Cambria Magazine Eisteddfod 2011

WALES’S MAGAZINE

cambria the world of

enedlaethol Eisteddfod G Fro Wrecsam a’r 011 af – 6 Awst 2 n n fe rf o G 0 3 teddfod National Eis nd District Wrexham a ugust 2011 30 July – 6 A

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g.uk

t h e w o r l d o f c a m b r i a

A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 A W S T / M E D I

VOLUME/CYFROL 12 NUMBER/RHIF 5

£3.50 €3.50

IOLO MORGANNWG Genuis and Fraudster A LIVING LANGUAGE The importance of Welsh Medium Education WOULD AN INDEPENDENT WALES BE VIABLE? JOHN DAVIES The Castles of the North East

CULTURE, HISTORY, LANDSCAPE, CURRENT AFFAIRS, TRAVEL AND OPINION

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Diwylliant sy’n teithio’r byd

Culture that travels the world

Bob blwyddyn mae yn agos i ugain mil o bobl

Each year almost twenty thousand people across

ar draws y byd yn ennill gradd Prifysgol Cymru,

the world are awarded a degree from the University

sy’n rhoi llu o lysgenhadon rhyngwladol i Gymru.

of Wales, giving Wales a host of international

Drwy’r Ganolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a

ambassadors. Through the Centre for Advanced

Cheltaidd Gwasg y Brifysgol, gwneud

a rydym yn

Welsh and Celtic and

the University Press, %! & '

Studies

! ! "

ein rhan i ledu’r gair - gan fynd ag iaith a diwylliant

we play our part in spreading the word – taking the

Cymru i bedwar ban byd.

language and culture of Wales all over the world.

"

!

" yn

'

" alumni ! #

"

Rydym yn croesawu ein holl gyn-fyfyrwyr ôl i’r ! # We welcome all our back# to the Eisteddfod.

Eisteddfod.

Ymlaciwch, mwynhewch y proďŹ ad! "!

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Relax, the!

experience! # and

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contents volume 12 number 5

8 8

editor’s letter

5

6

letters

10

iolo morganwg

14

assembly life

16

a seafarers progress

18

small nations economics

8 8

8 8 8 8

The Archdruid of Wales celebrates the father of Eisteddfodic tradition.

Clive Betts updates us on the Welsh Assembly.

Davis Williams on the life of Captain John Treasure Jones.

Siôn Jobbins argues that small nations can and do survive economically.

22 Dr Hywel Glyn Lewis on a living language.

education

26 Nigel Short looks at life with the Scarlets.

sport

28 Byron Kalies on the Rolls of Monmouth.

62 Cambria talks to weightlifter Myrddin John.

30 John Davies investigates the castles of the North East.

history

photofeature

32 Barrie Llewelyn on the Gorsedd Gardens and Park House.

diary

36 Tom Davies is a Taff in the Land of the Gogs.

literary

38 Poetry

42 Reviews

39 Meic Stephens on publishing in Wales

8 8

40 Russell Thomas on William Evans.

encounter

48 Norma Lord at WNO’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’.

opera

8 8

8 8 8 8

52 Gwym Griffiths reflects on the Cardiff Singer of the World.

50 Norma Lord reviews The Three Welsh Tenors.

music

environment

54 Jeremy Fonge on a ‘Domesday Book’ of the environment.

70 Caroline Palmer spends time in the garden.

72 Chris Kinsey charts Nature’s Diary.

motoring

58 John A Edwards samples Infiniti – and two baby Austins.

food

60 Elisabeth Luard in the heart of the kitchen.

onlooker

66 At the John Uzzel Edwards Exhibition and the Cultural Olympiad.

what's hot

74 cambria’s guide to events and exhibitions around Wales

y clawr / the cover:

Presentation of flowers at the Eisteddfod © David Williams 2011

from the editor contributors

volume

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

12 number 5 2011

T

meic stephens

founder

Henry Jones-Davies

is a regular and valued contributor to Welsh periodicals. siôn jobbins

& friends Jan Morris D. Huw John Alan Jobbins D.W. Bevan Berwyn & Martha Jones Howard Potter Aneurin Jones Helga Martin Meredydd & Phyllis Evans Peter N. Williams Sam Adams Professor Meic Stephens Wil Aaron patrons

gwyn griffiths is a journalist, author and renowned authority on Breton

history, art and culture. john a. edwards

is a Welsh motoring journalist of many years experience.

norma lord

is a lifelong opera lover and music

journalist. is a professional photographer specialising in extreme sports photography.

carl ryan

chris kinsey is a poet who won the 2008 BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year Competition. Oriel Davies, Newtown, first Writer-in-Residence for 2011-12.

editor

Frances Jones-Davies political editor

Clive Betts associate editor

Jeremy Fonge

anessa

literary editor

Meic Stephens editor-at-large

Siôn T. Jobbins motoring editor

John A Edwards art direction

Simon Wigley photography

is a professional photographer specialising in the landscape of Wales.

David Williams, Carl Ryan, Mari Sterling, John Keates

adventurer and journalist, travel writer, diarist and novelist.

webmaster

mari owen

tom davies

cambria - the national magazine of wales © 2011. 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 bi-monthly by Cyhoeddwyr Cambria Cyfyngedig, po box 22, caerfyrddin/carmarthen, SA32 7YH, Cymru/Wales. issn: 20462409. All material submitted must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed 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

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Chris Jones

cambria is distributed throughout Wales, and is available at all good newsagents, Siopau Lleol Cymraeg, and selected Asda, Co-operative, Morrisons, and Tesco stores. Should you experience any difficulty obtaining supplies of cambria, please call 01267 290188

subscriptions

here is something terribly galling about being told you couldn’t possibly do, or couldn’t have done, something! A few years ago, just after we had published an article on the so-called Lichfield Gospels, known in Wales as Llyfr Teilo or the Teilo Gospels, a meeting took place in Llandeilo about raising money to pay for a virtual copy of this work and housing it in the town’s church. Things became rather heated when the discussion veered on to the subject of the gospels’ provenance and somebody put forward with great certainty the theory that they couldn’t possibly have been done in V H F J D Llandeilo because the Welsh weren’t capable of such work. Irrespective of whether they were made here or not, the suggestion that the Welsh just weren’t capable was terribly insulting, the implication being that we are too rough; too crude, too barbaric... the list is endless. In the same vein I agree wholeheartedly with Sion Jobbins: why should we be less capable than any other nation of surviving on our own? I seem to remember being told that the British Empire was built on Welsh coal and Welsh slate. If we are guilty of anything it must surely be of allowing ourselves to be used again and again. For this reason I have included Lyn Jenkins’s letter which highlights the current Welsh contribution to the UK store of electricity, a contribution which seems set on an upward path. Then of course there is water: half of England consumes Welsh water. These are the basics of life today, and I shan’t even begin to list the items of hidden taxation crossing the Severn that don’t actually enter the equation of what goes out and then comes back.

