when he rescued a swimmer suffering from an attack of cramp. Having witnessed the man in distress, Jack swam to him and on feeling for a grip on his collar brought him to safety. In recognition of his brave deed, Swansea Town Council presented Jack with an inscribed silver collar. Barely three months later, almost as to underline his worthiness of such an award, Jack proceeded in saving a Liverpool man who had slipped from the quayside. News of Jack’s remarkable rescues soon spread and as a consequence he became something of a celebrity. He began attending local events such as carnivals, regattas and sports tournaments where he was the star attraction. His appearances however were always put to good use for, wearing a specially made leather harness with

two wooden collecting boxes on either side, he went about collecting money for charity. The organisations and worthy causes he collected money included two local hospitals, the Association for the Blind, the PDSA and the Lifeboat Institute. Jack continued his life saving rescues and whilst these were in the main confined to the dock area it was also reported that he saved the lives of two children, one from a park pond and one from a nearby canal. By August 1934, fourteen souls were believed to have been saved from drowning by Swansea’s wonder dog. A remarkable story that illustrates Jack’s prowess as a life saver was an incident that occurred whilst he was walking with his master on Swansea pier. It seems a man approached William Thomas and in the course of conversation made scurrilous remarks about Jack. Heated words were exchanged which ended in Thomas giving the man such a push that he fell back over the edge of the pier and plunged into the icy water. Quickly a crowd gathered who were able to witness another rescue by Jack. The bedraggled man was brought to the shore and convinced of Jack’s talents, apologised to Thomas and offered to buy him a drink at the local inn. By the summer of 1935 Jack’s rescues had numbered twenty-one including a remarkable three within a nine week period. News of such gallantry travelled far and wide and eventually resulted in the award of the National Canine Defence League Medal, the highest

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award possible for a dog and widely regarded as the canine equivalent of the VC. Two years later with the total of humans thankful for the intervention the jet-black life saving retriever amounting to twenty-seven, Jack was struck down with a mystery illness. For almost a month he suffered cruelly from what turned out to be the effects of phosphorus poisoning, the source of which was illegally laid rat poison. On 2 October, 1937, at the age of seven, Swansea’s brave canine VC drew his last breath. News of Jack’s death was greeted with tears by local children and a sense of loss by the whole community. Soon demands for a public burial and commemorative stone were made. Eventually Swansea Council agreed and Jack was buried within an unpolished oak coffin in a small grave on Swansea Promenade. Twelve months after Jack’s untimely death a memorial stone was unveiled to permanently mark the last resting place of the brave retriever. Sculpted from Penzance granite, the one and a half ton memorial stone included a life-size likeness of Jack’s head and an inscription: ‘Ne’er had Mankind More Faithful Friend Than Thou Who Oft Thy Life Did’st Lend To Save Some Human Soul From Death’. Forty years later another tribute to Jack was paid when a public house on Oystermouth Road, Swansea, changed its rather anonymous name from ‘The London’ to the entirely more appropriate ‘Swansea Jack’. Today, the Swansea Jack memorial has become something of a tourist attraction with visitors from all over the world paying a call at the last resting place of Swansea’s famous dog. But it is the local people who most remember with affection the canine V.C. who was one of their own and according to popular legend is why Swansea residents are to this day still referred to as ‘Jacks’.

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Roy Noble

Sleeping around in Cowbridge

fter a stint of missionary work, teaching in England, I returned to Wales, to take a temporary post, teaching Geography at Cowbridge Grammar School, where the Headteacher, Mr Idwal Rees, was a strict Classics scholar. His rugby pedigree was of the utmost purity, having played in the victorious Welsh team against the All Blacks in 1936. I was a little reticent, because I expected the school to be full of Oxbridge trained teachers and wondered whether I would be intimidated. My fears were unfounded and, I enjoyed my stay immensely. As a young buck bachelor, I was often in the company of the two boarding masters of the time: Wyn Oliver, who was in charge of PE, and Iolo Davies, another Classics man, who produced the weekly newspaper, The Bovian. Iolo was a visitor from a time warp, a total eccentric, who wore cavalry twill trousers that ended some six inches from the ground occasionally supported by a tie wrapped around the waist. In their shared study, any gap in the line of books on the bookshelves was filled by a half empty whisky bottle. Wyn, small and vibrant from West Wales, had sprinted for Wales in the Commonwealth Games, held in Cardiff in 1958. About 5 feet 5 inches tall when he was feeling well, he was explosive and fast as a rugby player and athlete and no boy dared cross him, he was a pocket hand grenade. When I got to the school, they were still talking about his first day at the school, particularly his self introduction to the staff. Apparently, he stood at the staffroom door and started counting, ‘One, two, three, four . . . ’ until he had counted everyone. ‘Right,’ he continued, ‘a recent survey in the newspapers states that one in every fifteen men is a practising homo-sexual. There are seventeen in this room, so if I could be enlightened, I’d appreciate it, just in case I drop a clanger.’ Digs had been arranged for me in Eastgate, where I shared a boarding house with a colourful group of Sheffield welders who were working at the Aberthaw Power station. They worked hard and played harder and I found it difficult to keep up with their avid and ribald socialising around the clubs of South Wales. I soon

moved to a quieter spot, outside the town, near Crossways, staying with a very congenial couple, Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd, who had once been in service in London, so tea and biscuits were served at 7.30 am and my shoes were taken away to be cleaned. Mrs. Shepherd’s sister, Emily, lived in a caravan at the bottom of the garden, and such was the service in that digs, I put on two stone in two terms. I still remember, with dreamy eyes, her apple tart with hint of cloves. Character, in all its forms, must have been a prime criterion for appointment to the staff because they had it in spades. ‘Don’t sit in that chair in the staffroom, Roy,’ was one piece of advice. ‘That chair belongs to Darwyn Adams, Maths. He likes to sit there because he can supervise his senior class, without leaving the staffroom.. He can see them through the window, see, while he has a puff on his pipe.’ The head of History, Jim White, was a published author, although you’d never guess it by his thrifty use of words in school reports, “Hopeless” or “Bemused” or “Non-historic”, were examples. He once bought a car on the strength that his dog had jumped into the passenger seat and settled comfortably there. Jeff Alden was Head of Geography and I worked in his department. He was a lovely man, who became a renowned local historian in Cowbridge. He died far too young. Sid Harries was another Classics man, an exrugby player for Swansea, with a glint of mischief in his eye. I remember him, following a staff drinking session in a town pub, on our half day holiday, to celebrate St. David’s Day, jumping on a letter box and eating a daffodil in honour of our saint. He was clearly a man of honour in all things. He told me that he met his wife while she was training to be a nurse. One evening after a date they were late getting back to the nurses’ hostel and found it locked. They went in search of an open window, found one, and he helped her to clamber through. ‘Roy,’ he said, ‘In pushing her through the window, I inadvertently, placed both my hands on her backside, just to heave her in you understand - but after that, I felt committed, I had to marry her.’ An interesting discussion between the caretaker of the Boys’ Grammar School and the caretaker of the Girls’ High School, in Cowbridge centred on the literary quality of the graffiti in the toilets. I have to report that the caretaker of the Girls’ school won hands down. There was a literary imagination and worldly-wise research displayed by the girls that left the Boys’ school floundering in basic English and Biology. Things have changed now, the school is mixed and the graffiti nonexistent I’m sure.

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Mr Pughe and the Prophetess PATRICK THOMAS

s a small boy I used to be fascinated by an advertisement that appeared regularly in my father’s favourite newspaper. It was illustrated with an engraving of Joanna Southcott’s box and called on the bishops of the Church of England to open this substantial trunk. If they did so, the advertisement claimed, all the nation’s problems would be solved. It was placed by an organisation called the Panacea Society. I looked it up on the internet recently and was pleased to discover that it is still going strong. Apparently the box remains in the Society’s safe-keeping and the bishops still haven’t opened it - the box that they claim to have opened was apparently a fake. It requires at least twenty-four English bishops to open the box properly, but Welsh bishops no longer count since disestablishment. For me, as a boy, the call to “Open the box!” had a delightfully comic ring to it. The natural response, taken from Hughie Green’s television show which was popular at the time, was to shout “Take the money!” Many years later I stood in the sêt fawr of Capel Newydd, Abergorlech. We were holding our annual ecumenical carol service and for me it was a particularly poignant occasion. After seventeen years as the spiritual shepherd of a valley, a mountain and a forest in north Carmarthenshire I was about to say goodbye and move to the county town. There was one carol that I was really going to miss. I read aloud the opening verse, as is the chapel custom: Wele’n gwawrio ddydd i’w gofio, Geni’r Seilo, gorau swydd; Wele ddynion mwyn a moddion Ddônt â rhoddion iddo’n rhwydd... I felt sad as we launched into Alaw Llechid’s lively tune. I was sure that it was the last time that I would sing that particular carol. It didn’t seem sophisticated enough for the refined urban taste of Carmarthen. I’m glad to say that I was wrong, but it was not until last Christmas, as we sang it during the Cymun y Wawr in Eglwys Crist, that it suddenly struck me that there might be a link between ‘Wele’n gwawrio’ and the advertisement that had intrigued me as a child.

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It requires at least twenty-four English bishops to open the box properly - but Welsh bishops no longer count since disestablishment. For me, as a boy, the call to “Open the box!” had a delightfully comic ring to it.

The possible connection involves one of the most colourful and controversial characters in Welsh literary history, William Owen Pughe. William Owen (the Pughe was added later when he inherited an estate from a wealthy relative) was born in Llanfihangel-y-Pennant in Meirionnydd in 1759. When he was seven, the family moved to Ardudwy. Egryn, their substantial farmhouse, soon became the cultural centre of the district. The Owens were old-fashioned Eglwyswyr, still happy to enjoy singing to the harp and watching anterliwtiau, activities which were frowned upon by the increasingly influential Calvinistic Methodists. Wil Egryn, as his friends then called him, notes his delight in reading Gorchestion Beirdd Cymru, the beautifully produced anthology of Welsh poetry from the sixth to the sixteenth century, edited by a Meirionnydd antiquary in 1773. The subscribers’ list, which includes John Owen, William’s father, contains a fascinating social cross-section, ranging from drovers, millers and curates to the Chief Justice of North Wales, and the Right Honourable Lord Grosvenor. The most unexpected names are those of Dr Samuel Johnson, his friend Mrs Thrale and her husband Henry. William Owen Pughe tells us that, as a fourteen year old, he ‘seized with avidity’ the ‘elegant publication’. I somehow doubt that Johnson and the Thrales reacted with equal enthusiasm to the arrival of their copies. After crossing Clawdd Offa to spend a brief period at a boarding school in Altrincham, the literary-minded teenager moved on to London in 1776. William doesn’t mention how he supported himself there, but we know that by 1802 he was teaching writing and arithmetic in an academy for young ladies, and that he also did a certain

amount of private tuition. Until the windfall of his inheritance he seems to have led a somewhat hand-to-mouth existence, which must at times have been difficult, particularly after his marriage in 1790 and the birth of his three children. He was reduced to cadging loans from friends from time to time, but his financial problems never succeeded in dampening his creative and imaginative enthusiasm. London was a centre of Welsh literary and patriotic activity during the closing years of the eighteenth century, and William was soon at the heart of it. In the early 1780s he was invited to join the two main Welsh cultural societies, the Gwyneddigion and the Cymroddorion. He began publishing classical Welsh texts and editing magazines in Welsh and English containing material relating to Welsh history and literature. Through the Gwyneddigion he became involved in the sometimes tempestuous eisteddfodau of the period, and also developed into a keen supporter of the quest to discover the Madogwys, the supposed American descendents of Prince Madog the explorer. His most ambitious and controversial project, however, was the production of a Welsh dictionary which he hoped would be a parallel of Dr Johnson’s English masterpiece. The first part appeared in 1793 and it took another ten years before the two enormous volumes of the completed work reached the booksellers. There was, however, a problem. William decided to reform Welsh spelling. His Geiriadur was intended to set the standard for the future. He infuriated many of his contemporaries by tampering with the Welsh alphabet: ch became ç, ff or ph became f, dd became z, f became v. The clergy angrily rejected what one of them described as ‘not only whimsical and ridiculous but an intolerable innovation’. Ordinary readers and writers of Welsh agreed. When the SPCK reprinted its Welsh Bible it kept to the old spelling, and William’s suggestions were doomed. He did however manage to coin several Welsh words that soon became a respectable part of the language. Cynrychioli (represent), dathlu (celebrate), diddorol (interesting), ffaith (fact) and ffrwydro (explode) are among the words which, according to his biographer Glenda Carr, owe their existence (if not their spelling) to the inventive brain of William Owen Pughe. The upheaval of the French Revolution and the uncertainties created by the wars that followed it produced a fertile breeding ground for apocalyptic sects of a type that had not been prominent in Britain since the chaotic years of the Civil War and Interregnum. Prophetic figures began to appear and gather disciples. William was not particularly given to theological reflection. His father was a churchwarden, while he himself was a fairly lukewarm Anglican. Druids fascinated him and so, once his friend

Iolo Morganwg had managed to persuade him that Unitarianism was the direct bardic descendent of the ancient druidic religion, William signed up to it. His conversion was temporary. A year later, in 1803, he turned his back on Iolo’s Unitarians and became a follower of the prophetess Joanna Southcott. He would remain under her spell until her death eleven years later. Joanna Southcott had been born in Devon in 1750, the daughter of an impoverished tenant farmer. She became a domestic servant in Exeter, and was apparently both devout and attractive. Having rejected several suitors, she was still unmarried in 1792. By that time the French Revolution was entering its most terrifying stage. The middle-aged spinster, absorbed in the apocalyptic extravagances of the Book of Revelation, had begun to hear a voice which she named ‘the Spirit’. It told her that she was to be the Bride of Christ when he returned to earth. She began to prophesy and attracted supporters. In 1795 another prophet, a half-pay naval lieutenant named Richard Brothers, was arrested and committed to a lunatic asylum by the anxious authorities. One can understand their nervousness: Brothers had just prophesied that he was about to be revealed as ruler of the world. Deprived of their leader, many of his disciples turned to Joanna Southcott for guidance. Some of her prophecies appeared in print in 1801 and in the following year the prophetess moved to London. By 1805 her supporters had opened a chapel there. William Owen Pughe apparently got to know her through some radical acquaintances who had become interested in her movement. He was not an obvious Southcottian. Two thirds of her followers were women. The map of the sect’s geographical distribution included by James K. Hopkins in his study of Joanna Southcott shows that she had no recorded adherents in Wales or the borders. William, however, was a romantic with an extremely vivid imagination. His interest in the druids had drawn him to Iolo’s Unitarianism, and now he became convinced of the druidic nature of Joanna’s teachings. He wrote to an antiquarian friend that ‘it is a very remarkable circumstance that the great leading points of theology in her writings agree exactly, and very often in the expression, with our Druidical Triads of Divinity’. He tried without success to convert Iolo Morganwg and the English artist and poet William Blake to the Southcottian cause. The prophetess, however, was clearly impressed by her Welsh admirer and William became a member of her inner circle. Then the crisis broke. By 1814 Joanna Southcott was sixty-five years old. Suddenly she announced to the astonishment both of her friends and her detractors that she was going to give birth to a son. She said that she was the ‘woman clothed like the sun’ mentioned in the Book of

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WWW.ARTWALES.COM Revelation. Her child would be named Shiloh, described as ‘a gather of peoples’ in Genesis. A leading London doctor was called to give his opinion on Joanna’s condition. He remarked that she gave every external sign of being pregnant, but he was not permitted to make an internal investigation. William Owen Pughe was hugely excited by Shiloh’s impending arrival and took a very active part in the preparations to welcome the miraculous infant. However as time passed the sceptics increased and William and his fellow disciples grew increasingly worried. Shiloh should have been born in July, but by November he had still not appeared. Joanna suspected that this was because she did not have a chaste spouse to be the Joseph to her Virgin Mary, and so on the twelfth of November she was married to a man named John Smith. This made no difference. The prophetess was now bedridden and increasingly ill. By mid-December her apparent signs of pregnancy had disappeared. On 27 December 1814 she died. Her closest followers, including William Owen Pughe, kept vigil around Joanna’s corpse in the expectation that she would rise from the dead. After three days it became clear that her body was decomposing, and her faithful friends permitted a postmortem. It confirmed that Joanna Southcott had not been pregnant. William helped to arrange her private funeral and was present at her burial. He kept in touch with some of her closest followers during the next decade. In 1822 William Owen Pughe was awarded a doctorate by Oxford University. He died in his native Meirionnydd in 1835. Which brings me back to ‘Wele’n gwawrio’ , the Welsh carol that I mentioned earlier. When it was published in 1865 its author was given as John Edwards. E. Wyn James tentatively suggests that he may possibly have been the Montgomeryshire poet John Edwards (‘Meiriadog’, 1813-1906), though that is not certain. The little phrase ‘Geni’r Seilo’ (‘Birth of the Shiloh’) is intriguing. It may be a perfectly orthodox reference to a verse from Genesis predicting the coming of Christ (and that is how I would take it when I sing the carol in church or chapel), but I can’t help suspecting that the author must also have been aware of Joanna Southcott and her imaginary Shiloh. Other Shilohs have turned up since. In 1825 a certain Charles William Twort claimed to be Shiloh, while in 1919 the first female candidate claimed the honour. She was Mrs Mabel Bartrop, widow of an Anglican clergyman, and founder of the Panacea Society, who claim to be the genuine guardians of Joanna Southcott’s unopened box. And that brings us full circle...