This year is the 150th anniversary of a wonderful tradition, the Eisteddfod. Within days of your receiving this magazine the Maes will be abuzz with all the usual suspects. I love it. People sometimes ask me if I feel out of place there as I don’t speak fluent Welsh. The answer is most definitely no. I find everybody incredibly welcoming, hospitable and tolerant. Only once in fifteen years of faithful attendance at the Eisteddfod have I been seriously upbraided for my slowness in mastering the language.

Rhiannon have offered a splendid prize to subscribers of Cambria. They are making a limited edition set of silver commemorative Llywelyn cufflinks, set with a roundel of wood from the ancient thorn tree which once marked his grave at Abaty Cwmhir. Take out a subscription and your name will be entered in a draw for one of the first pairs they produce. If you are already a subscriber you can still enter by taking out a gift subscription.

This can be done at our stand, or by telephone or post; last entries to be received by 6th August. The cufflinks will be presented at the Cambria Owain Glyndwr Day lunch.

Please, do come and visit us at our stand. We would love to see you.

cambria gratefully acknowledges the financial support of its literary pages by the welsh books council

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Economic independence is the foundation of the only sort of freedom worth a damn Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), Journalist and Critic of American life

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letters Editor May I make a few minor corrections to the article ‘Cadair Goffa Rhobert ap Steffan’?

I met Rhob shortly after I had seen that he was raising money for a Mencap trek to Patagonia with Iolo Williams – I duly posted off a cheque. I called to see him three months before the trek and he said that someone had dropped out, having damaged a knee during his preparations. He suggested I filled the vacant spot, which left me eight weeks in which to raise the minimum £3,800 needed to take part, and get fit for the expedition!

The others had been given eighteen months in which to do this.

In a nutshell, we eventually seemed to be becoming the brothers we neither of us had had. I was therefore honoured to have been a part of Rhob’s last years.

The Eisteddfod chair which is now in Trevelin – prior to my showing it to Rhob – had been in Pennal Chapel for a few years after I had befriended Geraint ap Iowerth, its vicar: it was ‘relieved’ by me into Rhob’s care only while we sought a way of transporting it to Patagonia.

I had intended to donate the chair to the museum in Gaiman (which is run by Tegid Roberts), but then Jeremy Wood and I decided that it should go to Trevelin, which was being twinned with Aberystwyth.

Sian Lloyd was at one time hoping to arrange a shipping solution via the London Welsh Society, but then Jeremy announced he was shipping his furniture to the Andes. So Rhob, John Page and I took the chair to be packed.

The following evening we went to a local pub where beer was half price (free after 9.00pm!) as this was the end of a real ale festival and all casks had to be emptied! But even then I had a gut feeling that all was not well with Rhob. He loved real ale but that night seemed not to imbibe

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with his usual enthusiasm. I suspect he had been ill for quite some time before his untimely passing.

I am more than happy that the Trevelin Eisteddfod chair lives on as a tribute to Rhob. I just wish to clarify that he looked after it prior to its export and did not donate it.

Rob Clement Builth Wells Editor I wonder how many Welsh residents viewed , or even heard of , First Minister Carwyn Jones's wind energy statement in late June, concerning TAN 8, the Welsh Assembly Government's wind energy proposals for Wales?

I wager that 95 per cent of the people of Wales did not even notice.

Many of them only buy London newspapers , for a start !

It was Carwyn Jones , as Environment Minister ,who surreptitiously slipped out TAN 8 on an obscure WAG web-site on July 13th 2004, the day before the BIG news of the "Bonfire of the Quangos " was announced on July 14th 2004. So TAN 8 was not even reported by the Welsh media ! The age-old political trick of "Bury the bad news with the big news ! " TAN 8 encompasses seven huge Wind Turbine Zones [A to G] covering superb unspoilt hill areas from Clocaenog Forest, Clwyd to Pen y Cymoedd, Glamorgan, with three huge zones straddling North Ceredigion and Powys , in the magnificent Cambrian Mountains, like a tight iron corset across the narrow waist-line of Mother Wales !.

The total megawattage of TAN 8 in 2005 was 1120MW....or 560 GIGANTIC 400 feet high wind turbines. Now, Carwyn Jones tells us that the wind energy companies want 3066 MW in Wales ........or 1533 of these 400 feet high wind

turbines .....to add to the hundreds already here.......across a little nation 8015 square miles in area !!

Of course, every bit of this sporadic electricity would go to England via giant pylons, because Wales only uses 2000 MW of electricity in total, yet we currently generate 4000 MW from fossil fuels and nuclear , without counting any wind energy........and a further 2800 MW of gas-fired power stations are about to be built in Pembroke and Uskmouth !!

Are our politicians innumerate ... or are they mere lackeys of their London masters?

They have been elected to work for the good of Wales........not to destroy it.

Write to carwyn.jones@wales. gov.uk and the Welsh media and demand a moritorium on this destructive TAN 8 lunacy.

L J Jenkins, Cardigan Editor Annwyl Cambria magazine - as an afterthought to Siôn Jobbins excellent article on the 'forgetting' of God Save the(ir) Queen (CAMBRIA vol 12 No 4) and in view of the encroaching 2012 England Olympics, I wonder whether any bona fide Cymro/aes - standing on the winners podium during a rendition of the aforementioned anthem - would be brave enough to bow the head and raise a clenched fist wearing a red, white and green glove?

Sadly, I envisage not ...

Yn�dathlu�40ain mlynedd�yn�2011

Dewch�i�ddathlu�ein penblwydd�yn�stondin�810�ar faes�yr�Eisteddfod�eleni

Celebrating�40�years in�2011

Come�and�celebrate�our anniversary�in�stand�810�at�the Eisteddfod

Dulais Rhys Caerfyrddin 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

cambria

magazine.

WWW.RHIANNON.CO.UK

Culture

Jim Parc Nest, Archdruid of Wales

Iolo Morganwg Magnificent Fraudster

isteddfod Genedlaethol Bro Morgannwg will be held during the first week of August, 2012.