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Gwilym Prichard ‘Coastal Path’ oil on canvas 2008 81 x 100cm

G W I L Y M P R I C H A R D NEW PAINTINGS 8 - 24 October

Harry Holland ‘Rest’ oil on panel 2009 33 x 46cm

H A R R Y H O L L A N D NEW PAINTINGS 29 October - 21 November

Charles Burton ‘The Big Snow Fight ’ oil on panel 2008 46 x 61cm

C H R I ST M A S E X H I B IT I O N 24 November - 24 December

MARTIN TINNEY GALLERY 18 ST. ANDREW’S CRESCENT CARDIFF CF10 3DD

Tel: 029 20641411 mtg@artwales.com

The Helen of Wales

the kingdoms of wales 5th to 11th Centuries

YNYS MÔ MÔ N

SOUTH RHEGED

PRINCESS NESTA FERCH RHYS

GW YNEDD YNEDD

AP TEWDWR OF DEHEUBARTH GWENLLIAN MEREDITH

POW YS PENGWERN

‘A

t the instigation of the Devil, he was moved by passion and love for the woman, and with a small company with him... he made for the castle by night’. With these stirring words, the Welsh Chronicle of the Princes for 1109 introduces a dramatic Welsh woman, the Princess Nesta of Wales, onto the historical scene. Her life encapsulates a fascinating insight into a Welshwoman caught in the tangle of political intrigue between post-Conquest (eleventh-twelfth century) England and Wales. Speculation on her early life suggests that her father, the Prince Rhys ap Tewdwr gave his daughter to William the Conqueror as hostage to ensure the security of Deheubarth against Norman invasion. Thus, Nesta began her rather notorious career which in effect changed the course of much of south Wales’s history. Later, she became one of the many concubines of Henry I, had two husbands, several lovers and gave birth to at least twelve children. Her own grandson, Giraldus Cambrensis, called her the ‘Helen of Wales’ because of her promiscuous behaviour. She epitomised a certain degree of freedom women living within the fluctuating early Anglo-Norman world possessed, although by any standards her marriages and other liaisons were beyond the norm. She married Gerald of Windsor sometime before 1100. She bore him three sons and two daughters, William, Maurice, David, Angharad, and Gwladus. Nesta’s cousin Owain ap Cadwgan of Powys, abducted her and kept her long enough to bear him two sons, Llywelyn and Einion. Sometime after Gerald’s death circa 1116, she married Stephen, constable of Cardigan castle, by whom she had a son Robert fitz Stephen. At various times either during or before her two official marriages, Nesta took at least two, possibly three other lovers. One of these men was Hai, lord of St Clears and sheriff of Pembroke, their son was William fitz Hai. Another, Henry Herbert, chamberlain to Henry I, possibly fathered her son Herbert fitz Herbert, but her most significant partner, as mentioned above, was Henry I,

CEREDI CEREDI GIO GIO N BUELLT BUELLT

ERGIN G ERGING

DYFED

BRY BRY CHEINIOG CHEINIOG YSTRAD T YWI

GWENT

GLYW GLYW YSSING YSSING

king of England, who fathered her son Henry fitz Henry around 1100. Controversy about the maternity of another son of Henry’s named Robert, who eventually becomes earl of Gloucester suggests that Nesta was his mother. This issue, debated for decades, cannot be conclusively stated, but enough evidence exists to support the argument. So, by these five or six men this woman brought at least twelve children into the world, each of whom married persons of consequence and founded various dynasties. Daughter of the Welsh prince Rhys ap Tewdwr and his wife Gwladus ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys, Nesta first comes to our attention in the chronicles for the year 1109. The chroniclers began her story with the stirring account of her abduction and rape, including a purported speech to Owain: If thou wilt have me true and keep me for thyself, release my sons to their father - and in his infatuation for the woman, he released the two sons and the daughter. Owain kept his lovely cousin by his side, fathered two sons [at least] with her, then mysteriously released her and the children to her husband Gerald. Several years later [about 1116], Gerald laid a fatal ambush for Owain (revenge?) after a military action in which Owain and Gerald fought with the English king, Henry I. Unfortunately, both men died in the encounter leaving

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- post 1180. Sometime after 1092 the DATES HER MEN THEIR CHILDREN then king of 1089-1090 Prince Henry Robert of Gloucester England, William II, 1091-1092 Herbert the Chamberlain Herbert fitz Herbert arranged a 1095-1097 Gerald of Windsor William fitz Gerald marriage between Nesta 1089-1100 Prince Henry Henry fitz Henry and Gerald of 1100-1109 Gerald of Windsor Maurice fitz Gerald Windsor David fitz Gerald immediately Angharad fitz Gerald de Barry thereafter appointing 1109-1111-(1112) Owain ap Cadwgan Llywelyn ab Owain Gerald as Einion ab Owain castellan of 1113-1114 (?) Hait, Sheriff of Pembroke William fitz Hal (Halt) Pembroke. Her 1115 Gerald of Windsor (obit 1116) Gwladus fitz Gerald de Cogan marriage did not prevent 1117-post 1137 Stephen, Constable of Cardigan Robert fitz Stephen Nesta from acting of her own accord in her romantic relationships. The account of her activities for 1100 indicate Nesta widowed and free to remarry, which she soon did. that Nesta, with or without Gerald, visited Henry someSince further reference to Nesta is virtually non-existime early in the year, before he became king. Whether tent, it is mainly through tracing her large family of sons she went to Henry alone or with her husband, such and daughters that we glean any real information about behaviour demonstrates a remarkable degree of indeher. Over the centuries growing rumours distorted her pendence for any woman. Nesta had to leave her huspicture. Did she really insist that her husband Gerald band’s bed, have relations with Henry, return home and some of their children jump down the privy hole to pregnant, give birth to a child, and not worry about escape Owain’s violence in the bed chamber? Which casearning either her husband’s or the Church’s displeasure. tle can lay claim to the privilege? Presently, Caer Rhiw And there is no indication that Henry I denied his pater(Carew) castle does so, but this claim contradicts some nity of this son. As he did with all his illegitimate chilof the chronicled accounts which give the honour to dren [at least twenty-four] the king acknowledged this Cilgerran, near Ceredigion. Mapping her extensive famison, Henry fitz Henry as his from the beginning. By ly allows a certain picture of this twelfth century beauty 1102, Nesta had given birth to all her sons by Gerald of to emerge, perhaps clarifying legends, and freeing her Windsor, but more were to come. Her remaining chilfrom the more rabid criticisms of medieval chroniclers. dren, two daughters, and four sons, were born between To comprehend the extent of her life, it helps to see 1103 and 1117/18 to various men. the children listed in chronological order. If indeed her All we know of her daughters are that Angharad marson, then Robert of Gloucester would be the first and ried William de Barry of Manorbier, and had at least was born around 1090 in Caen, Normandy. She was three sons and one stepson. Angharad’s third and perhaps fifteen and Henry was twenty-one. Her other youngest son, Giraldus Cambrensis was born in 1146, children, after Robert of Gloucester, 1090-1147, were for Gwladus, we only have the information provided by (possibly) Henry fitz Herbert circa 1092, William fitz Giraldus that his aunt married Richard de Cogan. Gerald, born circa 1096 - 1174, Maurice fitz Gerald, Richard was a brother of Milo, of the Pembrokeshire de 1098 - 1177; Henry fitz Henry, 1100 - 1157, David fitz Cogan family and was living in 1169, apparently a Gerald, 1102 - 1176, Angharad fitz Gerald de Barry, member of the fitz Stephen/fitz Gerald military continc1105 - post 1146; Gwladus fitz Gerald (de Cogan?), gent in Ireland. 1107 - ?; Einion ab Owain, circa 1109 - post 1147, When Nesta lived with Owain ap Cadwgan, from Llywelyn ab Owain, circa 1111 - post 1130, William fitz Christmas 1109 to sometime in 1112 or 1113, she bore Hai, ?1114 - post 1169, and Robert fitz Stephen, c1117 NEST’S RELATIONSHIPS

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him two sons. The first, Llywelyn ap Cadwgan, was alive in 1129. Her second son Einion ap Cadwgan, played a significant role in Robert of Gloucester’s household and was alive in 1147. Nesta’s last two sons, William fitz Hai [1110?] and Robert fitz Stephen [1118] were born from two different fathers, only the last of whom was a husband. The only information we have for William fitz Hai is that he accompanied his half-brothers to Ireland in 1169. One record calls him the son of Gerald of Windsor, however, he is definitely called Willelmus filius Hai in the Brut. Robert fitz Stephen received praise and adulation from Giraldus, and is called brother to William and Maurice fitz Gerald. Of all Nesta’s children, it may be that only Henry fitz Henry married someone of Welsh heritage. His lands were in Narberth and Pebediog. Their eldest son was called Robert fitz Henry, perhaps after Robert of Gloucester, Henry fitz Henry’s only full blood brother. Maurice fitz Gerald became lord of the lands surrounding St David’s. David fitz Gerald became bishop of St David’s the same year his nephew Giraldus was born, 1146. He held the See for thirty years, making no great changes. He fathered at least one son who joined his cousins in the first contingent to Ireland, which conquest and intermarriages between the de Clares and fitz Geralds tells its own story about Nesta’s noble family. By 1169, the Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd, cousin to all Nesta’s sons and daughters, made a complete recovery of the lands he had possessed when Henry II came to the throne in 1154. The last stronghold he recovered was Cardigan, held by its then constable Robert fitz Stephen, Nesta’s youngest son. Rhys captured the Caer Rhiw stronghold of Cilgerran shortly after he imprisoned Robert in 1165, had Emlyn within his grasp, and deposed the Clares from Ceredigion and the Norman family of Clifford from their holdings in Cantref Bychan. These captured lands were territories claimed by Nesta’s sons William, Maurice, Robert fitz Stephen, and Henry fitz Henry through the right of her father Rhys ap Tewdwr. Her son William fitz Hai does not seem to enter the claim quotient except that he supported his brothers in all their conflicts in Wales and Ireland. A family so indomitable should not fade quickly into the annals of time. Although William fitz Gerald died before receiving any grant of lands in Ireland, his eldest son Odo held on to the small portion of Wales called Caer Rhiw, and was the ancestor of the Carews. Raimond died without children, but his brother Gruffydd became the ancestor of the barons of Knocktopher, and his sister Mabel, the ancestress of the Condons through her marriage with Nicholas de

Cantitun. Maurice fitz Gerald’s family, however, was destined to greatness. He became the grantee of Naas and Wicklow. His eldest son William married first Alina, daughter of Strongbow, and secondly Maud of Pont de l’Arche, receiving their dower portions at his marriages. His son Gerald became the ancestor of the Earls of Kildare, and the Dukes of Leinster; Thomas, the grantee of lands in Limerick, and ancestor to the Earls of Desmond; and his son Maurice, ancestor to the Barons of Burnschurch. David, though a cleric, had an illegitimate son Miles who fought alongside his cousins in Ireland. For his efforts, he became Baron of Iverk. Nesta’s daughter Angharad, wife of William de Barry of Manorbier, near Pembroke, had three sons and one stepson. Her eldest son Robert was killed in Ireland before he had any children, but her second son Philip, became ancestor to the Viscounts Buttevant and the Earls of Barrymore. Through Nesta’s daughter Gwladus descend the de Cogan (Wogan) family of South Wales. Nesta’s grandson Meiler, son of Henry fitz Henry, became Justiciar of Ireland from 1199-1208. Henry fitz Henry’s son Robert died in 1168 without heirs, but his daughter Amabilis married Walter de Ridelisford. Sadly for Robert fitz Stephen, his two sons, both illegitimate, had no male heirs, and although Robert was grantee of half of Cork, this honour passed away from his family at his death, circa 1190. The most unfortunate fate for any of Nesta’s children and their families was the confiscation of Robert of Gloucester’s earldom. In 1176, the chronicler of Henry II’s reign tells of an agreement between the king and William of Gloucester [Robert of Gloucester’s son and heir]. William would adopt Henry’s youngest son John as his heir through a marriage between John and William’s youngest daughter Isabella. But because of the consanguineous [close blood] relationship between John and Isabella, both great-grandchildren of Henry I, the Church wished to prohibit the marriage, a prohibition they ignored. After John became king though, he divorced Isabella and confiscated the earldom into the royal demesne. The Welsh usually kept within their borders but continual ‘intestine mischiefs’ did little to establish any sort of peace in their land, and the English problem with the Welsh would be a prickly thorn for at least 200 more years, much of which circulated around Nesta’s descendants. The need to dislodge and subdue Nesta’s family through dispersion and intermarriage with the English demonstrates the influence she had via her progeny in twelfth century England, Wales, and Ireland.

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ALL PHOTOGRAPHS © RHOBERT AP STEFFAN

Pilgrimage to Patagonia RHOBERT AP STEFFAN

learnt Welsh 39 years ago whilst working in Chubut Province, Argentina during my early twenties in what’s now become known as a ‘gap year’. Not many travelled the 8,000 miles between Wales and Patagonia in those days, but I was inspired by the 1965 centenary of the first landing by the heroic pioneers who sailed from Liverpool to Porth Madryn on the tea clipper ‘Mimosa’. I too made the journey by sea to Buenos Aires, which took a mere 3 weeks, then travelled south to Trelew, the ‘capital’ of Y Wladfa, by train and bus. Last year, after completing a sponsored trek over the southern Andes for Mencap Cymru with Iolo Williams and 40 other intrepid adventurers, I flew back to Trelew from the bottom tip of the South American continent. I spent over a month visiting old haunts and the people I knew in 1970 when I was working there. Unfortunately, many had since died but Gaiman, probably the most Welsh of Chubut’s towns, remained remarkably as I remembered it. In contrast Trelew has boomed, as has Porth Madryn. The former has been encircled by large new industrial estates while the latter has a massive aluminium smelter powered by hydro electricity harnessed from the dammed rivers of the Andes. The population of both towns has soared accordingly. Whilst in Dyffryn Camwy I visited

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The Mencap Cymru trekkers at the foot of Mount Fitzroy (2217m). Author arrowed.