The life and work of a genius should be given prominence at this eisteddfod, as the event will take place within a few miles of his birthplace. Edward Williams was born on March 10, 1747, in Llancarfan, in the Vale of Glamorgan; his father’s name was also Edward Williams, and he was also a stonemason. His parents soon moved to Trefflemin, and it was there he lived most of his life.

In 1773, at twenty six years of age, he went with his brothers to London presumably to work primarily as a stonemason. But having been nurtured and tutored in the history and literature of his beloved county of Glamorgan he was developing as a man of learning. He eventually adopted the bardic name of Iolo Morganwg.

He introduced himself to members of the London Gwyneddigion Society, a debating and cultural society for Welsh speakers. In 1792, Iolo held the first meeting of The Gorsedd of Bards on Primrose Hill. In 2009, the Gorsedd met there to celebrate the two hundreth anniversary of its inception, and a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the event. From the top of Primrose Hill, looking down over Regents Park, one can see a great deal of central London, the hub of the Britishness that has

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endangered the existence of Wales.

But standing there, one can also imagine that very first convention of The Gorsedd. On the twenty first of June, 1792, a frail, short, forty five year old stonemason from Trefflemin climbed to the top of the hill. A man who had never been to school, let alone university, who claimed that he first learned the alphabet when he was about 4 years of age observing his father inscribing gravestones, was about to establish an institution which would become one of the most famous of Welsh national institutions.

A man high on laudanum, suffering from asthma and gout, carrying a satchel full of fabrications, including his infamous Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (The Secret of the Bards of the Island of Britain); the self taught scholar and poet who was about to publish two volumes of his poems in English entitled ‘Poems Lyric and Pastoral’, who was acquainted with Robert Southey and Coleridge; one who had

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spent a year in the debtor’s prison in Cardiff, the year his son Taliesin was born, and the year he wrote the bulk of Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain – this man stood in the very heart of London, a self appointed, self anointed first gorsedd Archdruid.

In his satchel he would have his notes and documents.

But before taking them out he would delve to the very bottom of the satchel and take out a few pebbles. He would then solemnly create a circle of pebbles, to constitute the first Gorsedd circle. In the report there is mention of a Gorsedd stone corresponding to the present day maen llog, logan stone, used in modern Gorsedd meetings. Probably he would have utulised the largest stone he could find on the top of Primrose Hill; there is also mention of a sword used in the initiation ceremony of the first members of the very first Gorsedd, the sheathed sword being always a symbol of peace rather than war. The initiated members were given different coloured ribbons to wear. But the main event was the initiation of Taliesin, Iolo’s five year old child, into full membership of the Gorsedd!

However,he had a problem with the London Gwyneddigion Society. Most of the leaders were North

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Walians who failed – or refused – to acknowledge the contribution of Iolo’s beloved Glamorgan to the literary tradition of Wales. Indeed, they constantly belittled Glamorgan. One of the passions that drove Iolo was his love of his native county. Raising the profile of Glamorgan, especially in the literary field, became for him an obsession. And he was even prepared to become a literary forger in order to satisfy his obsession. He managed to hoodwink the leading members of the Gwyneddigion with his forgeries of poems which he pretended to be those he had recently discovered in Glamorgan libraries as poems written by such a giant among Welsh poets as Dafydd ap Gwilym. In fact, it took about two centuries of scholarship to finally prove the fabrication. But it is evidence of his genius as a poet that he could write poetry to the same standard as Dafydd ap Gwilym.

During the Primrose Hill ceremony, the London Gwyneddigion Society members heard another elaborate fabrication. Iolo insisted in his address that the Gorsedd was really a continuation of the bardic tradition that had existed in Glamorgan from pre Roman times!

Under the influence of the French Revolution, Jim Parc Nest, Archdruid

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MA Astudiaethau Celtaidd Dysgu o bell Y Celtiaid, Santesau Cymru, y Mabinogi, Arthur y Celtiaid, Bywyd Gwerin Cymru, Hanes y Ferch yn yr Oesoedd Canol: ffynonellau o’r rhanbarthau Celtaidd, Hanes Sosioieithyddol y Gymraeg, Iwerddon a Gwleidyddiaeth Prydain 1798-1868

MA Celtic Studies Distance Learning The Celts: Origins to the Modern Era, The Female Saints of Wales, the Mabinogi, The Celtic Arthur, Welsh Folk Life, Women in the Middle Ages: sources from the Celtic regions, The Sociolinguistics of the Welsh Language, The Irish Question and British Politics 1798-1868

Dr Jane Cartwright j.cartwright@tsd.ac.uk +44 (0) 1570 424870

he had become a political and religious radical, and eventually he embraced Unitarianism. His contribution to the growth of the anti trinitarian movement was immense. He opposed what he called the ‘tyranny’ of state religion, and vehemently opposed the leaders of the Established Church including Bishop Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St. David’s. For a period, the bishop tried to counteract the growth of Unitarianism in the counties of Dyfed, publishing a series of pamphlets stating unambiguously that Unitarianism was not a Christian faith. Iolo countered that the bishop’s views represented ‘a system of Idiotism, of madness or of villainy’. And it must have been a great surprise at the time to hear of the Bishop’s invitation to Iolo to stay at the Bishop’s Palace in Abergwili sometime in October 1818.

How could this have happened?

It certainly was not the case that they had all of a sudden become close friends. But one cause had suddenly brought them to a kind of truce. The bishop, on his arrival from England in 1803, had opposed the setting up of Welsh language schools for the poor in his diocese, and he himself didn’t

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make a serious attempt to learn Welsh. On the other hand, there were a good number of clergy in his diocese who were ardent supporters of Welsh-language culture.

In January 1818, one of the clerics, David Rowland, decided to establish a cultural society, which by promoting the eisteddfod, would render the established church more attractive to the Welsh. Burgess liked the idea, and indeed, after a while he came to believe that he was the main instigator of what became known as the Cambrian Society. Burgess decided to call a meeting of interested parties, including his arch enemy. The meeting took place in the White Lion in Carmarthen on 28 October, 1818. Iolo, whose guile had hoodwinked the Gwyneddigion, was able to weave his magic at that meeting. He persuaded members of the Anglican establishment to promote the eisteddfod movement as well as to raise funds in order to catalogue all Welsh manuscripts, not only in Wales but also in England and even on the Continent! Iolo himself would receive grants to enable him to live in Carmarthen for part of the year to supervise the Cambrian Society’s publications and to tutor students in Welsh literature.

In July 1819, Iolo was an adjudicator at a Carmarthen Eisteddfod. The newly established Cambrian Society hosted the eisteddfod at the Ivy Bush Inn. Bishop Burgess presided, and Iolo was invited to address the 300 strong audience. He claimed that the druidic bards, who had civilised the Cymry in ancient times, represented the original Britons. And the bards’ main achievement was the preservation of the Welsh language. Then the crafty Iolo, after delivering the results of the literary competitions, and chairing the chief bard, suddenly pinned a white ribbon on Bishop Burgess’ right arm, to admit him to the druidic order! One of the leaders of the Anglican Church which had been guilty of trying to diminish the status of the Welsh language had unwittingly become a member of an institution dedicated to promoting the language and its literature.

Primrose Hill: unveiling of the plaque to Iolo Morganwg and the First Gorsedd, June 2009

But Iolo had still another trick up his sleeve or in his satchel. On Saturday, 10 July, Burgess had to witness a ceremony of the Gorsedd of the Bards in the garden of the Ivy Bush Inn. As he had done on Primrose Hill, Iolo marked out a circle with pebbles. He instituted new bards, and although Bishop Burgess, uneasy with the ritual, tried to intervene, Iolo persisted in addressing the new recruits, impressing on them the need to observe druidic traditions, which of course contradicted the anglicising colonial policy of the established church. And this was the very first time for the Gorsedd to be part of the eisteddfod.

During the 2012 Eisteddfod the Gorsedd of Bards will hold their traditional ceremonies ‘yn wyneb haul a llygad

goleuni’ / ‘in the face of the sun and the eye of light’, as initiated and devised by Iolo on Primrose Hill two hundred and twenty years ago. But the Welsh language will be the jewel in the Eisteddfod crown. Its proceedings will be conducted entirely in Welsh.

Since the Act of Union of England and Wales, 1536, the Welsh language had become to be regarded as a danger to the union, and there were continuous attempts to erase it from the Welsh psyche. Iolo’s invention of the Gorsedd of Bards was a direct riposte to these attempts.

Twenty one years after Iolo’s death in 1826, the existence of the Gorsedd served to counteract what is called ‘The Treachery of the Blue Books’ (Brad y Llyfrau Gleision). In 1847, the three commissioners who arrived in Wales to assess the state of education had been horrified to discover that the Welsh were ignorant of English history. Inevitably, the spin put on that report led to a decline in the prestige of Welsh history. And there was also an alarming decline in the use of Welsh as a medium of education.

Next year, the Eisteddfod – and the Gorsedd of Bards as an integral part of it – should bring with it the qualities of Iolo’s vision of enhancing our Welsh identity in the face of the ever present threat of its being exterminated by Britishness. In the year of the London Olympics, when the flag of the Union will be so prominent, we will gather near Trefflemin in strength and in peace. It will be in stark contrast to the St Athan Military Academy of War that was recently proposed for that area of Bro Morgannwg.

In all the Gorsedd ceremonies I will be privileged to ask the same question asked by Iolo from the very beginning: ‘A oes heddwch? / Is there peace?’ The Gorsedd members will respond with a decisive ‘Heddwch! / Peace!’

And everybody who attends the Eisteddfod will be invited to agree. I know that Iolo would.

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Politics

Clive Betts

Assembly Plaid revival plans

T

here’s not a single doubt that Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones is dog-tired, although he puts in a stout and dogged performance during the weekly ritual of First Minister’s questions. But, behind the public bravado, Ieuan is sad and disappointed. He is a gentleman – although that’s not quite the right term for the son of a Welsh nonconformist minister – who has been dastardly traduced during six months of bear-baiting by those who claim to represent what’s left of the unthinking working class.

In the meantime, First Minister Carwyn Jones is desperately keen to avoid any repeat of those troubles in past Assemblies which could so nearly cripple an administration that relies on only 30 votes (however unstable and rocky some might prove) in a house of 60 members.

But after the treatment Ieuan Wyn Jones has received, it looks as if Carwyn Jones will have to whistle for the support of Kirsty Williams’s Liberal Democrats if he is ever in need of help.

In the Senedd, Plaid is a sorry sight. In a crisis, you need to show strength, and Plaid’s London press office know that, and they succeed in getting their message across. Cardiff’s staff should really go back to their mother’s apron strings as it’s a tough world out here. To some extent, the situation in Cardiff is a reflection of how Ieuan works: he’s too much the son of a minister who preaches to the saved and the faithful, and avoids the sinners. Unfortunately, there are times when it seems there are more of the latter than the former.

Plaid AMs agree that Dafydd Wigley - Ieuan’s predecessor, whom he prevented from returning as leader when medical problems proved far less serious than feared – would not have put up with the treatment that is now crippling both Ieuan and his party. Instead, someone would have ended up with a metaphorical bloody nose,.

Fortunately, a revival is at hand. It’s being planned for Llandudno, where Plaid’s annual conference meets in September. And, it’s being planned by our ‘lord on earth’, none other than Lord Elis-Thomas, the AM for Dwyfor-Meirionydd, and recently the pioneer, longserving and deservedly-feted Presiding Officer of the Assembly.

Elis-Thomas is 64 and is spoiling for a new challenge.

Plaid needs rebuilding fast and Dafydd has the background, knowledge and overall perspective to realise that the party’s tactics must be much broader and cleverer than believing that Labour voters are the only group

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worth attracting.

Two other Plaid AMs are also stern critics of Ieuan’s belief that he can chose when he departs sometime during the next two years over the next two years when he departs. The mobile phone-shy Elin Jones is justifiably annoyed that her party’s failed election tactics have ensured that the farmers she fought for as a well-regarded minister are now suffering from Labour’s shilly-shallying on badger culling. Certainly the Cerdigion AM has for a long time been quietly thinking she could do a good job as party leader, but has always refrained from coming forward for fear of the intrusiveness into an individual’s private life which fighting for and holding that position nowadays involves.

Also considering his position is the Mid and West AM, policy-wonk Simon Thomas. While Elin suffers from the public view that she is too rural and Welsh-speaking, Simon is a son of Aberdare who can trade it with the most-unreconstructed in the Labour Party.