the huge bi-lingual (Welsh / Spanish) sensibly priced. As they say, book Patagonian Eisteddfod, went to sevearly to avoid disappointment. eral Gymanfaoedd Ganu, visited The best place to drink is the Gwalia schools bearing gifts from Wales and Lân pub (formerly Tafarn Las) and my enjoyed many an asado feast - a spefavourite restaurant was Cornel Wini cial occasion where communities and where the menus are in Welsh and you families come together to enjoy a can have a fillet steak with trimmings for whole barbecued lamb and drink lots just £5! There are a host of other hostelof red wine! I stayed for a while with ries in Trelew of course, including the friends on their farm outside Trelew renowned Touring Club which must be before moving into Gaiman for a visited if only to see the remarkable couple of weeks. I presented the antique coffee machine! The new paleWelsh Museum at Gaiman, with the ontology museum is stunning - some of new Gwyddoniadur Cymru the world’s biggest dinosaur remains have (Encyclopaedia of Wales) which conbeen found here - as is the massive statue tained a good will message from First of Trelew’s founder Lewis Jones, and Minister, Rhodri Morgan and other impressive Welsh memorials. Porth Minister of Agriculture, Elin Jones Madryn too is worth visiting to see the from the people of ‘Yr Hen Wlad’. It caves where the first settlers were forced was a very moving event. to shelter. Above them stands a beautiful In Gaiman I was given my own litbronze statue of a Tehuelche Indian tle bwthyn by Ana Rhys who owns looking out to sea at the approach of the the famous Plas y Coed hostel and ‘Mimosa’. tea rooms set within The road between Dyffryn Camwy and Cwm Hyfryd beautiful gardens next to the town’s plaza. The welcome was warm and Welsh and I can recommend this establishment to anyone contemplating a visit to Y Wladfa. It is conveniently central to all the Welsh areas of Dyffryn Camwy and is

great deal of its Welshness. I lodged at the Casaverde hostel a very short walk from the town centre and bus stop. It is run by Welsh-speaking Babiana and husband Charly. She is Gaiman street sign from Rosario in northern Argentina However, being a ‘country boy’, I and has learnt to speak Welsh fluentpreferred the hamlets and smaller ly since moving here. towns like picturesque Dolavon I highly recommend staying at the where I dined at Y Felin (La Casaverde for its fantastic views of Molienda). Here, after an excellent the Andes, its accessibility and commeal in a restaurant set in a working fort. It is built entirely of logs and mill, the owner and chief cook there is a choice of rooms and dorshowed us his very professional mitories. The clientele are internahome-made videos based on Y tional but the atmosphere is strikingWladfa’s history and that of the ly Welsh. Again I looked up old many Welsh chapels scattered friends in the area and attended throughout the valley. many functions, including an I then travelled 600 km west to evening of folk dancing run by the Andes by bus (£20!) across empty Menter Patagonia, an Urdd initiative but beautiful semi-desert to the other which encourages use of the Welsh Welsh community of Cwm Hyfryd. language and helps sustain Welsh This was settled in the 1880’s when culture throughout Patagonia. there were territorial disputes in the I also managed to twin my village area between Argentina and Chile. school in Llangadog with the Welsh The Gwladarwyr opted to be ‘Ysgolion yr Andes’ in both Trevelin Argentinian and have prospered there and Esquel. There are several excelever since. It is a very different landlent restaurants in Trevelin the best of scape from that of Dyffryn Camwy which is probably Patagonia Celta, which relies on a network of irrigaand many tea rooms such as Tyˆ tion ditches for fertility. Cwm Nain. There is also a unique, rustic Hyfryd is a lot like Wales only with tavern at the far end of town where bigger mountains! Its main settlethe landlady weaves ponchos in the ments here are Esquel and Trevelin. bar for customers! Another ‘must’. Esquel is quite large and caters for Talking of ponchos, I saw Poncho many tourists who come for the Mamgu, a film made for S4C by scenery, winter sports and rides on actress Eiry Palfry and her son the little ‘Patagonian Express’ steam Dafydd after returning to Gaiman on train, ‘La Trochita’. I decided to stay my last weekend. It traced the at nearby Trevelin, which, like colourful history of Eiry’s grandGaiman, is smaller and has retained a mother who was brought up nearby. Eiry and Dafydd The Casaverde Hostel, Trevelin had come to Patagonia to show the film - which was in Welsh with Spanish subtitles to a packed audience in the school hall. It was shot mainly in Dyffryn Camwy and was

the first time it had been screened there. The people were enthralled. Shortly afterwards the three of us flew back to Buenos Aires together before returning home on different airlines. Patagonia can be reached directly from Heathrow to Buenos Aires or via various European airports. Once there you have to travel to the domestic airport for flights to Trelew. There are regular shuttle bus transfers between the two airports every hour. The return international flight should be between £500-600 and the internal one around £150. Shop

The Malvinas/Falklands memorial, Porth Madryn

around for the best offers. One of the most efficient contacts is tour operator ‘Welsh Patagonia’ run by the energetic and inspiring Jeremy Wood who lives in Esquel. He can be contacted at: www.welshpatagonia.com TEL: (0054) 2945 454270.

If you speak Welsh an indispensable book is Cathrin Williams’s Y Wladfa yn dy Boced, Gwasg y Bwthyn, ISBN1-904845-55-X. Plas y Coed:

www.plasycoed.com.ar TEL: (0054) 2965 156293 Casaverde:

www.casaverdehostel.com.ar TEL: (0054) 2945 480091

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Dragons Restored DIARMUID MCCONCHUILL

n 14 May this year, newspapers in Wales put out an appeal on behalf of the Welsh Patagonian town of Trevelin for Welsh flags. The response from Wales was generous and immediate. The Daily Post itself received 10 flags from Rhos-on-Sea’s Conwy Candies. Wales’ biggest flag suppliers, Mr Flag, chipped in with a 15 square metre monster and our own National Assembly for Wales said that they would like to donate the four flags flying outside the Assembly building in Cardiff as a gesture of friendship and solidarity with our Welsh cousins in Argentina. Jeremy Wood, who lives in Esquel near Trevelin, happened to be visiting the Urdd Eisteddfod in Cardiff at the time and he volunteered to take all the flags back to South America and present them to

the people of Trevelin. And so, on the morning of Thursday 28 May, he, together with Reverend Eirian Lewis of Mynachlog Ddu, arrived at the Senedd to receive the flags from Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas, the Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales. But it didn’t end there: others had read the stories in the newspapers and seen the coverage on BBC Wales and wanted to do their bit. Pontardawe Rugby Club gave a flag of the Cross of St David, Henry Jones-Davies of Cambria Magazine gave a flag of Owain Glyndw ˆr and Rhobert ap Steffan of Llangadog presented an Owain Glyndwˆr tie and a bottle of Breton Celtic Mead to toast the first flying of the flags on Patagonian soil (or in Patagonian wind!). July 28 this year was the 144th Anniversary of the Welsh arrival in Argentina on the good ship ‘Mimosa’ in 1865. Welsh Patagonians are given more leeway to celebrate important days in their history than their cousins in Wales and, as you would expect, the day is revered in Patagonia as a public holiday. Celebrations took place in all the major Welsh towns and, in

Jeremy Wood, Henry and Tom Jones-Davies with Mr Flag’s huge Ddraig Goch

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Welsh Patagonians are given more leeway to celebrate important days in their history than their cousins in Wales

Trevelin, people gathered in fludefiant numbers by the monument to the Mimosa in one of the town’s squares. Wreaths were laid, national anthems sung and extra layers added to ward off the chill of the minus-something Patagonian winter. At the end of the ceremony, the flags were presented to a proud Mayor of Trevelin, Dr Carlos Mantegna, and he and half the town unfurled the Giant Red Dragon and stood behind it in proud commemoration of the colonisation of Patagonia by their own Pilgrim Fathers. And, of course, many heads of local Welsh associations, groups, schools, hotels and all manner of other enterprises whispered in Dr Mantegna’s ear and explained why they should be considered to receive one of the new and precious flags. Perhaps he’ll wait until nearer to the next election before he makes up his mind! And where was Jeremy Wood while all this was going on? He had retired to a safe distance doing his best to combat the cold by toasting the flags with the treasured bottle of Breton Celtic Mead.

Three new titles from the Library of Wales

For details of the whole Library of Wales series visit www.libraryofwales.org

Literature Sense of Place

From the sweat of a man’s brow JON GOWER

t’s not the easiest place to come from: not when you have to explain to people what the name means. Hole, pool or pit. Makes you sound like a troglodyte, or a Pythonesque comedy miner. “I was brought up in a pit.” And a Welsh pit at that, where you have to spit at people just to say the bloody name. Or at least that’s what an English friend of mine said. They like to mock. It’s all that’s left to them after the Empire dwindled. Pwll people were never synonymous with coal, even though the village had its share of mines. Rather, they were linked with cabbages. Cabbages? Villagers were known locally as ‘gwyr y bonau’, a biting reference to the belief that the miserly market gardeners sold their cabbages but ate the stalks. The village name probably comes from a pool in the estuary, a place of deeper water suitable for shipping. The name, Pwll, stuck in the

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craw. From time to time debates would flare up about changing the name: Bronelli, Gwelfor, Myrddin, Maenllwyd, Trehoward, Howardon and Gwelfro were all mooted at different times, though none have stuck. Walk through the village now and you get the sense that not much goes on, not much gives. But there was a time when this quiet village was an industrial hive. Land hereabouts was warrened with coal pits. There were two woollen mills, a sawmill and two brickworks and an award winning pop factory, which started life as the Aerated Water Factory. At its peak it produced almost two thousand thirst quenching bottles every day - all flavours from pearsnap through pineappleade to portello. The redletter day came in 1938 when Rees and Richards’ lemonade won second prize at the Brewers’ Exhibition at the Royal Agricultural Hall in London. They had a certificate. But the company finally went pop in 1982. The village made pop and crisps. Pwll had a short-lived crisp factory too, more of a shed really, but it was home to the Pwll Potato Crisp Company. Catchy. Interestingly the potatoes used to make Evans’ crisps were a variety called Arran Banner, a spud with a genetic flaw, which meant that each one had a hole in it, and so too the resulting crisps. A bit like Polo Mints. It was culturally a very active place. The first village Eisteddfod, back in 1904, attracted over four thousand people. They ran special charter trains for the day. David Brazzell, the Bryn Terfel of his day came from here. The village also had a tradition of women poets, writing in Welsh. And the Edna Bonnell Company took its brand of spirited amateur theatricals all over

Debates would flare up about changing the name: Bronelli, Gwelfor, Myrddin, Maenllwyd...... were all mooted at different times, though none have stuck. Wales, always selling out. Not to mention jazz musician Wyn Lodwick, who managed to get pianist Dill Jones to come over from New York in 1978 to play at the community centre. The village used to be at the waters’ edge, on the soft shore of the Burry Inlet, that is until the mid 1800s, when Isambard Kingdom Brunel drove the South Wales Railway through. But the sea laps and leaves in the names of many of the village’s houses – Glan y Don, Swn y Don, Glan y Morfa, Min y Mor, Mor Awel, Ochr y Mor, Angorfa, Brig y Don, Gower View and Craig y Don. The way the village almost melded with the estuary helped shape me. An asthmatic youngster, I had to entertain myself when other boys played sport. So I beachcombed – finding snowmobile oil containers from Newfoundland, tea chests from India, an occasional dead dolphin and birdwatched. My dad caught sea bass, or mackerel. Cockles were picked by the bucket, too, and I remember washing them, ready for the boil. Still my favourite food. Villagers said you should wait

three tides before eating them. It tested a boy’s patience. Being so near to the water, sea fishing, quite naturally had its enthusiasts, none more so than a character called Clocsen whose modus operandi was to drive nails through the soles of his wooden

clogs and walk across the sands at low tide, spearing flounders and other flat fish as he went. One of the Big Moments in village history came when Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviatrix landed her Fokker Friendship seaplane off the second slipway after almost running out of fuel on a flight from Newfoundland. To visit the village nowadays is to glimpse a case of what the Llansteffan based artist Osi Rhys Osmond calls cultural Alzheimer’s. The industrial revolution came and went, leaving little trace. It’s easy to forget what was once here, this place built from hard graft and the sweat of a man’s brow.

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Slow burning muse The work of poet ANNA WIGLEY PAUL GROVES

n an age when Ant & Dec woo countless viewers and pocket untold millions, the ‘still small voice’ of the quietist poet can be overlooked and undervalued. Anna and I first met seven years ago when we read together at Waterstone’s. We reconvened for this article in the same city, retreating to the reassuring interior of The National Museum of Wales on a rainy Wednesday morning and immediately fortifying ourselves in the coffee shop. In preparation, I’d reacquainted myself with her poetry - The Bird Hospital (2002) and Dürer’s Hare (2005) - and read her short-story collection Footprints (2004), all published by Gomer. Rather than conduct a straightforward interview, I varied questions with observations about her verse. This was no more unusual to my mind that two Morgan enthusiasts discussing the marque’s quaint aerodynamics. While my standard exuberance initially imperilled her composure, she had too much grace to allow such a mismatch of expectations to compromise the occasion. What resulted was a harmonious interchange during which she provided background information about the social and familial soil in which her writing had taken root. She was born in the Welsh capital in 1962, the youngest of three. Brothers Clem and Simon went to art college and remain in the world of design and illustration. Their mother took an Open University degree, obtained a TEFL qualification, and became a home tutor. Anna attended Our Lady’s Convent School, continuing to Cardiff High’s sixth form. After one year on a Middlesex Polytechnic humanities course she dropped out, wanting to join the Greenham Common protestors against cruise missiles based in Britain. The reality was less inspirational: jobs as a Marks & Spencer shop assistant and as a temp in various offices and restaurants. Seeking furtherance, she signed up for a History evening class and taught herself Alevel English. Success in both subjects boosted her confidence and led to Cardiff University entrance as a mature student. Following the award of her B.A., she began a PhD thesis on the novels of Iris Murdoch with medievalist

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Roger Ellis as her tutor. This lasted four years, during which she was sustained by a British Academy grant. Some in her position might have sought employment at Howell’s, Llandaff or another such educational establishment, thereby minimising money worries and anticipating a settled teaching career. Whilst one would hardly call Wigley a maverick, she does have the impecunious artist’s single-mindedness, and prefers not to belong - with one eye on promotion, the other on a pension - to any hierarchical organisation. She has chosen the material poverty yet aesthetic wealth of a part-time occupation; this provides her with the inestimable gift of creative freedom and the chance to consider. Few choose that luxury though many feel it’s a necessity. As W.H. Davies memorably wrote: ‘What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare?’ Davies, you’ll recall, was another South Walian, poor in purse while rich in spirit, who lost a leg as a hobo in North America and who described himself as a ‘supertramp’. I have a strong suspicion that Anna Wigley will join that select band of versifiers who command a greater audience posthumously than during their lifetime. The same might be said of Ruth Bidgood, now in her eighties. The fuse of such careers burns slowly, yet the resulting explosion of interest is all the more memorable for it having done so. Wigley now earns a living in the bereavement office of the George Thomas Hospice, walking or bussing to work (she does not own a car) and, I had imagined, basking in the splendour of a Stevie Smith-style spinsterhood. But she has recently married, and even tells me she’s considering getting broadband sometime soon. My intention is not to paint a picture of an otherworldly solitary eking out a meagre existence on the fringes of our consumerist society. Ms Wigley is cheerful and engaging company. Her naturalness is a tonic, and she has not fallen for the fripperies which bedeck so many of her gender. An absence of lipstick, eye shadow, blusher and the like serves only to highlight her inner depth and attractiveness. The poetry is equally concerned with the natural. I defy you to read ‘Spider’, ‘Moth’, ‘The Leopard’, ‘The Aran’, ‘Miner’, ‘The Cellist’s Fingers’, and ‘Paradise Lost’ (The Bird Hospital) and remain unimpressed, or to encounter ‘Coal Tit’, ‘White-Bearded Lizard’, ‘Sea Lions’, and ‘Crab’ (Dürer’s Hare) with sustained disinterest. Her superb descriptions, undemonstrative particularity, and unwavering vision can be little short of thrilling. Now we have a third volume - Waking in Winter - with which to contend. Stevie Davies, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Wales, Swansea talks of Wigley’s ‘crystalline clarity, delicate power, witty exuberance and focused intimacy of address’. I cannot disagree.

Dic Jones PRIFARDD AC ARCHDERWYDD CYMRU

1934-2009 MEIC STEPHENS

hen Dic Jones won the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1966 he was hailed as a master of the traditional metres whose like had not been seen since medieval times. By this was meant he wrote cynghanedd - the intricate system of metrics, syllable counts and rhyme which Gerard Manley Hopkins called, somewhat inadequately, ‘consonantal chiming’ - and with such brilliance that he could be compared with poets like Dafydd ap Gwilym, a contemporary of Chaucer, whose work is one of the chief glories of Welsh literature. The poem which brought him prominence on a national stage was entitled Cynhaeaf (‘Harvest’) and it was praised by one of the three adjudicators, Thomas Parry, the sternest of critics, for its consummate craftsmanship and rich imagery drawn from the poet’s observation of the natural world and the passing of the seasons. When Dic Jones came to publish his second volume of verse three years later, it was natural that it should take the title of his magnificent poem, Caneuon Cynhaeaf (‘Harvest songs’). His reputation as Prifardd, or Chief Poet, was now made and he took his place among the most accomplished Welsh poets of his day. It would be a mistake to remember Dic Jones merely as a bardd gwlad or country poet, a rhymer on bucolic themes with straw behind his ears, for he was heir to a centuries-old tradition which is as sophisticated as, say, that of the Jocs Florals in Provence or the poetry of the great makars of Scotland such as Dunbar and Henryson. Technical virtuosity may be at its heart but it also has room for a world-view that is as much intellectual as it is lyrical. Dic Jones wrote poems in which he addressed famous politicians and commented on the wonders of technology such as the Telstar space satellite and the military base at Aber-porth. Dic Jones farmed Yr Hendre at Blaenannerch near Aberporth in lower Cardiganshire, as his people had done for centuries. He knew himself to be a poet while still a pupil at the Cardigan County School and was soon taken under the wing of Alun Cilie, a member of a famous family of

poets who lived at nearby Llangrannog, and it was he who tutored the budding poet in the craft of Welsh prosody. It was not long before Dic Jones could turn out a perfect englyn, the four-line poem that is as precise as the haiku or tanka, except it has rules of alliteration, stress, consonantcount and rhyme that make the Japanese forms seem crass in comparison. One simple example, about the Christmas tree, must suffice: DAVID WILLIAMS Pren y plant a’r hen Santa - a’i wanwyn Yng nghanol y gaea’, Ni ry’ ffrwyth nes darffo’r ha’, Nid yw’n ir nes daw’n eira. (‘The children’s tree and old Santa’s, its springtime is in the middle of winter, it bears no fruit until summer is over, it flourishes only when snow has come.’ Like many poets who are devoted to the form, Dic Jones had hundreds of englynion by heart; make that thousands, for there seemed to be no bottom to the well from which he drew inspiration. So adept was he that his conversation sparkled with whole sentences in cynghanedd and witty couplets in seven-syllabled lines which he composed at the drop of a hat. There may be something mathematical about the requirements of the craft - it can be learned in a few years by a gifted amateur - but the master-poets, of whom Dic Jones was one, rise above the form’s restrictions and makes their verses sing. Many of his shorter poems (he also wrote epigrams, limericks and topical ballads) rely for their effect on humour and satire and he could always be relied upon to cause laughter among his listeners. For this reason he was in constant demand at weddings and parties, and when asked for a celebratory poem on any occasion, large or small, he would readily oblige, thus carrying out the function of the country poet that has for long enlivened the cultural ambiance of rural Wales. On his own behalf, he wrote a poem requesting a loan from his bank, another greeting his fellow-poet T. Llew Jones, in hospital after an accident, and another protesting about a rise in water-rates, all in immaculate cynghanedd and to a high standard. One is hard put to think of any other language in which literary activity of this kind is the norm.