Tory leadership Angela Burns waxed eloquent in the closing days of the contest to replace Nick Bourne as the Assembly’s Conservative Party. “We need someone to appeal to all parties, not just to our own faithful,� opined the AM for Carmarthen East and South Pembroke in the Assembly canteen. And her man is Nick Ramsay, Monmouth AM. Thanks to his speaking and debating ability, Nick has apparently wiped the floor with his opponent Andrew Davies during the party hustings,. But Nick is 36, and most of his life has been spent in politics, which the party faithful sometimes despise. However, Andrew is 43, and boasts the outside occupation of farming, which appeals more to the faithful.

Nick lost, although closely (53-47). Which means the issue is still open. Read our interview with Andrew in our next edition.

Jocelyn Jocelyn Davies (Plaid Cymru regional list AM for South Wales East) doesn’t sport the highest profile in the Assembly, but she has several quiet victories to her name.

For example, it was the coalition’s deputy housing minister who helped highlight the idiocy of the Labour-authored farce of Cardiff passing laws only after Westminster had acted as a detailed second chamber, or

House of Lords.

Jocelyn doesn’t throw all the blame at Westminster’s door for what was essentially one bill being rejected in London and another having to be submitted.

The replacement Legislative Competence Order (LCO) was, indeed, a big improvement. It included a load of items not covered in the original - such as a reinstatement of the requirement that councils have to provide accommodation for gypsies and travellers.

For those with long memories, this requirement was “thatchered� when that particular lady was Prime Minister – so suiting the prejudices of the Tory shires and middle classes.

Although the issue became one of the first to be investigated in detail by the Assembly in its very early days, at the time, our AMs could do little more than talk. Little wonder the gypies complained there was too much talk and nothing much (if anything) happening.

But in 2006, the Assembly was allowed to grow a bit and apply for LCOs – and for MPs to object to this new power. The gypsy provisions went into the second version of the LCO. Of course, even now that LCO has been passed, the detailed legislation has still to follow .... but at least that can now happen under the Assembly Acts that Cardiff can implement without interference.

If necessary, the Assembly can even cock a snook at Tory right-winger David Jones, the Clwyd West MP, minister at the Wales Office, who forced Cardiff to cut back (for purely doctrinaire Tory reasons) on its attempt to restrict right to buy of council houses in regions of housing pressure (such as pretty coastal villlages where David’s friends from England tend to buy up anything for sale, pricing out the locals).

But Jocelyn is one of those who doesn’t know whether she wants again to be part of a Labour coalition.

came back: “What’s wi-fi ?�

I fear, also, that Assembly is developing into a mindset which exists purely for the happiness of the permanent ‘village’ itself. Paper versions of agendas are no longer provided: you are supposed to use either download them onto your personal computer before you arrive, or view display screens outside committee rooms. Unfortunately, those screens may not display all the details you require and without wi-fi, you can’t pick up them up from your own e-mail account.

And when the Assembly first opened in 1999, the parties were delighted to provide lists of who was who and their contact details. But not now. Is this because someone has decided their revelation poses some spurious security risk? Have our AMs become too self-important?

Or has someone stupidly decided that Google can provide for all our needs?

I have written before about the lack of physical contact between the public and AMs (we have no Westminsterstyle Lobby, for example). The situation is worsening rather than improving. Nowadays, a clear ‘them’ and ‘us’ feeling pervades the Assembly, and we are the excluded ones. Cardiff has tried to ape Westminster, often without good reason. Hopes for Cardiff being an open institution are being steadily dashed.

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The mindset of the assembly Once, the Welsh Assembly’s sophisticated information systems were world class. But, it seems, less so. Indeed, the place is going seriously backwards.

Many of you will have heard of wi-fi – essentially a radio system which enables computers to work without being plugged into a phone line. Well, during my day at the Assembly preparing this column, an AM asked me to confirm our proposed lunch venue.. he had found me by wandering around the buildings. He had, in fact sent me an e-mail, but I could only read that once I got home.

Why? Because the Assembly office building is not provided with wi-fi. There are no means by which e-mails sent to and from AMs can link up with lap-top computers within the building. Worse, when I asked the the head of news at the Assembly why this was so, the reply

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Biography

David Williams

A Seafarers Progress The autobiography of Captain John Treasure Jones with his grandfather (a retired sailing-ship captain) to Cardiff Docks and spent many hours listening to tales of the sea and distant lands.

In 1921, at the tender age of fifteen, he sailed from Cardiff as an apprentice on the Grelgrant – not the teak-decked liner of his dreams but a tramp steamer covered in coal dust. Initial homesickness and seasickness failed to dim his enthusiasm; from his first sighting of a foreign land – the Azores, where the ship called on the way to Norfolk, Virginia and Galveston, Texas to load grain – he was hooked.

He gives a vivid account of his rise to prominence, including his wartime service in the Royal Naval Reserve and eventual command of Cunard’s famous ocean liners Mauretania and Queen Mary. He describes the 1940s and 50s as glory years of northAtlantic travel, when Cunard’s ships were popular with royalty, presidents, diplomats, politicians and stars of stage and screen. His evocative accounts of the glittering social life, the ports-of-call and the daily life of the ships are a joy to read.

By the early 1960s, aircraft were carrying more people across the Atlantic than the ships were, though in far less style. The days of the great Atlantic liners were numbered, although Cunard diversified successfully into cruising – an activity in which they still excel. Captain Treasure Jones’s last duty before his retirement in 1967 was to take the Queen Mary on a 12,000-mile voyage to Long Beach, California, where she is preserved as a floating hotel and museum. This reviewer has had the good fortune to stay on board.

Wandering her vast public rooms, promenade decks and engine rooms brings home the range of skills and

personal qualities needed to take a ship of her size safely across an ocean, while making sure that an enjoyable time is had by the passengers.

In an enlightening foreword to the book, Commodore Ron Warwick (who in recent times commanded Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2) sums up the story as “that of a distinguished captain who not only had to be an expert seaman but who had to care for thousands of passengers and at the same time encourage his officers and crew to live up to the glowing reputation of ships of the Cunard Line”.

As historians know, the best information derives from primary sources – the written or spoken accounts of people who were actually there. The authenticity of John Treasure-Jones's writings shines throughout this volume.

Many people had asked him if he was going to write an autobiography. Carefully typed chapters were discovered among his papers, after he passed away, by his daughter, Susan, and son-in-law Richard Tennant. The latter’s light touch, in editing them and bringing them to publication, is to be commended. Savouring the tone-of-voice

of an author, and the window it offers into the life and values of another era, is one of the great pleasures of reading a good autobiography such as this.