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Dic Jones first came to public notice by winning the couplet he can recite to himself as it brings a tear to his eye, Chair in five consecutive years at the Eisteddfod held by he knows deep down that it makes no difference what any Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth), but unlike adjudicator, or anyone else, says of it…. He has received many youngsters who carry off that prize he went on to fulhis prize and will spend the rest of his life trying to savour fil his early promise by publishing his first collection, Agor again that fleeting moment.’ Grwn (‘Cutting a furrow’), in 1960. It was followed by Dic Jones’s last years were taken up in trying to find ways Storom Awst (‘August storm’, 1978) and Sgubo’r Storws of maintaining Yr Hendre against the ravages of the foot(‘Clearing out the storehouse’, 1986). Many of these poems and-mouth epidemic and the myriad difficulties facing the celebrate the close-knit farming industry. One of his communities of initiatives was to hire out DAVID WILLIAMS Cardiganshire, giving the lie part of his land for summer to the hate-writing of visitors who were put up in Caradoc Evans who, a genteepees under the supervieration or two before, had sion of one of his sons, pilloried them for their Brychan Llyr, a well-known grudging soil, brutish peaspop musician. A muscular antry and perverted religion. man, with a handshake that There is something joymade strangers wince, Dic ous and uplifting about Dic Jones never lost his sense of Jones’s portraits of his humour, his delight in neighbours, their dogs and choral singing, his social livestock, and even their obligations and his devotion machinery for he wrote to the craft of poetry. Many poems extolling the Ffyrgi Archdruid Dic Jones with Chaired Bard Hilma Lloyd younger poets sought him and the Jac Codi Baw - the Edwards at the 2008 National Eisteddfod in Cardiff. out and he continued to Fergusson Massey tractor take part in the popular and the JCB that have brought such improvements to the poetry contests held annually in the Literature Pavilion at ways the land is worked. His example reminds us that the National Eisteddfod. He became Archdruid of Wales poetry is not always written out of a tortured or neurotic in 2007 but officiated only once, at the Eisteddfod held in mind but is sometimes produced by a sunny temperament Cardiff in 2008, and was prevented by illness from taking and an uncomplicated lifestyle close to the soil and the elepart in the ceremonies at Bala this year. ments. He gave an account of his life up to 1973 in Os Hoffech Two events cast a cloud over the serenity of Dic Jones’s Wybod (‘If you’d like to know’, 1989) and published a last view of Wales and the world. The first was the death, at collection of topical poems and articles, Golwg Arall three months, of his daughter Esyllt, a Downs Syndrome (‘Another view’, 2001), which he had contributed to the child, and the controversy that followed a most unfortuweekly magazine Golwg. The title of his autobiography has nate mix-up in the Chair competition at the National resonance for Welsh readers for it is a quotation from Eisteddfod of 1976, an important occasion since it was the Ceiriog’s famous poem, ‘Alun Mabon’, which reads (in eighth centenary of that venerable festival. The adjudicatranslation): ‘If you’d like to know how a man like me lives: tors chose his poem on the subject Gwanwyn (Spring’), I learned from my father the first craft of humankind.’ Dic submitted under a pseudonym as usual, as the best in the Jones may have been, by his own admission, an indifferent competition but, because it turned out he was a member farmer, but as a poet he takes his place among the finest of the Literature Panel and had thus had fore-knowledge of practitioners of an art that rewards them with everlasting the set subject, he was disqualified and, at the very last renown - everlasting, that is, for as long as Welsh remains moment, the Chair was awarded to a reluctant and darka language in which literary genius can find expression. browed Alan Llwyd. Acrimony followed and opposing camps emerged, the Richard Lewis Jones (Dic Jones), farmer and poet: born Tre’r-ddôl, Cardiganshire, 30 March 1934; married 1959 Siân Jones (three incident doing considerable damage to the amour-propre sons, two daughters and one daughter deceased); died Blaenannerch, of both poets and showing up a degree of administrative Ceredigion, 18 August 2009. bungling on the Eisteddfod’s part. Dic Jones took such setbacks with the dignity of the true poet: ‘When a man manThis obituary also appeared in THE INDEPENDENT ages to write a verse that is completely to his liking, or a

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Llais Cenedl Editors Nan Elis and Gwenno Ffrancon (Gwasg Gwynedd £8.95) GWYN GRIFFITHS

never really knew John Roberts Williams, the subject of this delightful collection of tributes and reminiscences interspersed by his carefully crafted radio essays from Tros fy Sbectol and other sources. He had left the editorial chair of the Welsh weekly Y Cymro for the short-lived TV company Teledu Cymru shortly before I joined the editorial staff in Oswestry in the 1960s. He was a distinguished editor whose period at the helm was the highpoint in the history of the paper. Whether the paper during his time actually achieved the often-quoted staggering circulation of 28,000 is debatable. His successor, Glyn Griffiths - no relation - said that when he took over the job he found the returns to be of the order of 10,000 per issue. But for Woodalls Newspapers, as the company was then known, Y Cymro, with its allWales coverage, was a flagship in a group with a stable of impressive local weeklies. John, as its editor, enjoyed a high profile. After the Teledu Cymru debacle he joined the BBC Wales nightly TV news magazine Heddiw where he again distinguished himself. When I joined the BBC at the end of the decade I found him generous and ready with a kind word. He left Heddiw and briefly made TV features and documentary programmes. I recall a series he made on gambling which seemed an odd choice. From this book I learnt that he was knowledgeable about horse racing and took an interest in the stock market. Late in his BBC career he was appointed North Wales Representative, i.e. Head of the BBC in Bangor. A quiet paddock for an aging racehorse? Not

a bit of it. It was the start of a new golden age in John Roberts Williams’s career. Under his stewardship the centre got a state-of-the-art multi-purpose studio with TV facilities. He brought new life to Bangor’s radio programming. Above all, he was a writer, a genius of the well-turned phrase. As a child I remember reading and re-reading his report of a Wales v England match at Ninian Park in Y Cymro (October 1, 1953). It was a eulogy worthy of Neville Cardus to John Charles’s glorious arrival on the international scene, hardly mentioning that Wales lost 4-1. It was with great delight that I read it again in this book. After retiring John began contributing a weekly five-minute talk broadcast every Friday evening on Radio Cymru, beautifully written and delivered, sardonic, witty, sharp as a razor. He was Wales’s Alistair Cooke. I recall one talk critical of the Israelis - probably in the late 1980s for their treatment of the Palestinians. It made the front page of the London Evening Standard the following afternoon and as a senior BBC Press Officer I spent an unpleasant night fielding calls from the American media. Such is the power and organisation of the Jewish lobby. John Roberts Williams broadcast those talks for 29 years right up to his death at the age of 90. Also in retirement he edited Y Casglwr (The Collector) for lovers of antiquarian books. He grew up on a farm in Llyˆn and went to university between the wars and during his life as a journalist, editor, filmmaker and novelist recorded the great changes in the life

of Wales. This book contains many fine contributions in addition to John Roberts Williams’s gems. I will mention one, Llosgi Meddyliau by Wil Aaron who accompanied John on a return journey to An Spidéal in Connemara where he had, when editing Y Cymro, made a film about a family of poor crofters. Their story, and that of their descendants, in many ways mirrored the life of John Roberts Williams, a remarkable man.

Liz Pitman, Pigsties and Paradise Lady Diarists and the Tour of Wales 17951860 (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch £7.50) JOHN IDRIS JONES

istorians have their place: they tend to occupy the upper air, some way off the ground . But those contemporaries who ‘eyeball’ events are on the ground, looking, reacting. English Literature has its famous diarists: they were men, and they tended to be engaged with event, personality, acquisition, class, politics and power. A woman who writes a journal tends to see and convey a different world – of immediate life, of household details, of clothing styles, the struggle to keep up, care for feeding and clothing children, of nourishing food and sleep. The seven women diarists in this book convey this different world. It’s a welldesigned book, with a surprising

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number of reproductions in colour. Frederica Rouse Boughton (1860) paints scenes from daily life, some showing women in ‘Welsh costume’ with the plate-lined dresser centred in the kitchen. Another traveller, Sarah Wilmot (1795) paints a group of women and writes, “The dress of the women consists of a striped flannel petticoat & a long brown jacket over it, a blue handkerchief tyed over their heads & a black beaver hat upon that.” This is the kind of detail a male diarist would not report and historians would not see. My eye was taken by the work of Millicent Bent. Her picture of Orielton in 1808 is beautifully executed in the traditional style, with two swans in the foreground lake. She writes that the house had “..as many windows as the days in the year.” Her picture of Newport accompanied the text: “…a very good town & the people very civil.” Dolgellau (1806) is presented: “…beautiful beyond description…there is but one Inn, which is surrounded with Pig Sties, nothing to be got but fried Mutton Chops, might as well eat a piece of old Goat, nothing made it bearable but a Welsh harper, who was playing the whole of the dinner time.” Millicent has a wry humour. She is, according to the author, a ‘humble servant’, unmarried, and a “gentlewoman in reduced circumstances.” Her employer, Lady Wilson of Kent, “..needed a new life. It began when she met and made friends with Millicent Bant, for the result of this friendship was indefatigable travelling…their first visit to Wales was in 1806 when Lady Wilson was fiftyseven years of age…From what Millicent writes about her employer, Lady Wilson appears to be autocratic, bossy and something of a drinker…Millicent is at times waspish; of interest are the less wellknown places they visit, the inns they stay in and their various adventures…Millicent is endlessly curious

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about what she sees as they dash on…” Aberystwyth is not favoured: “…a miserable town…meat and everything else very nasty, very slight remains of the castle…” They travel along the Mawddach to Barmouth: “…so irregularly built..that the windows of one house not uncommonly look over the Chimnies of another. We could not avoid observing the number of Pigs lying in every corner of the Streets.” The commentary adds, “The inn is full and Millicent and her ladyship are obliged to sit in a ‘…public room where Victuals hard to be got, & when it came not eatable’.” I cannot resist ending by quoting Millicent’s opinion of Ruthin: “…a sweet, pretty, place..extremely clean…the White Lion [later the Castle Hotel]..a clean Inn and civil people…all those who have small fortunes [should] retire to Ruthin.” I regret my lack of fortune, but I look out of my window at Moel Fenlli and say ‘Hear, Hear’.

Tonnau Tryweryn, Martin Davis, (Y Lolfa, £8.95) and Y Llwybr, Geraint Evans, (Y Lolfa, £7.95) RHODRI LL. EVANS

ryweryn. It is without doubt one of the most evocative and emotionally-charged words we have in Welsh. The whole tumultuous, shameful debacle of flooding the village of Capel Celyn in Cwm Tryweryn in the early 1960s in order to supply the city of Liverpool with drinking water still has the power to boil blood today, and Cofiwch Dryweryn; the graffiti ‘lest we forget’, has since been tattooed on Wales’ psyche as well as on its walls. It is against this historic backdrop

that Martin Davis sets his novel, Tonnau Tryweryn. A novel that teeters between love saga, thriller and political drama, it follows the trials and tribulations of three main characters: Mefina, Emlyn and Des and the role Tryweryn plays in all their intertwined lives. It is not about the actual flooding of Capel Celyn, more the human effect of it all. This, surely, is the work’s highest ambition and to be fair, the focus does remain on the characters throughout. However, these characters have more than a whiff of cardboard about them and as a result, are extremely hard to tolerate, let alone empathise with. Although the writing is lucid enough, the bi-polar nature of many of the characters will confuse and irritate many a reader. Mefina and Emlyn can feel the lows of dark depression and the highs of hope and optimism all within the space of a paragraph. It simply doesn’t fly. One has to applaud the effort, but too many clichéd characters and a lack of any real depth leave this novel at the water’s edge. Far more engaging is Geraint Evans’s debut novel, Y Llwybr. When Elenid Lewis is murdered on a dark pathway on her way home from a gig at Aberystwyth University’s Student Union, Dyfed-Powys Police’s inexperienced CID detachment is called upon to solve the crime. From the onset, the story moves at a decent pace. No flowery descriptions of lambs in fields here; just cold, hard case development. The title is extremely apt, as the story wanders down many a path during the investigation and the author’s

attention to detail should be commended. This is a carefully-woven tale. One complaint, however. Apart from a few rare examples (ex-PC Syl Davies – a delightful cameo), dialogue between the characters seems old-fashioned on many an occasion. Detective Inspector Gareth Prior’s interaction with his team is extremely formal and way too clinical. He addresses them as ‘chi’, despite all of them being fairly near the same age as him. And his use of their surnames as punctuation to his sentences is infuriating at times (Welsh detectives have been speaking in this weird way since the 1950s and it is a mystery as to why contemporary authors would think that this is somehow a prerequisite of modern Welsh detective fiction. It is not.). Thankfully, the plot and its pace are the novel’s salvation. Such is its force, it even manages to camouflage the ever-so-slightly damp ending. The author has an obvious knack for this sort of genre writing, and as DI Gareth Prior’s first case comes to a close, one can only hope that a sequel is one the way, with added character development, please. But for the moment, Y Llwybr is a promising debut.

R. S. Thomas: Letters to Raymond Garlick 1951-1999 Edited by Jason Walford Davies (Gomer £16.99) SAM ADAMS

he apparatus of scholarly introduction and notes far outweighs the text in this elegantly produced volume - a credit to Gomer Press and a painstaking editor. RS is a terse correspondent. A number of these missives were

inscribed on postcards. Without resorting to miniscule handwriting almost all of them could have been. If you are looking for an epistolary manner that entertains and informs, like Byron for example, or countless other poets whose correspondence has been posthumously published, then RS’s letters will disappoint. Are there hints of poetry in his prose? Just one, when he describes his stay at Bangor University as ‘little more than a tune hummed thoughtlessly’. Will you learn from the letters something of the man who wrote all those poems, many of them deeply interesting and some of staggering beauty? It depends how much you already knew about him. If you had gathered he was usually stiffly formal and slow to unbend, you will not be surprised that it took seven years and 43 letters before the mode of address changed to ‘Dear Raymond … Yours sincerely, Ronald’. Did you know he had a hobby: birding? The letters confirm that. Were you aware he thought Welsh-speakers spineless in not fighting for the life of their language, and accused them of selling their linguistic birthright for the tourists’ pound? That’s there repeatedly: ‘supine’ is a favourite word to describe his compatriots. And these elements are present in the poetry too. This confirmation of a lifelong consistency of attitudes may be thought an argument in favour of publication. Among fellow poets, he prizes Eliot and Geoffrey Hill and, surprisingly, Rimbaud, but his response to the ‘AngloWelsh’ is grudgingly arid. ‘I have done what I can with [Roland] Mathias’

poems’ he writes of a review for Dock Leaves, edited by Raymond Garlick, of whose broadcast ‘Requiem for a Poet’, he observes, ‘the whole thing is a bit questionable as people rarely listen to verse for so long’. Dylan Thomas’s work, apart from ‘a few major lyrics’, he dismisses as ‘dross’. At Christmas 1964, he wrote, ‘A certain Mr. Stephens from Merthyr Tydfil is going to start Poetry Wales. He must be mad’. Is he ‘being whimsical?’ as John Tripp once put it. Sadly, I don’t think so. Other letters reveal a peculiar attitude {to put it mildly) towards women and the English speakers of south Wales. At the time of the 1984/5 Strike there is no word of Christian charity for the miners. ‘I can’t forgive the miners,’ he writes, ‘for their lack of interest in Welsh.’ While preserving some vestiges of Christian faith, he is alienated from the Anglican Church he serves. There are signs of mellowing with age and the accumulating growth rings of a correspondence reducing to an annual Christmas message. The death of Elsi, his wife, in 1991 is reported with touching simplicity and, once their relationship has become established, he enquires frequently and sympathetically about Raymond’s health and family circumstances. In sum, the letters have a curiosity value and offer a few glimpses of the poet as a fellow human being, but little more.

COMPETITION

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the £50 book voucher in the Welsh Books Council competition of the last issue was DEBORAH ANGEL of Llanbedr Pont Steffan. LLONGYFARCHIADAU! CONGRATULATIONS!

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Books In good shape on two of our most prolific and trail-blazing publishers.

MEIC STEPHENS

lowly working my way through a pile of books that arrived in time for the National Eisteddfod, I am struck by the number and quality of new titles appearing at this time of year. If I confine my remarks this time to books published by Gomer and Y Lolfa it’s because these two publishers are among the most prolific and trail-blazing. It was a pleasure, by the way, to meet Jonathan Lewis, managing director of Gwasg Gomer, at the Books Council’s pavilion on the Maes, a fullytrained printer and the fourth generation of his family to carry on a business established as long ago as 1892. John Barnie, former editor of the magazine Planet and a writer of formidable talent, has written an evocative and moving portrait of his father, who kept a small grocer’s shop in Abergavenny. His Tales of the Shopocracy (Gomer, £8.99) is one of the best accounts I’ve read about a class that ranks somewhere between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, sharing some characteristics of both but, because they are ‘in trade’, remaining aloof from both. John soon rebelled against the small-town, conservative mores of his parents but nevertheless treats them with subtlety and understanding. Growing up in the 1940s, he also observed a world that was changing fast but catches it, as it were, on the wing, one of the few

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who have done that in Wales. This is one of the most important books by a Welsh writer to appear this year. Manon Rhys, co-editor of the Academi’s magazine Taliesin, also has an eye for the fleeting moment and quiddities of modern life in her book Cornel Aur (Gomer, £7.99), a book of short prose, verse and micro-stories that manages to suggest a lot more than it says. She is one of our most accomplished prose-writers and this book will add cubits to her stature. Gomer is renowned for its coffee-table books, the latest of which is Snowdon Shepherd (Gomer, £16.99), sub-titled ‘Four seasons on the hill farms of north Wales’. It has a lively foreword by Jan Morris and some splendid drawings and paintings by Keith Bowen among which my favourites are the studies of rams’ heads with their sagacious eyes and magnificently-curled horns, the true monarchs of Eryri. Several books about Y Wladfa, the Welsh colony in Patagonia, have appeared recently and they will be reviewed by this magazine in due course. Elvey MacDonald, long resident in Wales (though still with an Argentinian passport and an attractive accent to his Welsh), was born in Patagonia and knows the province intimately. His autobiography, entitled Llwch (‘Dust’), is now published by Y Lolfa as a hefty paperback. The photos alone tell an exotic tale of gaucho life on the paith and it’s only the chapels, choirs and typically Welsh faces that remind us that here was a community which, against the odds, was created by our own people out of desert, wilderness and a desperate idealism. Elvey gives us a modest, humorous account of his family and neighbours which should be read by everyone with an interest in the Patagonian venture.

The Welsh language needs an audience that pays more than lipservice to the importance of the written word I have read the novels that won the Daniel Owen Prize and the Prose Medal at Bala, namely Fflur Dafydd’s Y Llyfrgell (Lolfa, £8.95) and Y Trydydd Peth by Siân Melangell Dafydd (Gomer, £6.99). Both have been highly praised by the adjudicators and both merit the praise heaped upon them. It’s good to know we have such skilful writers now taking the novel to new heights, and both female at that. Three more excellent novels by women writers are Fel Aderyn by Manon Steffan Ros (Lolfa, £7.95), Catrin Dafydd’s Y Tiwniwr Piano (Gomer, £7.99), and Y Ferch ar y Ffordd (Lolfa, £7.95) by Lleucu Roberts. The second of these takes the lid off the lives of the Welshspeaking middle-class of Cardiff ’s suburbia and the third is set in the caravan camp at the National Eisteddfod. Both locations present ample scope for biting satire and some mischievous humour. Judging by these five books, the Welsh novel is in good shape at the moment. It’s to be hoped they will be bought in sufficient numbers to encourage their publishers and authors to write more. The Welsh language needs first-rate novelists just as much as it needs its poets, but it also needs an audience that pays more than lip-service to the importance of the written word.

POETRY BOOK I am the thought that flies in seconds through a man’s head, and lives for ever. I am all he knew; I am his words on the other side of the world, sounding long after he dies. I can change the world, build bridges, change your mind, choke you with tears. I can make a world, and man it. Give me to a child, I am the ocean cupped in his hands; I am all the sand of the beach in his toy bucket. I am the key to the walled garden, the magic lamp, the island where the treasure is. I am could-be and might-have-been, the story of the people, the store of seed-corn. I feed the hunger that grain leaves keen.

THE LAKE I was the stillness before snow seeds fell. I was in the ice which was born of snow. I was in the heart of the glacier. I was stirred by the moving of the ice. I became cold waters beneath the ice. I became still waters cradled by snow. I became the ripples beneath warm winds. I became a lake of melting waters. I am a lake of legends and stories. I am the home of the thrice-struck lady. I am the one source of healing and charms. I am the secret, the search and the sought. I am Llyn y Fan Fach. DAVID FAIRFAX.

SHEENAGH PUGH

from later selected poems (SEREN)

BARDDONIAETH The publishers are most grateful to the trustees of the HARRI WEBB FUND who have generously sponsored this page. A fee will be paid for every poem published. Poems for consideration should be sent to: DR MEIC STEPHENS, 10 HEOL DON, WHITCHURCH, CARDIFF, CF14 2AU. Please send a stamped address envelope if you want your poems to be returned.

MEIC STEPHENS ALSO RECOMMENDS • Elwyn Edwards, Cynefin (Barddas, £6) • Margaret Redfern, Flint (Honno, £6.99)

• Joseph Keating, My Struggle for Life (U.C.Dublin Press, £21) • Simon Brooks, Yr Hawl i Oroesi (Carreg Gwalch, £7.50)

• Peter Badge, Coracles of the World (Carreg Gwalch, £6.95) • A Cynfael Lake, Huw Jones o Langwm (Pantycelyn, £6) • Diane Green, Emyr Humphreys: a Postcolonial Novelist? (UWP, £18.99) • Nerys Howell, Cymru ar Blat: Wales on a Plate (Carreg Gwalch, £8.50) • Meic Hughes, Maen nhw'n siarad amdana i (Bwthyn,£6) • Michael Senior, Faithful Hound: Beddgelert and the truth about its legend (Carreg Gwalch, £5.50)

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Two beautiful period productions of two great love stories… Fall in love this autumn

La traviata

NEW PRODUCTION

V e r d i

Supported by the Helena Oldacre Trust

Cast includes Alfie Boe

Madam Butterfly

12 Sept – 4 Oct Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff 08700 40 2000 wmc.org.uk

7 – 9 October Swansea Grand Theatre 01792 475715 swanseagrand.co.uk

13 – 17 October Venue Cymru, Llandudno 01492 872000 venuecymru.co.uk

Both operas are sung in Italian and surtitled so you can follow the story on a screen above the stage throughout. WNO also performs Berg’s Wozzeck.

wno.org.uk – get closer to the action on stage and behind the scenes

Registered Charity No 221538. La traviata photo by Drew Farrell, Madam Butterfly photo by Neil Bennett

P u c c i n i

Music MALE POPE

- Cappucino Girls

Mr. Pope’s new adventure... NORMA LORD

al Pope is summarised by Wikipedia as “a Welsh musician and composer who is especially notable for his contribution to music theatre portraying Welsh national identities and themes.” As so often, this London (or Sydney?) - centric view would be rigorously questioned in Wales, some of which suspects Pope of using his homeland as a bandwagon to fame and fortune. He is also, of course, much more - or less, according to your point of view, than a musician and composer, starting out as a gospel singer/songwriter, and becoming well-known along the way to many more folk as a radio and TV presenter for the past two decades. Mal(dwyn) Pope hails from Brynhyfryd, Swansea. He started singing and writing songs as a child. Barely into his teens, he won a recording contract with Rocket Records as a result of his brother sending a tape to John Peel. After Christ’s College, Cambridge he had a brief

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For all his considerable vision and skill, Mal Pope is a realist, and his latest project is a result of many years hard slog at the musical coal-face.

spell under Harvey Goldsmith in London, but soon returned, singing, song-writing and broadcasting for BBC Wales in Cardiff where he met and sang with, among others, Bonnie Tyler, the star of the forthcoming show tour. A broad palette over the next ten years saw him taking on chat shows on Radio Wales and HTV, producing much popular gospel music (his upbringing was devoutly religious) and singing the theme songs for such TV programmes as Fireman Sam and Joshua Jones. Pope’s first musical, Amazing Grace, based on the story of Evan Roberts and the religious revival, quickly became a success in 2005 at the Grand Theatre, Swansea (it would have made the perfect opening gala performance for the Wales Millennium Centre had it been ready six months earlier) and gained sufficient acclaim on the subsequent tour to be presented as the first (and only?) original Welsh musical at WMC in 2006, to standing ovations. This was followed, in 2007, by Contender, an investigation into the dubious probity of American boxing centred on the travails of Rhondda heavyweight hero, Tommy Farr. Both shows are unmistakably twenty-first century creations, with accessibly upbeat music and rich veins of humour, but neither is merely a frothy night out. As Pope himself says, a show stops short of purpose if it does not leave its audience “something to think about” after curtaindown, and while the songs reverberate through one’s head, the ethical conundrums persist. For all his considerable artistic vision and skill, Mal Pope is a realist, and his latest project is a result of many years hard slog at the musical coalface. With two successful musicals under his belt in partnership with Michael Bogdanov, Pope has now formed his own, independent theatre company “Grand Slam” based at his home in Mumbles

and is beginning rehearsals for his latest show, Cappuccino Girls, starring Bonnie Tyler, and due to open at the Parc and Dare Theatre in Treorchy in November, touring afterwards at Swansea’s Grand and Cardiff Gate Theatres. And all this backed solely on his own track record, not a groat of grant funding or sponsorship in sight. My afternoon’s research suggests that this may be Wales’s only truly commercial theatre company. Cappuccino Girls was destined to “dry run” in New York, but financial instability prevented this, and the show had an outing, with a different cast from the proposed Welsh tour, in Manchester earlier this year. The theme of the musical was inspired by Pope’s wife and friends, discussing over their coffee cups how to balance their lives as mothers with more creative aspirations. Anthony Williams, who choreographed Amazing

Grace and The Contender under Michael Bogdanov’s direction, directs the show, designed by Edward Thomas (Dr. Who and Torchwood) and glamour will be provided, negotiations permitting, by David Emanuel who, as the show’s website points out, “designed a wedding dress for the original ‘cappuccino girl’”. And there is even talk of a deal with a high-street chain store to make and sell the frocks to cappuccino girls up and down the country - now that’s what I call marketing! Leading the cast, Neath-born Bonnie Tyler, whose string of popular hits, awards and citations will be familiar to many readers, returns to the stage in Wales after a long career in the US and Europe. She is currently recording a version of her own 1983 hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart with Only Men Aloud. Cappuccino Girls can be seen at Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy; Swansea Grand Theatre; and Gate Arts Centre, Roath, and it sounds like a great Christmas treat..

TWMPATH CD

AN APOLOGY

Our apologies for any confusion arising due to the incorrect CD cover accompanying the review of Twmpath. This CD is available via www.welshfolkdance.org.uk

A New Musical By Mal Pope

Directed by Anthony Williams

18th-20th November 2009 Park and Dare Theatre, Treorci Box Office 01443 773112 24th-28th November 2009 Swansea Grand Theatre Box Office 01792 475715 1st-19th December 2009 The Gate Arts Theatre, Cardiff, CF24 3JW Box Office 029 2048 3344

‘Friends’ meets ‘Sex and the City and all set to a fabulous score

www.cappucinogirls.com

Music Y Glerorfa yn fyw/live (SAIN) DAVID PETERSEN

everal people impressed upon me that I should attend a concert being staged in the Galeri, Caernarfon, on 24th November 2006. It was going to be very important for Welsh folk music and so I went. Little did I imagine just how important it turned out to be. On stage that night was a group of people unlike anything seen in Wales before - a collection of 40 Welsh folk musicians called Clerorfa (a play on the Welsh word for orchestra, cerddorfa). Also waiting to take part were other individual instrumentalists, folk singers, cerdd dant singers and dancers; this was a very rare cross-section of all aspects of the Welsh folk tradition. The energy, the enthusiasm and the pure hwyl were incredible to witness. I knew immediately that I would have to persuade Clerorfa to come out to the Interceltic Festival in Lorient to represent Wales, and to share with the whole of the Celtic world what I had experienced at that November concert. Eventually Clerorfa did play at the Festival and then some! Every concert they performed was received with tremendous applause. They were being talked about everywhere in the festival. The press and media went ‘wild’. I suspected that such would be the case, and every time I have had the great pleasure of hearing them perform live I have been stunned by their increasing professionalism and presentational skills. This CD produced by Sain and brilliantly recorded

This is a massive CD in the impact that it surely will have not just in Wales, but internationally, where it clearly demonstrates what Welsh traditional folk music is all about, and sets a new standard for the future and mixed by Siwan Lisa Evans at a live concert in April 2009, is the natural progression from their first concert and subsequent performances. The enthusiastic response from the first night to wherever they have performed since, has made this recording a ‘must have’. Listen to it and you will see why. The arrangements are so creative and subtle, they display a true passion for both the music and the tradition. It is a remarkable recording, full of the enthusiasm, energy and the obvious enjoyment of those making the music. From the very first track, Gwreiddiau (Roots), Glan Camlan sets down a marker that here is a full, huge sound never before heard in Wales. The incredible thing is that it is ours. This is what traditional Welsh folk music sounds like. It’s as if we are taking ownership of what is ours for the first time, and it’s very, very exciting. There is a gentle influence of Scottish rhythms in Jeff ’s Set: Y Pibydd Du /The Black Piper, and the distinctive flavour only serves to emphasise the next tune, Y Lili, which is the quintessence of everything unique and beautiful in Welsh traditional music. In track 5 ,Cardis, the influence is Breton with its legacy of a medieval modal. Its use of the pipes is brilliant and is highly evocative. In the November concert Stephen Rees sang the solo Can ychen o Forgannwg / Glamorgan oxen song, accompanying himself on the accordion. It was absolutely spell-binding. On the recent CD he sings Aly Brechdan; Cân Crwtyn y Gwartheg / The Ploughboy’s Song. Both are similar, but the latter has the whole ‘orchestra’ joining him in the chorus to fantastic effect. This is one of my favourites, and even after several plays it remains amazingly haunting, transporting one back over the centuries to a time when, in rural Wales, the little things in life mattered, and it was precious to be close nature.

Robin Huw Bowen’s breathtaking arrangement of the Gwenllion set (track 11) is beautiful in its pace and feeling, whilst Patrick Rimes plays fiddle and pipes in his arrangement of track 9, Morgawr, with verve, style and a maturity that belies his years. This is a massive CD in the impact that it surely will have not just in Wales, but internationally, where it clearly demonstrates what Welsh traditional folk music is all about and sets a new standard for the future. As Meredydd Evans says in the sleeve notes “This is the biggest thing to happen to our traditional music since the founding of The Welsh Folk Song Society more than a century ago”.