I heartily recommend this record of a great age in the history of maritime travel, as experienced by a Welshman who reached the pinnacle of his profession.

Tramp to Queen The autobiography of Captain John Treasure Jones Published by The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire Illustrated with archive photographs and colour illustrations 160 pages ISBN 978-0-7524-4625-7 Price £19.99 Top: The RMS Mauretania was one of Cunard's best-loved vessels and he brought her into his 'home port' of Milford Haven when he hosted the Queen Mother for the opening of the Texaco refinery in 1964.( reproduction courtesy of Stephen J Card ) Bottom: RMS Queen Mary as she departs New York for the final time (reproduced courtesy of Kenneth Vard & Derrick Smooth)

The RMS Media was his first command of a passenger ship ( reproduced courtesy of Kenneth Vard & Stephen J Card )

M

any Welshmen have risen to the top of their chosen fields, often from origins that gave no hint of the direction they would take.

One such is John Treasure Jones who, from rural beginnings (born and raised at Cuckoo Mill Farm, near Haverfordwest), pursued a distinguished seafaring career.

In the lively opening chapter of his autobiography, we learn that his interest in the sea grew during visits to his maternal grandparents in Barry. He relished trips

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Opinion

Siôn Jobbins

Small Nation Economics Economically Viable?

‘A

n independent Wales would not be economically viable.’ Funny, were Wales given a penny every time somebody said that, then Wales would certainly pay its way!

Yet this ‘can’t afford independence’ is a common refrain by commentators and politicians alike, and is currently used with great gusto as an argument against Scottish independence. But a quick glance through the articles, editorials and letters pages of the past make it clear that Wales and Scotland haven’t been the only European countries ‘which can’t afford independence’.

Malta was one example. An editorial in The Times on 7 January 1959 noted gravely: ‘Malta cannot live on its own … the island could pay for only one-fifth of her food and essential imports; well over a quarter of the present labour force would be out of work and the economy of the country would collapse without British Treasury subventions. Talk of full independence for Malta is therefore hopelessly impractical.’

The Times published a letter on January 21st, 1964

by Joseph Agius of ‘Ta’ Xbiex’ who feared ‘... the folly of giving independence [to Malt] when we are not economically prepared for it.’

Yet Malta gained independence on September 21st, 1964: essentially a city state on a barren rock; which from a British point of view – was no more than a very large dock. By 2009 its GDP - at $23,800 per capita - was similar to other former imperial port cities like Liverpool, Newcastle or Marsailles.

Norway was another country which – in the eyes of many - couldn’t afford the independence it eventually gained in 1905. At the time it had limited selfgovernment within Sweden and one of the great bones of contention was that the consular service and tariffs were biased towards the more agrarian Swedish economy rather than the export-biased Norwegian one. Calls for greater independence were widely felt across Norway, but there were still some who were afraid its consequences, as was illustrated by a letter from ‘R.H.’ in The Times of July 6th, 1892. Headed ‘A Warning from Norway’, it argued: ‘… as regards the immediate point of consular representation, the opinion of the commercial class in both kingdoms, as expressed in the chambers of commerce, beginning with the Norwegian capital itself, is decidedly hostile to it. … At the same time it seems scarcely possible that the leaders of the movement can clearly realise

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the fate they are preparing for the country by what may well be termed a suicidal agitation … would not be a free national existence but subserviency, not to say bondage to Russia … [Norway] reduced to conditions of a central Asian khanate.’

More than a century later, it is certainly obvious to all that an independent Norway has not become a ‘central Asian khanate’.

To bring us closer to our present time, Slovakia gained independence in the famous ‘Velvet Divorce’ of 1993, an event which - in an otherwise generally balanced editorial - The Independent of December 31st, 1992 foretold with some gloom. ‘ … There is no shortage of potential disputes,’ it noted. ‘Currency union is doomed, with the Czechs determined to balance their budget and the Slovaks expected to head down the road of deficit financing and inflation.’

In a report on January 3rd, 1993 - two days after independence – The Guardian was equally pessimistic, commenting that ‘many people see the split as a failure and others are nervous about proving themselves in an uncertain world.’

History tells us, therefore, that any move towards independence by a ‘colony’ or semi-independent state almost entirely fails to consider the possible, subsequent economic success of these countries.

Certainly, the general tone of the British mindset towards Welsh (and Scottish) independence varies from a mild scepticism to outright hostility. And both stances are, at times, more irrational and unscientific than those which the ‘romantic’ nationalists are accused of adopting.

There are now 193 members of the UN, the latest to join being South Sudan - yes, even South Sudan, so redolent of famine and political unrest, can ‘afford independence’. And there is also another country which is expected to declare independence this summer. It is the one country which in terms of its fractured geography, fractious politics and crippled economy you would expect not to ever ‘afford independence’. That country is Palestine.

And this has resulted in the British left-wing adopting a curious position. On the one hand, it uniquely argues that politically-stable Scotland will be the only oil-producing country in the world to emerge the poorer from independence, yet on the other it never question’s Palestine’s ability to ‘afford independence’, regardless of the constant turmoil in which the state exists..

So is there a deeper reason behind our ‘progressive’ friends’ opposition to independence for smaller European nations? In January 1849, the co-founder of Communism, Friedrich Engels wrote about the ‘primitive’ and ‘counter-revolutionary peoples’ of Europe. He patronised nations such as the Basques, Bretons, Scottish Highlanders and Serbians for not having even reached the stage of capitalism. He called them ‘Völkerabfälle’ (‘ethnic trash’ or ‘waste peoples’).and argued that ‘these residual fragments of peoples always become fanatical standard-bearers of counter-revolution and remain so until their complete extirpation or loss of their national character, just as their whole existence in general is itself a protest against a great historical revolution.’

Dare I suggest that deep within the subconcious of the left there remain fragments of an hostility towards those nations which cannot (apparently) act – in Engel’s words - as ‘the main vehicle of historical development’?

That said, let’s discuss independence from another angle.

Maybe we should view any moves towards Wales’ potential economic independence as being part of just another historical transition - in the same manner that it experienced the agrarian revolution of the early 19th century, the full force of the industrial revolution, and is now experiencing a managed (or badly managed) process of de-industrialisation. After all, no Welsh economist or politican would expect the Welsh economy to be the same in 20 years time as it is today, Even in the mid 1970s few would have dared predict that our coal industry would be all but destroyed within the next decade. So there will be change whatever happens: why not, therefore, make it a more fundamental economic change with independence as the vehicle?

There are, of course, those who argue that Wales is ‘too poor’ to achieve economic independence. However, we must remember that the Welsh economy has been in historic decline since 1923, when the price of coal peaked. During that period, Wales has experienced three of the five stages of constitutional status. Until 1959, it was governed as an integral part of ‘the Realm of England’; then came the Welsh Office era, in which we remained a part of English Realm but enjoyed the ‘independence’ of some administrative functions. This was then, of course, followed in 1999 by the creation of the Senedd and the granting of some self-government There are two stages left - generally speaking – in the final transition to independence. The first is self-government with some taxation powers, followed by independence with full taxation powers. Since the first three constitutional settlements have not improved Wales’s economic well-being, why not - from an economic point of view - try the next two economic options?

Certainly there are numerous examples to illustrate that independence can be the best way to revive a weak economy.

Look again at that barren rock in the North Atlantic: Iceland, the little country which earlier this year had the courage to tell their bankers where to go. On December 1st, 1938, some 20 years and a World War after The Guardian’s dire assessment of Iceland’s prospects, The Times wrote a glowing report on its 20th anniversary of independence from Denmark noting that: ‘Side by side with the political liberation of the country, developed the gradual economic emancipation of the island.’ The article then outlined the many benefits gained since independence, especially in the fields of modern communications.

In his recent article in the Harvard Kennedy Review, ‘Small is cute, sexy and successful: Why Independence for Wales and other countries makes Economic Sense’ Adam Price makes a compelling case for independence for ‘small’ nations. He compares the economic fortunes of independent Luxembourg and its neighbour, the German province, Saarland since the Second World War. But we needn’t look to foreign lands for inspiration or precedent. In every parish in our land there’s a successful case of Wales not being ‘too poor to be independent’ – the Church in Wales founded in 1922. Like those new east European states such as Finland or Estonia, the Church in Wales could hardly have been formed at a worse time. It had to pay its way in the aftermath of the Great War and in the middle of the Great Depression.

The Welsh church became independent during what the Rev D.T. W. Price in his book on the history of the church, calls ‘the locust years’. ‘Nonetheless,’ as the Rev Price notes, ‘by 1937 it was generally felt, and rightly so, that the financial condition of the Church in Wales was as sound as it had been before disestablishment.’

Independence would force politicians and us voters in Wales to grow up. We would be economically viable because we would have to be. We’d have to learn to swim. Let’s look at ‘good practice’. After communism, bling-capitalism, imperialism, state socialism, supra-national states or religious statehood, the nation-state and independence is the one political construct which not one state or people has turned its back on. Independence works for Malta, Iceland, Norway and Slovakia – as well as larger states. It’s time Wales made independence work for her too.

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Art

Oriel Tegfryn Has a makeover.

K

yffin Williams would regularly visit his old friend Mrs Brown and take tea in the upstairs parlour of her gallery situated just down the road from where he lived. That epitomises the difference between The Martin Tinney Gallery (MTG) and this, its recently acquired sibling. Oriel Tegfryn still has some of the aura of a one-time house and home, Gwyn Brown was much loved in the area and Kyffin’s ‘patronage’ helped to put her gallery on the map. This long standing relationship is well known and when work of his comes up for re-sale it is often offered to them first.

Now more space has been opened up and there are seven rooms of varying sizes given over to exhibition space. Two or three of these will always be for stock, the others will house a series of mostly solo exhibitions. The new museum quality lighting system put in earlier this year brings with it a touch of that bright, efficient purity which pervades the Cardiff gallery.

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For some years Martin Tinney had been thinking of taking a gallery in the north. Several of the artists he represents are from north Wales or have strong links: Gwilym Prichard, Peter Prendergast, Kevin Sinott, Harry Holland, Carole Moore, Shani Rhys James to name only a few. He had looked at various locations, borne it in mind on visits, but nothing had been quite right. Then the recession hit and he pushed the idea from his mind. However, a year or two ago he was approached by the widow of Mrs Brown’s son, her husband had died and she wanted to sell the gallery, before she put it on the market was he interested?

The gallery in Cardiff was doing well, despite all the economic gloom it was more than holding its own. In

Gwilym Prichard, ‘Crib Coch ac Eira’ Oil on canvas, 2011

the surprisingly small and dark office of the Cardiff gallery Martin leaned forward ‘Recession is a good time to do things; I started this (MTG) gallery in the recession of the 90’s. The boom time fell away but we’ve been having a good time – a good year even in the context of the boom years’. Martin already had a good working relationship with Oriel Tegfryn, he had often sent work up there for showings. First established in 1963 it had built up an excellent reputation as the premier gallery of north Wales and ‘It is a beautiful spot, a perfect location’. Last September he took ownership, and after honouring existing exhibition dates they closed briefly for refurbishment. Since then its success has exceeded all his expectations.

Martin travels up two or three times a month, quite often he flies ‘fantastic, only two hours door to door and a very good price, well worthwhile’. He only drives if he has a lot to take and a longer stay is necessary, then he books in just down the road at Ye Olde Bulls Head which he likes very much.

The area gets large visitor numbers from north and middle England as well as from all over Wales, many of these come regularly. There is a huge amount of tourism; in response to this the gallery is now open on Sundays as well. Carol Griffiths has stayed on as gallery manager, according to her visitor numbers have risen dramatically this year ‘I think we have been very lucky that Martin bought the place, his support and commitment are tremendous, the way he has opened the place up, the rooms flow into each other but it still feels intimate.’

The opening launch was a review of 20th century and contemporary art featuring Wales most important artists of the recent past and present: James Dickson Innes, Gwen John, Augustus John and Sir Kyffin Williams of course and many others.

Ceramicists will also have space, MTG rarely exhibits ceramics but here Meri Wells, Sara Moorehouse, Phil Rogers, Walter Keeler, amongst others will regularly be on show.

The Summer show is a continuation of the same theme: a large changing exhibition of a broad range of style and subject matter. Prices range from £75 to £50,000. The gallery is a member of Collectorplan, sponsored by the Arts Council of Wales this scheme provides interest-free loans to buy works of art, thereby supporting artists and galleries.

In September there will be an exhibition in celebration of Gwilym Prichard’s 80th birthday.

One can definitely feel the presence of Martin Tinney in the gallery but it has retained a distinct feeling of its own, perhaps contributed to by the resident ghost!