Sidan Glas. Gwenan Gibbard. DAVID PETERSEN

was searching for a new young harpist to represent Wales at the 1999 Interceltic Festival in Lorient, Brittany and someone recommended Gwenan Gibbard, then still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. I booked her and waited to hear her perform at the concerts that I had arranged for her. At the most demanding concert, which took place in a large modern church with wonderful acoustics in the centre of the town, she began her set with some delightful tunes exactly what I had hoped for. Then taking hold of the microphone she told the audience that she was going to sing whilst accompanying herself on the harp. The sound that filled the entire space was absolutely stunning; the voice was beautiful and clear, as they say, as a bell. The following day the French press acclaimed the birth of a new ‘star’, and that Wales had yet another major talent to celebrate. I had booked a harpist without realising that I had booked a superb singer as well! I invited her back to the Festival in 2006 when she had recorded her first album Y Gwenith Gwynnaf. This album confirmed what I already knew, that here was a major new talent from Wales. Some of her tunes were as good as anything that I had ever experienced from Welsh folk music. I love it still and play it frequently - an example of every thing that is brilliant in our folk music tradition. So when I heard that Sain was bringing out her second album I couldn’t wait to hear it. While her first album showed the world that Wales has a major talent in Gwenan Gibbard, this second album more than confirms it. She has earned that heady status of ‘A

national treasure’. Sidan Glas (Blue Silk) displays the whole range of her talents, as harpist and singer, composer and arranger. This album is a collection of genuine Welsh folk music played with sincerity and style. It’s thrilling to listen to and captures everything that I feel Welsh music should encompass. Gwenan’s knowledge and love of Welsh traditional music is evident in all tracks and her obvious empathy with the material is spellbinding. The tracks Cân y Lleisoniaid and Cân y Droell Fach are alone worth the price of the CD and you get to hear the sheer beauty and richness of her voice on many of the other tracks too. One of my favourites is Gwenno Tir Mawr, where she accompanies herself on the accordion and which demonstrates the full range of her voice. When the accompanying musicians are sensitive and contribute to the overall sound as in the polkas of track 7, they are a worthwhile addition, but there are several tracks where additional instrumentation is unnecessary. I’m a drummer myself, but the introduction of percussion on track 14 is superfluous! When Gwenan plays and sings on her own she creates something both very special and very rare, managing to convey an emotional depth through her arrangements of old standards seldom experienced nowadays. To listen to Sidan Glas is to experience a professional musician performing beautiful and uniquely Welsh tunes full of exquisite subtlety and with supreme confidence. The whole has been superbly mixed and engineered by Martin Allcock and is one of the most enjoyable and glorious examples of Welsh culture that you will ever have the privilege of hearing.

Chris Kinsey

Nature Diary

can’t recall such a gusty, autumnal August. On the 2nd I was woken by chattering and chomping and opened the window on grey squirrels devouring hazel nuts. I used to call September ‘mad squirrel month’, but this August, the nut glut has had the greyhounds barking up trees early and we’ve all followed trails of spat bracts and shells that look like small strewn jester caps. Blackberries have ripened early too. I found my first ripe one on 29th July and I’ve come back from every walk since with stained fingers and mouth. The drizzle has encouraged fungi growth - outbursts of parasol mushrooms in hedgerows and amongst the harebells on Roundton Hill. After four or five days some grow from bombs to reach the size of small dinner plates scattered with circles of broken bread. After a fortnight they’re undermined and guzzled on their way to final deliquescence by slugs. On a rainy afternoon we visited the Royal Forestry Society plantation of coast redwoods near Leighton. The path always rusty with rich, red, fibrous bark and fallen leaf-scale was lit by chanterelle torches and one amethyst deceiver. Some of the leaf-scale was riveted by tiny horsehair toadstools. However, the edges of any season blur. Whilst the hard fruits of common and large-leafed limes which flowered in late June were whirling down on wing-like bracts, a huge silver pendent lime came into flower. The

C a mbr i a THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES CYLCHGRAWN CENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

The drizzle has encouraged fungi growth - outbursts of parasol mushrooms in hedgerows and amongst the harebells perfume of its yellow flowers douses the whole north side of town with sweetness. For ten days the tilted tree was like a giant humming top with feasting bees. Several friends have lamented a lack of butterflies this year. I’ve seen fewer peacocks and tortoiseshells, but it’s been a good year for painted ladies - some literally scaled down and LIZ HINKLEY worn colourless by buffeting winds. On 8th August I watched a red admiral and a painted lady contest the Iron Age Fort and modern trig point on the summit of Roundton Hill. Eventually we were all eclipsed by a swarm of flying ants. Meadow and hedge browns are doing well on conservation grasslands and speckled woods on brambles in woodland glades. There have been blizzards of cabbage and small whites over our garden. LIZ HINKLEY On 20th August we were in Merthyr Mawr Warren in South Wales. The sun was shining and information boards urged visitors to be ‘adder alert’. I was glad the greyhounds were at home; most likely only open to encounters with the basking slowworms which enjoy our south-facing slope. The sand dunes were splashed with brilliant blue-pink viper’s bugloss. According to the seventeenth century herbalist William Coles and a belief in the ‘doctrine of signatures’, the fact that the stem of viper’s bugloss is ‘speckled like a serpent’s skin’ is proof of its power over snake venom. I wouldn’t like to trust it.

Art WILLIAM BROWN

From Under the Bed LAURA GASCOIGNE

ll artists are by nature squirrels, hoarding away the kernels of creative ideas to feed their inspiration through fallow months. Preliminary sketches too precious to part with are stuffed into portfolios and stashed away in nooks and crannies for future reference. Rarely sold during the artist’s lifetime, these priceless scraps often emerge only after sometimes long after - the artist’s death. The record is probably held by Welsh eighteenth century painter

William Brown: Cwmafon ’97 (acrylic on canvas) 100.5x122cm

Thomas Jones, whose now famous oil sketches of Italy only came to light 150 years after his death.

Crossing the Line (poster paint on paper) 32 x 40cm

In the case of Welsh artist by adoption William Brown, it has happened sooner. A spring-clean of the marital bedroom in Bridgend by his widow Carys recently uncovered, hidden under the bed, a cache of hitherto unseen sketches in charcoal and poster paint - glimmerings of ideas for future paintings when they were still a twinkle in the artist’s eye. Brown probably ranks as one of art history’s most prolific sketchers. When in full flow, said his London dealer David Solomon, pages fell from his hands like autumn leaves. “It’s my thinking process,” was the artist’s own explanation, “I draw like people knit. I can sit at a table and do 200.” The difficulty was “knowing when to stop, knowing which ones” - the drawings under the bed were the ones he stopped at. On 10 October some 30 examples, as fresh as the day they were drawn, will go on show with related paintings at The Art Shop, Abergavenny in an exhibition titled

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Passing Through II 2000 (acrylic on canvas) 113.5x153cm

From Under the Bed. The title is appropriate in more ways than one, and has a particular resonance for me. What first brought the unique genius of William Brown to my attention as the then editor of Artists

& Illustrators magazine was a 1996 Glynn Vivian Gallery exhibition similarly titled What’s Behind the Blanket? And blow me down if the first version of its title painting hasn’t come out from under the bed.

Trojan Horse (poster paint on paper) 27x38cm

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It was that touring exhibition that introduced Brown’s colourful cast of animal characters - none more colourful than the artist himself - to a wider audience, an audience that had never seen anything quite like it. Blinking into the art world spotlight from behind the blanket came the French Loup Garou, the goggleeyed werewolf of the Toronto-born artist’s Canadian childhood, and troupes of what would become his trademark bears in their distinctive yellow and red-checked livery - the McLure tartan of his Ayrshire grandmother. Drawn with the vigour and dash of a Picasso and painted in colours to make Matisse pale, the visual onslaught of his imagery was unstoppable. As soon as the catalogue landed on my desk, I rang the gallery to ask for an interview. It didn’t happen for two years, during which time memories of an earlier trip to Libya had added exotic new props and backdrops to the repertoire. The forest-dwelling werewolf of the frozen north was transplanted to the unfamiliar holiday location of broad prickly pearfringed bays and sparkling seas, their cerulean blue expanses broken only by the faintly sinister presence of a plane or tanker - Brown’s visit had coincided with the US air strikes on Tripoli. Sketches of a tanker, planes and a Loup Garou among palm trees - dressed in holiday pink - have now emerged from under the bed. A restless traveller, Brown never returned from a foreign adventure without a local folk myth or two packed into his mental baggage. But it was South Wales, where he settled in 1991 after his marriage with Carys, that produced the richest seam of stories, and a new star turn in his animal circus: the Mari Lwyd. In Brown’s imagination the skeletal ghost horse of South Walian legend acquired the melancholy and mildly

comic aspect of a revenant Eeyore crossed with a two-legged pantomime horse. Welsh love spoons came later, and the Venus of Blaengwynfi, dreamed up as a Celtic sister to the Venus of Willendorf. Meanwhile the expatriate Brown bears settled down and dozed under cottage windows opening on watery Welsh moons, and the pine-clad expanses of Canada gave way to the small round hills of Glamorgan, typically pictured - as in the painting Cwmafon in this exhibition - with a row of treacherously leaning miners’ cottages clinging together for support along the bottom. In 1997, a collaboration with French poet Lucien Suel on Le Nouveau Bestiaire sparked a vivid series of animal woodcuts, a print medium at which Brown was a natural - dispensing with the clobber of a press, he hand-burnished prints with the back of a wooden spoon. Never cut out to be a mere illustrator, he protested that he would “rather work with the poets - unless they’re dead, which is inconvenient.” The posthumous fruits of his final collaboration with Welsh poet David Greenslade on a handprinted book of woodcuts, The Dark Fairground, will be unveiled on the opening night of The Art Shop show. It might seem curious that a born colourist like Brown could express himself so vividly in black and

white, but his monochrome was other people’s colour. In a black and white painting in the show, The Sky at Night, traces of grey-green underpainting creep around the image and warm it into life: “I surprise myself,’ he once confessed, “I am capable of subtlety.” He was also capable of surprising seriousness.

The recurring theme of The Dark Fairground is a nagging reminder of the shadow world we prefer to forget. The bears in Passing Through II file in and out of an area of shadow, slipping from chiaro into scuro like circus performers swallowed by the darkness behind the tent-flap. What is the meaning of it all?

When put on the spot, the artist’s own instinct was to dive behind the blanket and leave his audience scratching their heads. The design of his pictures might be glaringly simple, the colour dazzlingly pure and the calligraphy - squiggles for waves, zigzags for pine trees - instantly readable by a child, but the meanings remain tantalisingly elusive. Writing his obituary for The Independent, I realised from the lacunae in his life story that there was a lot behind the blanket of his own biography that had been deliberately kept from the light. The man who painted the disarming sketches in this show of the Trojan Horse as a bright orange toy with outsize wheels was something of a dark horse himself. But that, of course, is what gave his work its edge. Opening up the new batch of sketches on my desktop, several images made me laugh out loud. It was laughter of pure pleasure, but also surprise that the creatures of Brown’s artistic imagination could spring so disconcertingly into independent life. Rereading the notes of our first interview, I was astonished to find that he had told me with uncanny prescience: “I want to do all the bogeymen in the world. What’s behind the blanket leads to what’s under the bed.” What else may lurk behind the sofa and under the dresser? We haven’t seen the last of William Brown.

G ardens The Flowering of Aberglasney CAROLINE PALMER

en years on from the archaeology and restoration, Aberglasney is a new garden on old bones. This book celebrates that achievement, and showcases the plantsmanship and design talents of its Director of Operations, Graham Rankin, who is also no slouch as author, photographer and lecturer.. First and foremost this is a lavish picture book. Graham Rankin is a

photographer of distinction, and with the advantages of constant access to the garden, from dawn to dusk, in fair weather and foul, his pictures provide a portrait far more intimate than that which could be achieved by a big-name photographer on visiting assignment. A frond of fern enrobed in a cocoon of transparent ice, a perfect camellia bloom crusted with early morning spicules of frost, or the work of orb spiders beaded in glistening dew on a sweet-pea trellis bear testament to fleeting moments of delight. As a photographer he is at his most active at dawn and evening, as low light gleams through leaves and petals. He uses conventional film, and slow exposures. His immaculate plant portraits can only be taken when there is not a breath of wind. Chapters are devoted to each garden area, - Cloisters, walled gar-

Page by page one lingers upon close-ups of the immaculate fleshy textures of new petals dens, the sloping hill above the mansion, the pool garden and the Ninfarium, and the text describes the process and the planting, emphasising the discrimination choice of newly-introduced species from the wild or new and improved cultivars of old friends. The emphasis is always on the best and most entrancing plants. More than a few are choice rarities, some of which arrived with Graham Rankin from his previous garden. There is a colloquial term for illustrated books such as this one, - plant porn - as page by page one lingers upon close-ups of the immaculate fleshy textures of new petals, the clustered anthers of a lily, the weird spathes of Arisaemas, the extraordinary sculptural stigmas at the centre of a magnolia flower. But it is also more than this. Graham Rankin and his editor Penny David know their

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collectors from Reginald Farrer to Bleddwyn and Sue Wynn Jones, and the plant breeders constantly refining the beauty of new varieties plants, the scientific nomenclature is impeccable, the index precise, and the insights into the plants and their sources are a delight. Plant

appear regularly in the narrative. This book is rightly a celebration of what Aberglasney gardens has become, and is published to coincide with the ten-year anniversary. I have only one criticism - in

common with most photographic extravaganzas, it is too heavy to comfortably read in bed! The Flowering of Aberglasney by Graham Rankin (Aberglasney Enterprises Ltd 2009, hardback, 240 pp, ÂŁ30)

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MOTORING

Real car flourishes in a real country JOHN A EDWARDS

here would you expect to find possibly the largest dealership in the world selling vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars? Park Lane, London? Fifth Avenue, New York? Think again. How about the exmining village of Bethesda in Snowdonia? This is the unlikely location of The Real Car Co Ltd yet it is only 1 2_1hours by road from Manchester Airport and there are plenty of quiet roads locally on which to test-drive the cars while at the same time enjoying glorious scenery. In fairness, Real Car should not in any circumstances be called ‘used car dealers’ - ‘retailers of preused examples of the best car in the world’ is an altogether more apposite description. Although situated in a holiday area this is a serious business venture and should in no way be confused with a museum or tourist attraction.

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They generally have around 40 cars in stock dating from the 1920s to the 1970s housed in a range of large buildings with facilities to carry out repairs and modifications – I like the word ‘fettling’ in this context. They do not carry out from-the-ground-up restorations of ‘barn discoveries’ (or should that be basket cases!), which are usually undertaken by smaller specialist operators. Real Car was started in 1987 by Ray Arnold and Ian Johnstone who hail from Brighton and Llanfairfechan respectively They previously ran a car exhaust company locally before starting their current business which is undoubtedly very much a labour of love They are true enthusiasts and will travel virtually anywhere to buy or sell early Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars. Putting their money where their

mouth is, in 2006 Ian and his wife Ros entered the ‘Rhythm of the Road Rally’ in the foothills of the Himalayas driving a 1953 Bentley R-Type taken straight from stock but specially modified in their own workshops for the expected arduous conditions. Work included underbody skid plates, towing eyes, and a new clutch and brakes. A new mild steel exhaust system was also fitted as it would be much easier to repair than stainless steel in remote rural areas. The car was shipped out to Karachi and then covered 3,000 miles in Pakistan, India and Nepal before the finish in Calcutta. Despite reaching a height of 8,300 ft, encountering appalling road conditions including black ice, they had a completely trouble-free run. However, an overall fuel consumption of 13.3 mpg reflected the car’s old-world technology. Back in the

PICTURED AT THE REAL CAR CO, BETHESDA

A 1929 20HP 2-DOOR ROLLS-ROYCE COUPÉ, A MODEL OFTEN FAVOURED BY DOCTORS.

SMALL AND FRUGAL

THE INDIAN-BUILT SUZUKI ALTO HAS THE BENEFIT OF FIVE DOORS

UK, the Bentley soon found a happy home with a customer in Yorkshire. At the time of writing, cars in the Real Car showrooms range in price from £12,500 for a 1972 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, to £75,000 for a 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III H.J.Mulliner Sedanca de Ville. The claim is that in the present economic climate they are a better investment than shares and far more fun to own! Its ironic to think that while the Rolls-Royce marque now has a strong presence in Wales thanks to The Real Car Co, when these cars were originally sold the country had a paucity of RollsRoyce dealerships, a result of our lowly position on the ‘wealth barometer’ no doubt. North Wales had Braid Bros, Colwyn Bay as a sub retailer of the main retailer W.Watson & Co of Renshaw Street Liverpool while South Wales had no retailer at all, amazing in view of the many wealthy industrial magnates in the

area. Its also interesting to note that 2009 is the 60th anniversary of the building of the first complete RollsRoyce motor car - the Silver Dawn. Previously Rolls-Royce just made the chassis ( ie all the mechanical bits) while the body was added by a specialist coachbuilder. Introduced in 1949, the Silver Dawn was priced at £3,500 starting a new era for the company and allowing a significant increase in sales.

For hard times - alto hits the right note.

isiting Spain around 20 years ago I was amused to see middle class British and German holidaymakers who probably ran a BMW, Mercedes or Jaguar back home happily bombing around in a little hired SEAT Marbella often battered and with the seats liberally stained by suntan

lotion. Air conditioning? You must be joking! After all, what were the windows for? If these same people had been asked to drive this class of car to their local golf club or a posh wedding they would probably have recoiled in horror. But what are today’s basic cars like? After driving a Suzuki Alto recently( but not is Spain unfortunately!) I can say that things have improved immeasurably. True I was testing the SZ4 ‘top’ model with air conditioning, alloy wheels and even Electrical Stability Programme( yes in a basic car!) but the price is still only £7960 while the starter-model SZ2 retails at just £6795. And even in a less than glorious summer like 2009, its still very nice to have the benefit of air conditioning, basic car or not. There are obviously some shortcomings with a low-cost car like this. At times the ride is rather choppy and the boot decidedly small if you’re using up all the available space carrying four passenger or even five at a pinch. However noise levels are reasonably low and longer journeys need hold no fears. Performance from the 3-cylinder 1.0-litre 68PS engine is surprisingly brisk and the combined consumption of 64.2 mpg is most acceptable in view of the seemingly never-ending increases in petrol prices. Perhaps people who have minimalist interior décor at home will enjoy a similar theme with their transportation. And importantly, the Alto is a ‘proper’ car and not too small or quirky which is always crucial in a class-conscious society like ours.

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N W I D

Falcondale Mansion Hotel Relax : Indulge : Refresh

SIR GAERFYRDDIN THE ANGEL, Salem, Llandeilo,Tel (01558) 823394 Former Welsh Chef of the Year Rod Peterson has built up a well deserved reputation for top quality produce and cooking at this highly acclaimed restaurant cum pub which features in The Good Food Guide. Swansea bay mussels with Thai green curry sauce, roast saddle of venison served with prune boudin, all done to perfection. Breads and ice creams are also freshly made on site. Two AA rosettes. From £20. From £22

FAIRYHILL BAR AND BRASSERIE @ MACHYNYS, Machynys Peninsula, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. Tel: (01554) 744994 (for Brasserie bookings) Looking onto the Loughor Estuary and the Gower, the ethos is consistent with that of Fairyhill at Reynoldston and the ambience is assisted by contemporary wood and slate. The Bar offers hot griddled paninis, and local pork sausages, mash & onion gravy, while the Brasserie serves dishes like real prawn cocktail & spicy sauce, and Machynys fishcakes, warm tartare sauce and steamed greens. Starters from £3.25, Main courses from £10.00.

Y FFIGYSBREN - THE FIG TREE, Dryslwyn Fawr, Llanarthne, Tel (01558) 668187. Converted from a threshing barn this stunning contemporary restaurant is Routier Listed with menus which include delicious slow roasted lamb shank in a port and black cherry sauce and pan fried chicken supreme with chorizo and sunblushed tomatoes. Wonderful home made puddings and ice creams also feature on the Sunday lunch set menu - £16.95. Accommodation available in 51cottages from £60.00 per day .

CEREDIGION THE FALCONDALE MANSION HOTEL, Llanbedr-pont-steffan / Lampeter, West Wales. Tel (01570) 422910. This Victorian mansion is situated at the head of a forested valley, overlooking the university and market town of Llanbedr-pontsteffan/Lampeter, in fourteen acres of parkland with a ten-acre lake. Signature dishes on the Brasserie menu include Pantysgawn goats’ cheese croute, braised lamb ‘Henrietta’ with a honey and mustard sauce, and banana fritters in cinnamon sugar as a dessert. From £18

GWYNEDD BODYSGALLEN HALL, Llandudno, Tel (01492) 584466 www.bodysgallen.com A magnificent seventeenth century country house surrounded by wonderful gardens, with traditional country house style cooking. Sample the baked Welsh goat’s cheese soufflé, baked turbot with noodles and a Provençale dressing and chocolate fondant to finish. From £22

PLAS BODEGROES, Pwllheli, Tel (01758) 612363 www.bodegroes.co.uk

Lampeter, Ceredigion 01570 422910 www.falcondalehotel.com info@falcondalehotel.com

Crug-Glas Country House 22222 Situated near St Davids, 1 mile inland from the coast, offering accommodation of the highest standard, rooms with copper baths to double spa baths and four poster beds. In the dining room we offer outstanding food using the finest local produce. ABEREIDDY, SOLVA, HAVERFORDWEST, PEMBROKESHIRE, SA62 6XX TEL: 01348 831302 EMAIL: janet@crugglas.plus.com

www.crug-glas.co.uk

Elegant, romantic and unpretentious. A very pretty Georgian house set in beautiful grounds with something for every season. A classic menu with style: seared breast of pigeon on bubble and squeak, smoked chicken and celeriac soup, kebab of mountain lamb on a bed of cous cous, apricot and ginger parfait. Michelin Star Sunday lunch £17.50 Appetiser and three courses £40

MORGANNWG FAIRYHILL, Reynoldston, Gower, Nr Swansea, Tel (01792) 390139 www.fairyhill.net This charming hotel has ample grounds to explore, including woodland and a trout stream. A wide variety of choices on the menu include chicken and laverbread sausage, Welsh Black fillet of beef with a crispy won ton and chilli sauce, followed by seasonal poached pears in red wine. From £18.95

CASNEWYDD / NEWPORT THE CHANDLERY RESTAURANT, Newport, NP20 EHTel (01633) 256622 www.thechandleryrestaurant.com Beautifully restored Grade 2 listed building – a relaxing place to dine. Former National Chef of Wales, Simon Newcombe and wife Jane have achieved accolades in all major food guides, including 2AA rosettes and a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Seasonal à la carte and business lunch menus updated regularly on website. Enjoy Trio of Duck (potted duck, Lady Llanover salt duck, foie gras), Roast Loin of Brecon Venison with balsamic braised red cabbage, pommes cocotte, Hot Chocolate Fondant with white chocolate mousse, milk chocolate sorbet. 3 course a la carte approx. £27.00. 3 course business lunch £12.95.

PENFRO LLYS MEDDYG, Trefdraeth / Newport. Tel (01239) 820008 A cosy bar, walls hung with paintings by Peter Daniels, an open fire and candlelight, provide an intimate atmosphere. To start, try the DoubleSmoked Salmon Surprise, followed by Supreme of Organic Chicken with Ginger, Lime and Green Onion, and the Chocolate Orange Truffle Cake for dessert. From £19.

POWYS BARN AT BRYNICH, Brynich, Aberhonddu/Brecon, Tel (01874) 623480 www.barn-restaurant.co.uk Converted 17th Century barn restaurant in a beautiful courtyard setting with panoramic views of the Brecon Beacons. Also self catering accommodation adjoining. Superb seasonal menus featuring home grown and local produce including Welsh Black Beef and Breconshire lamb. Main courses from £9 to £18.

CARLTON RIVERSIDE (formerly Carlton House) Llanwrtyd Wells, Tel (01591) 610 248 www.carltonrestaurant.co.uk This restaurant with rooms has changed location but maintained its strong culinary identity in Britain’s smallest town. With an impressive backdrop, the menu is as breathtaking as the scenery that surrounds it, inside and out! The menu embraces the ingredients of Wales but unleashes them in a European style that shows itself in such dishes as the Warm Salad of Seared Scallops, which incorporates Carmarthen ham and the Roast Fillet of Local Beef with a morel and Madeira sauce. Daily Menu £35 for four courses. Room rates from £40

FELIN FACH GRIFFIN, Felin Fach, Nr Aberhonddu/Brecon, Tel (01874) 620111 www.felinfach.com This is a traditional, farmhouse style inn, with a very relaxed atmosphere. It has a good variety of seasonal soups, gazpacho being one of them, divine Wye salmon, accompanied by new potatoes with chive butter, and home made chocolate mousse, making it simple yet still managing to get the taste buds going! From £18

LAKE VYRNWY HOTEL & SPA, Llanwddyn, Powys, SY10 0LY Tel: 01691 870 692 www.lakevyrnwyhotel.co.uk Our menus reflect a genuine enthusiasm for food, using the very best local ingredients and classical bases and reductions to produce modern British cuisine. Our restaurant overlooks the stunning Vyrnwy reservoir and dishes include: Seared tuna loin, glazed with Welsh rarebit on a tomato and red onion salad, followed by Roast shoulder and cutlet of lamb, smoked bacon, pea and leek compote with braised shallots and garlic. For dessert Rhubarb clafoutis tart with vanilla ice cream, served in a tuille basket. 3 course lunch £19.50, 5 course dinner £39.95

MYNWY THE BELL AT SKENFRITH, Monmouthshire, Tel (01600 750235) www.skenfrith.co.uk (OS 457200)

THE DRAGON INN, Crughywel /Crickhowell, Powys NP8 1BE. Tel (01873) 810362 www.dragoncrickhow-

More a restaurant with eight extremely comfortable rooms, The Bell is perched on the banks of the River Monnow, surrounded by beautiful Welsh countryside. The regularly changing menu offers fresh, seasonal food from mainly local suppliers with vegetables, herbs and fruit from The Bell’s own kitchen garden. Scallops, Fillet of Welsh Beef and Steamed Sponge Pudding, Earl Grey Syrup and Jam-on-Toast Ice Cream are some of the hot favourites. The wine list is extensive and very good value. After eating, try one of The Bell’s very popular walks.

ell.co.uk This Grade II2, Visit Wales 32, historic Inn on Crickhowell High Street has been providing hospitality for over 400 years. Under head chef Robert Duggan the restaurant offers a combination of traditional British and modern European dishes, sourcing local meat and vegetables. Fish is brought in daily from Plymouth and Swansea. Dishes include Monkfish & Prawns in a creamy, garlic sauce; pheasant with Stilton and bacon on braised red cabbage and port wine sauce; breast of duck on wilted Pakchoy with egg noodles and honey & soy dressing.

If it’s not here, how can we recommend it?!

THE HAND at LLANARMON

A centuries-old inn set in the heart of the beautiful Ceiriog Valley - “The Valley of the Poets” - some of the most breathtaking countryside in Wales. Superb cuisine, freshly prepared from locally sourced produce with a minimum of fuss and formality and, of course, drinks for every taste. Comfortable accommodation in ‘Character’ and ‘Country’ rooms, maintained to the highest standards.

THE HAND AT LLANARMON, LLANARMON DC, CEIRIOG VALLEY, LLANGOLLEN LL20 7LD T:

01691 60 06 66 E: reception@thehandhotel.co.uk www.thehandhotel.co.uk

TYDDYN LLAN

Llangoed Hall

RESTAURANT WITH ROOMS

Voted Wales' Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year 2010

LLANGOED HALL HOTEL LLYSWEN, BRECON, POWYS, LD3 0YP EMAIL: enquiries@llangoedhall.com TEL:

01874 754525

FAX:

01874 754545

The Dragon Inn

Some of the finest food in Wales Please contact us for up to date special offers or visit www.tyddynllan.co.uk LLANDRILLO, NR. CORWEN, DENBIGHSHIRE, NORTH WALES LL21 0ST 01490 440264 FAX 01490 440414 EMAIL tyddynllan@compuserve.com

TEL

PENTRE-MAWR COUNTRY HOUSE

The hotel is open all year for lunch and dinner except Sunday evenings. The Dragon is a superb base for exploring Powys, Gwent and the South Eastern Valleys.

5 star country house hotel. AA finalist 2009/10, Landlady of the Year. Restaurant open to non-residents Friday to Saturday.

THE DRAGON INN, CRICKHOWELL TEL: 01873 810362 www.dragoncrickhowell.co.uk

Lake Vyrnwy Hotel & Spa

LLANDYRNOG, NR. DENBIGH, LL16 4LA Tel: 01824 790732 Email: info@pentremawrcountryhouse.co.uk www.pentremawrcountryhouse.co.uk

Sychnant Pass House OPEN ALL WEEK TO NON-RESIDENTS LICENSED FOR CIVIL CEREMONIES HEATED POOL, SUITES WITH HOT TUBS

Lake Vyrnwy Hotel & Spa, Llanwddyn, Powys, SY10 OLY

Telephone 01691 870 692 to make a booking EMAIL: info@lakevyrnwyhotel.co.uk

www.lakevyrnwyhotel.co.uk

TEL: 01492 585486 info@sychnant-pass-house.co.uk www.sychnant-pass-house.co.uk

EMAIL:

TheWelsh Kitchen

DOROTHY DAVIES

An apple a day...

ast weekend a friend arrived with two bags of apples: one of Pig Aderyn, not to be missed with its blush of red and pronounced aquiline snout, and one of Pen Caled, old Welsh varieties both of which we have in our infant orchard which has not yet reached apple producing maturity. What had started as a rather quiet Sunday evening turned into a wonderfully autumnal affair of apple tasting interspersed with the wonderful fresh, milky crunch of cob nuts, still green from the bushes, accompanied by a rather nice Sauterne and Hogia’r Wyddfa singing Safon yn y Bwlch on a loop. We were very organised, first trying each raw, both were sharp, Pen Caled a bit less so and with a hint more of sweetness but very hard under the knife, I thought that perhaps they had been picked when not quite ripe. Several of each were peeled and sliced and stewed very gently for five minutes with a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of sugar. Then, with due solemnity, the tasting began: Pig Aderyn were superb, rich in flavour and dimension, the Pen Caled seemed rather bland afterwards, lacking a certain depth, however, and strangely as they had been the sweeter raw, when a bit more sugar was added they too became much richer in flavour. Both had such lovely flavour that the addition of cloves or cinnamon would have been an injustice. Jonathan told us he had heard in Pembrokeshire that Pen Caled where judged not good for anything, only cider, I didn’t find this the case at all. We had them stewed at the Cambria lunch alongside Pwdin Watkin Wynne, one rarely sees plain stewed fruit these days and it reminded me how very good it is. Aerona Edwards asked if they had been hard to cut and the light went on, I hadn’t thought of the meaning of Pen Caled hard head - they weren’t underripe at all. Apples are wonder fruits, many, but not all, of them keep well; sweet or sour they suit savoury dishes as well as puddings, and the high level of pectin in their pips mean they are a boon to jelly and jam makers without interfering with flavour (there really is no need for sugar with added pectin). They are peculiar in the way they grow - every single pip from every single apple will produce a different type of apple tree, and only when grafted onto a particular root stock can you guarantee

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what type of apple you are going to get. Grafted trees are reliable and strong. Apple wood is beautiful when seasoned and polished and it burns slowly and well on a fire. In Elizabethan times apple blossom was popular in salads. The old adage: ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ could well be true. Research has found that apples are rich in anti-oxidants, contain anti-carcinogens, and are good for lowering cholesterol; they also increase bone density, decrease the symptoms of asthma and the body’s need for insulin. However, the idea that eating an apple is as good as brushing your teeth is a misapprehension; they are still full of sugar. Roast pork with sweet, sharp apple sauce is a marriage made in heaven, but I also love chicken braised on a bed of apples, garlic and onion with a glass of cider poured around. When the bird is really tender remove it for carving, tip the juice and vegtables into a blender and blitz; deglaze the pan and add that. Pour the sauce into a pan, heat and season, reduce a bit if it needs thickening. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and roasted parsnips, carrots and something green. Red cabbage braised with apple is a wonderful stand by, easy to cook in large quantities it freezes very well. The rich, full flavour is a worthy complement to a plain baked potato with slices of ham, or it can hold its own cutting through the richness of a venison stew. You can vary the spice, and the sweetness or make it sharper depending upon what you want to serve it with, and what ‘statement’ you want it to make. Try adding crushed juniper berries, cloves and cinnamon, even star anise. I favour it cooked long and slow until meltingly tender and slightly caramelised. If you have left over roast pork (or ham, and you don’t need very much), a fantastic dish can be made by layering it with braised red cabbage (make sure you leave some of the fat on, and when cooked slowly it gives a wonderful unctuousness), top with sliced potatoes, dribble over any left over gravy, season well, cover with foil and bake for at least an hour. MWYNHEWCH! If you would like to share any memories and recipes handed down using traditional Welsh ingredients, please send them to DOROTHY DAVIES, PO BOX 22, CARMARTHEN, SA32 7YH

Hotels & Restaurants TYDDYN LLAN Restaurant with Rooms Llandrillo Nr. Corwen Denbighshire LL21 0ST T: 01490 440264 W: www.tyddynllan.co.uk

love eating out, or rather the idea of it, for sometimes the reality can be a let-down. Anything, bread and cheese, fish and chips, can be delicious, enjoyable, and a treat - if done well. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be that superb but served with warmth and good humour and no empty promises. These last are my bugbear. I hate it when you read a menu awash with delicious promises and bandying words like jus, and what you get is Aunt Bessies and Bisto. I wouldn’t necessarily mind for sometimes it is just a treat not to have done all the work, but when the promises have been made, the expectations built, the disappointment is hard to forgive. Recently, we have been very lucky on this front, more than lucky. Arturo and Olga Roberts of Ninnau took us out for a wonderful evening at Tyddyn Llan during the Eisteddfod. The beauty of the garden - obviously loved and well cared for - sets the tone, and entering the wisteria-fronted house the hallway and rooms leading off it have the feel of a home made perfect for a party. Cleverly laid out and decorated, little parties were going on in several distinctly separate sitting areas. Menus were handed out and minutes later a very generous dish of canapés arrived to keep us going, with delicious little laverbread tartlets, miniature scotch (quail) eggs. The latter were very popular with the eight year old in tow. There were crisp mouthful size fishcakes, little cheesy shortbreads and much more. The menus change daily in response to the availability of ingredients. A choice of five or six items for each course answers most tastes. Between the starter and main course a broad bean soup was delivered. It was fresh, fragrant and delicately green. Lamb cutlets were perfect,

the fat crisp and the m e a t tender a n d juicy pink. It was broad bean season and I marvelled at the hours that had been spent not only podding but slipping the beans from the skins, with care taken not only for the flavour but their beauty on a plate. Every element of the meal had been thought through and the staff were charming and unobtrusive. The house is rather like the Tardis in it doesn’t appear very large from outside - they describe themselves as ‘a small elegant Georgian house’ - but once inside there seems an awful lot of space, and the dining room has an air of quiet grandeur. The price reflects the work, and though it might seem initially expensive compared with some restaurants, this is not food you could reproduce at home, well, at least not without difficulty, for it represents not only skill but an enormous amount of labour. It is well worth staying at Tyddyn Llan - their bed, breakfast and dinner offers represent extremely good value. CL-P

MONMOUTH

Ancre Hill Vineyard Cottage

Newly refurbished luxury three-bedroom cottage in idyllic rural position overlooking the vineyard and the Wye Valley, yet only 10 mins walk from the centre of Monmouth. Sun trap patio with BBQ & use of tennis court. Welcome pack on arrival, with Estate Wine. Discounts on cases of Estate Wine. Mid-week and weekend breaks available as well as weekly lets. £495 - £750 per week/2 persons. £50 extra per person over 2. TEL:

also in aberystwyth

01600 714152 FAX: 01600 713784 EMAIL: info@ancrehillestates.co.uk

www.ancrehillestates.co.uk

Yr Eisteddfod

O N L major part of the charm of the Eisteddfod lies in its nature, its atmosphere that varies from A O placeperipatetic to place. The 2009 Eisteddfod in Bala started on a of concern, as days before it had even started, the O note media carried photographs of what appeared to be a as the intermittent drizzle K quagmire, kept on coming. But, hats off to the team, come the opening, E Eisteddfod the slate shale-bordered walkways, soft R and forgiving underfoot (unlike the

hideous .gravelly stuff at Swansea), were bounded by bark chippings. In the event the weather proved to be glorious; by Tuesday the rain had given way to hot sunshine, and in an unhurried, easy, happy atmosphere families strolled the Maes, with little evidence of the hustle, bustle and urgency that surrounds us most of the time. The arrival of the sun was a double cause for celebration as the Cambria team were camping at a nearby site looking across Llyn Tegid towards the Aran. Our home for the duration was a pale blue VW Camper van going

by the name of Van Outen (pretty, with attitude - I gather). The van was lent to the magazine by Celtic Campers of Llangynog. Bags of charm and character, our temporary home attracted quite a bit of attention, I hadn’t realised what a following these vans have. The company also provided an amazing awning which effectively added two rooms, tables and chairs, and the most sophisticated camp beds I have ever seen. However chaotic one is at home this had all the charm of playing with a rather lovely dolls house and one could easily fall into becoming a Stepford wife! The cutlery was all themed, as were the plates, and even some games were provided. The company was a delight to deal with friendly, incredibly helpful and hospitable. Regretfully, there wasn’t time to explore one of the most beautiful areas of Wales, but the allure lasted the ten day sojourn - so perhaps one day! For more information call: 01691 860569 or visit www.celticcamperco.co.uk

Genedlaethol 2009 PHOTOGRAPHS

MARI STERLING & CARL RYAN

O N L O O K E R

Jo O N L O O K E R

’Steddfod 09

Wales Smithsonian Folklife Festival Feature courtesy of Robert Roser -

cambriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

special representative at the Smithsonian Festival

Smithsonian Castle PHOTO: DAVE RICH

US Capitol PHOTO: DAVE RICH

O N L O O K E R

First Minister Rhodri Morgan at the Opening Ceremony

Frank Hennessy interviewing Bob Roser at Chancellorsville Battlefield.

PHOTO: BOB ROSER

Storytelling circle

Bill Reese of Moch Pryderi tries out a Welsh bagpipe

Washington Monument PHOTO: DAVE RICH

David Vickers of Gwasg Gregynog

Only Men Aloud PHOTO: BOB ROSER

the royal welsh 2009 PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL RYAN

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the royal welsh winter fair Combine a great day out with entertainment and shopping!

Come to the 2009

Royal Welsh Winter Fair 30th November & 1st December 2009 Llanelwedd, Builth Wells

he Winter Fair began life in 1990 purely as a stock show and sale and quickly established itself in the calendar of agricultural events in the UK. No longer, however, is it an event just for livestock exhibitors and producers. Much has been done since the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society decided, wisely, that if the Fair was to be a success it should include some attractions for farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; wives and families. Consequently the range of interests was soon expanded and it quickly became an increasingly popular attraction for Christmas shoppers. Widely acclaimed as the best prime stock event in Britain, or indeed Europe, it has around 200 classes and special awards for cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and ponies, and thousands of pounds in prize money for the winners. A highlight of the Fair is the sale of stock which takes place on the second day. The record price for the supreme champion stands at ÂŁ12,500. There is also a poultry show which usually attracts about 1000 entries. Hundreds of trade stands, competitions and exhibitions, arts and crafts. The Food Hall where all that is best in food and drink produced in Wales can be seen, sampled and purchased is one of the most favoured venues on the showground. Today, a large number of stands and shopping arcades offer a variety of affordable items from which to choose

wo great days with cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, hounds poultry (second day only) and Wales YFC activities.

(first

day only),

There will be more tradestands than ever, the Royal Welsh Food Hall, produce and handicrafts, floral art, antiques and Christmas shopping. Bring the family to the Winter Fair, the National Primestock Show for Wales. Special discounts for groups by buying your tickets in advance online at www.rwas.co.uk

For further information, call 0844 545 0524 or visit our website at www.rwas.co.uk

and buy presents. Many people go to the Fair to do their Christmas shopping and it is now a favourite fixture for urban visitors as well as those who live and work in the countryside. Although the Fair is a winter event it is staged mainly under the cover of the modern and extensive buildings on the showground. It is therefore impervious to bad weather, an advantage which has helped to attract people and drive up attendances to around 25,000, ensuring that the event is one of the most successful of its kind in Britain.

E D U C AT I O N

Facing the challenge GRASP THE METTLE WITH THE BANGOR EXECUTIVE MBA ROBERT SMITH

t doesn’t matter whether we are in a period of recession or growth, the only thing we know for sure is that things are going to change and that’s because change is constant. Business owners and managers are going through a tough time. In the second quarter of

2009 there was a (seasonally adjusted) 39% increase in insolvencies in England and Wales on the same period in 2008. In such times, businesses inevitably cut expenditure on staff training and often, indiscriminately. The Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) creates knowledge, develops talent and thinking to greater strategic, critical and analytical levels, exactly what any business would need to help them through these tough times. The UK’s GDP output decreased by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter of 2009, but these data are always out of date

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the moment they are published. In August, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose above 50.0 for the first time since January 2008. The PMI is based on a survey of over 300 UK purchasing managers and it is recognised that a reading below 50 indicates a declining manufacturing economy. Given the PMI was at 35.6 in January 2009, this represents a sign that things just might be improving. But GDP has decreased - confusing isn’t it. Britain’s manufacturing base is becoming more productive, but GDP is a broader spectrum of all goods and services including consumption, investment and government spending, which presents a greater picture of what’s happening in the economy. Success is about doing things right over a period, survival is about doing the right thing at any one point in time. Business managers and owners making those decisions are reliant upon good advice (and that’s not cheap) and their own experience, knowledge, confidence and talent. Richard Branson might testify that it’s not essential, but an MBA would stack the odds in your favour. So, why is this? However many years you might have in business, your experience is likely to be centred around your own business sector and your expertise focussed on a small number of niche disciplines. The intensive study of a broad spectrum of the fundamental business subject areas, utilising case studies and understanding multiple business and corporate scenarios, enhances the knowledge you already have and equips the MBA student with knowledge of business “in the round”. Effectively, the MBA enables you to become a consultant in your own business or workplace. The MBA enables improved business thinking, planning and research. Mark H McCormack the late and great American sports agent and marketing professional, once said that all business decisions were 50% research and 50% gut instinct. The MBA empowers research capabilities and at the same time engenders the right approach to thinking, which helps your instinct make the right decision. Robert Smith MBA is the Executive MBA Programme Director, at Bangor Business School. The Management Centre, Bangor Business School, Tel: 01248 365982, Email: Robert.smith@bangor.ac.uk

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Lesotho Gefell Cymru MIRANDA MORTON

m mis Tachwedd y llynedd es i i weithio yn Lesotho am gyfnod byr a chael modd i fyw. Dych chi wedi clywed am drefi sy wedi gefeillio gyda’i gilydd, dwi’n siwˆ r. Cymru a Lesotho yw’r unig wledydd sy wedi gefeillio gyda’i gilydd. Dwi’n aelod gweithgar o elusen rhyngwladol o’r enw BTCV ers blynyddoedd. Mae BTCV yn trefnu prosiectau cadwraeth natur ledled y byd ar y cyd gydag elusennau amgylcheddol eraill. Mae’r rhan fwyaf o’r gwaith yn cael ei wneud gan wirfoddolwyr, sy’n talu eu costau teithio a llety eu hunain ac yn gweithio am ddim, wrth gwrs. A dweud y gwir, mae BTCV yn dathlu ei hannercanmlwyddiant eleni. Mae’r elusen wedi tyfu llawer a gwneud llawer o waith defnyddiol dros yr amgylchedd ers 1959. Ers pedair blynedd, mae BTCV yn rheoli prosiect ar y cyd â mudiad cydweithredol Katleho ‘Moho yn Lesotho a’r llynedd penderfynais i weithio ar y prosiect penodol hwnnw. Gwlad yn neheubarth Affrica yw Lesotho. Mae’r wlad i gyd o fewn ffiniau Gweriniaeth De Affrica ond, serch hynny, teyrnas annibynnol yw Lesotho. Mae Lesotho yn un o wledydd tlotaf Affrica ac mae problemau mawr yno gyda diweithdra ac HIV/AIDS. Mae tua 2,000,000 o bobl yn byw yno. Enw’r bobl sy’n byw yno yw’r Basotho ac maen nhw’ n siarad Sesotho. Fe ddysgais i dipyn bach o Sesotho cyn mynd i Lesotho. Roeddwn i’n synnu cael gwybod bod “ll” ar gael yn Sesotho yn ogystal ag yn Gymraeg. Fe aeth chwech o wirfoddolwyr rhyngwladol draw i Lesotho. Fe gwrddon ni yn y brifddinas, Maseru, ac yna teithio i dref o’r enw Semonkong. Gwlad fynyddig iawn yw Lesotho ac roedd y daith yn eithaf araf ar hyd heolydd bach cul. Mae pob rhan o Lesotho o leiaf 1,000 metr uwch lefel y môr. Achos bod Lesotho mor uchel a sych, does dim mosgitos yno, trwy drugaredd. Roedden ni’n gweithio gyda tuag 20 o bobl leol ac un aelod Corfflu Heddwch yr UDA. Gwaith caib a rhaw oedd eisiau ei wneud, sef troi darn diffaith o dir mynydd yn ardd gymunedol i bentref Ha Maohloli, ychydig o filltiroedd o Semonkong. Roedd y pentrefwyr eisoes wedi plannu cant o goed ffrwythau a’u dyfrhau a’u cadw’n fyw trwy syched a barodd chwe mis. Gyda chymorth egnïol a brwdfrydig ein cydweithwyr, o fewn pythefnos roedden ni wedi aredig y tir ag ych a throi’r pridd â nerth bôn braich er mwyn creu terasau llysiau, codi ffens weiren bigog i gadw anifeiliaid rhag bwyta’r cnydau, plannu perlysiau o gwmpas y coed ffrwythau er mwyn cadw’r pryfetach draw, plannu coed pinwydd o fewn y ffens i leihau nerth y gwynt ac wedi defnyddio cerrig i arafu’r llifogydd cryf, annisgwyl. Rhan arall o’r gwaith oedd gwella sgiliau aelodau’r mudiad cydweithredol o ran rheoli prosiect a chynllunio ymlaen llaw. Yn fwy na dim, roedd e’n gyfle heb ei ail i weithio o fewn a dysgu am ddiwylliant a ffordd o fyw oedd yn gwbl newydd i fi. Ymweliad

C a mbr i a THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF WALES CYLCHGRAWN CENEDLAETHOL CYMRU

byr iawn oedd e ond roedd e’n brofiad i’w drysori. Mae elusen yng Nghymru o’r enw Dolen Cymru sy’n gweithio gyda phobl yn Lesotho i wella eu byd. Cafodd Dolen Cymru ei sefydlu ym 1985. Mae’r elusen yn datblygu perthnasoedd tymor-hir ym meysydd iechyd, llywodraeth ac addysg. Mae e hefyd yn datblygu perthnasoedd yn y gymdeithas sifil. Mae Dolen Cymru yn hyrwyddo dinasyddiaeth fyd-eang yng Nghymru ac mae e o’r farn bod pobl Cymru yn gallu chwarae mwy o ran yn y gwaith o greu byd tecach. Mae e’n dibynnu ar ddatblygu cysylltiadau rhwng pobl ac ar annog sefydliadau ac unigolion i weithio ar y cyd - pobl fel gweithwyr iechyd, athrawon a seneddwyr. Trwy waith caled Dolen Cymru, bob blwyddyn, mae mwy a mwy o blant yn cael cyfle i dderbyn addysg ac mae mwy a mwy o gleifion yn cael gwell gofal iechyd. Yn 2010, bydd Dolen Cymru’n dathlu ei chwartercanmlwyddiant. Fel rhan o’r dathliadau, mae Dolen Cymru’n cynnal Apêl 25, yn y gobaith o godi £250,000. Gyda’r arian, mae’r elusen yn gobeithio adeiladu, dodrefnu a chynnal canolfan hyfforddi o’r safon uchaf yn Lesotho. Yn y ganolfan hyfforddi, bydd pobl Lesotho yn gallu cael help i ddatblygu sgiliau defnyddiol i’w helpu nhw i helpu eu hunain. Y bwriad yw cynnig rhaglenni hyfforddi i ddysgu sgiliau cyfrifiadurol, sgiliau garddwrol a sgiliau rheoli. Os byddech chi’n hoffi cyfrannu at Apêl 25, cysylltwch â Dolen Cymru trwy fynd i’r wefan (www.dolencymru.org) neu e-bostio swyddfa@dolencymru.org Geirfa Amgylcheddol Ar y cyd Aredig Cadwraeth cael gwybod claf, cleifion Corfflu Heddwch Cydweithredol Chwartercanmlwyddiant Deheubarth, deheubarthau Diffaith Dyfrhau Elusen, elusennau Garddwrol Gefell, gefeilliaid gyda’i gilydd Hannercanmlwyddiant Heb ei ail Modd ifyw Nerth bôn braich O ran Perthynas, perthnasoedd Pryfetach Seneddwr, seneddwyr Syched Tlawd, tlotach, tlotaf Trwy drugaredd Ychen, ych

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Tenby. One of over 40 kitchen ranges featured in our catalogue

Five reasons to choose one of our kitchens. 1. We only sell to trade professionals because we understand that they are best placed to give you the convenience and experience of a professional installation. 2. You’ll have the reassurance that we supply over 400,000 kitchens each year to UK homes. 3. There are over 450 depots nationwide, so it’s likely we’re local to you. And because we’re local, your trade professional can collect exactly what he needs when he needs it, to create your dream kitchen. 4. Our range is the UK’s largest from stock. We have over 40 inspirational designs to choose from. 5. Our CAD design experts will plan your kitchen with you.

We don’t endorse local trade professionals directly, but to help you ﬁnd one, talk to your local Howden Joinery depot or visit www.howdens.com

MAKING KITCHENS WORK FOR YOU