Gareth Parry, ‘Outside the Village’ Oil on canvas 2011

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Education

WWW.ARTWALES.COM

Dr Hywel Glyn Lewis

A living language

The effect of Welsh Language Policy on Secondary Education

T

he Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) considers the Welsh-medium education system to have a crucial role in the process of creating a truly bilingual Wales, as stated in successive policydocuments over the past decade, culminating in the recent Welsh-medium Education Strategy and the publication of “Iaith Fyw: Iaith Byw” (A Living Language: A Language for Living) in 2010.

Although, from a purely academic perspective and the use of strict sociolinguistic terminology, its linguistic policy might be better described as “diglossic” (meaning that two languages co-exist) rather than “bilingual” (the expectation of everybody being able to speak both languages), nevertheless, the WAG can at least be credited with having a positive stance on the promotion of the Welsh language even though its implementation is, arguably, underpinned by a cautious attempt to maintain political equilibrium. Such caution is reflected, for example, in the range of models currently adopted to deliver so-called “Welsh-medium” education.

Until recently, the application of the term “Welsh-medium” to various schools in Wales was a source of confusion and uncertainty, both to parents and the public generally. Even the term “designated Welsh-medium school” (sometimes also called “designated bilingual school”) could mean different things in different locations.

Such widespread ambiguity eventually led the WAG in 2008 to categorise schools across a linguistic continuum according to the actual level of their Welsh-medium curricular delivery. Secondary schools are, therefore, currently categorised as follows: Category 1: Welsh-Medium Secondary Schools All subjects (including RE and PSE) apart from English are taught through the medium of Welsh to all pupils, although some schools may introduce English terminology in one or two subjects.

Category 2: Bilingual Secondary Schools This category has 4 sub-divisions according to the percentage of subjects taught through the medium of Welsh and whether there is parallel provision in English.

Category 2A - At least 80% of subjects apart from

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English and Welsh are taught only through the medium of Welsh to all pupils. One or two subjects are taught to some pupils in English or in both languages.

Category 2B - At least 80% of subjects (excluding Welsh and English) are taught through the medium of Welsh but are also taught through the medium of English.

Category 2C - 50-79% of subjects (excluding Welsh and English) are taught through the medium of Welsh but are also taught through the medium of English.

Category 2CH - All subjects, except Welsh and English are taught to all pupils using both languages.

Category 3: Predominantly English Medium Secondary Schools with significant use of Welsh Both languages are used in teaching with 20 - 49% of subjects taught through the medium of Welsh. All subjects would normally also be taught through the medium of English.

Category 4: Predominantly English Medium Secondary Schools Pupils are mainly taught through the medium of English. Welsh is taught as a second language up to KS4. One or two subjects (which would include Welsh first language) may be taught as an option through the medium of Welsh or using both languages.

Across the “Welsh-medium” continuum, therefore, there remain varied and wide-ranging linguistic provisions which encompasses 58 secondary schools (26% of the 223 secondary schools in Wales) whilst 165 (74%) are English-medium.

It has been customary in the past to refer to the current Category 1 and Category 2A model as a “designated” Welsh-medium school which, historically, developed across Wales in three stages: (1) originally intended for pupils from Welsh-speaking backgrounds in Anglicised areas; (2) later encompassing pupils from Welsh-speaking and non-Welsh-speaking backgrounds in Anglicised areas; (3) finally being established in Welsh-speaking areas also for pupils from both linguistic backgrounds.

This pattern of development and gradual increase in the number of designated Welsh-medium schools established over the years also reflected a paradoxical simultaneous change in Welsh demography, resulting in the eventual need for designated Welsh-medium schools in Welsh-speaking areas. The third stage is widely acknowledged as emanating from parental reaction to demographic and sociolinguistic changes in the so-called “ Fro Gymraeg” during the end of the last century and to the resultant organisational problems suffered in “traditional” Welsh-medium schools (currently Categories 2B and 2C) due to the increasing in-migration of non-Welsh-speakers (predominantly from England). As a result, attention was also drawn to such difficulties by academics demanding linguistic fair-play for children in the Welsh-speaking heartland.

Although Welsh-medium education was already available within the odd Welsh-speaking area, albeit in a rather patchy way, it was the advent of the designated Welshmedium school model, arguably, which was primarily responsible for creating the systematic identity of Welshmedium education. Although a Welsh-medium primary school had already been established in Aberystwyth under private auspice in 1939, it was not until 1947 and the opening of Ysgol Dewi Sant in Llanelli that the first was established under the direction of a local authority.

Similar schools were successively established in various areas before the first designated Welsh-medium secondary school, Ysgol Glan Clwyd, was opened in Rhyl in 1956. Nevertheless, despite constant growth across many parts of Wales within both the primary and secondary sectors, this model has remained in the minority in comparison with the “traditional” Welsh-medium schools (Categories 2B and 2C) serving the needs of children in Welsh-speaking heartlands such as Gwynedd and what was previously Dyfed.

Today, therefore, in Anglicised areas particularly, there is a clear linguistic demarcation in the medium of educational delivery. The designated Welsh-medium secondary model (Category 1) (which has increasingly served the needs of children from predominantly nonWelsh-speaking homes over the years) exists side by side with the English-medium school. In terms of the ability to produce fluent bilingual speakers, however, such a situation has created a dichotomy since the Welsh second-language curricular and methodological provision of the English-medium school is acknowledged by both academics and the schools inspectorate, Estyn, as being woefully ineffective.

Within local education authorities serving Welshspeaking heartlands, however, there is a tendency to continue providing a variety of “Welsh-medium” models across a wide linguistic continuum.

WALES’ PREMIER GALLERIES

‘Abereiddy Cottages’ oil on board 2011 70 x 120cm

J O H N K N A P P - F I S H ER 5 - 27 August 2011

Gwen John ‘Kneeling Girl in Pink Hat’ w/c 14 x 10cm

SUMMER EXHIBITION 1 - 31 August 2011

‘Traeth Aberdesach’ oil on canvas 2008 30 x 60cm

GWILYM PRICHARD 3 September - 1 October 2011

MARTIN TINNEY GALLERY 18 ST. ANDREW’S CRESCENT CARDIFF CF10 3DD Tel: 029 2064 1411 mtg@artwales.com

ORIEL TEGFRYN GALLERY CADNANT ROAD MENAI BRIDGE ANGLESEY LL59 5EW Tel: 01248 715128 tegfryn@artwales.com

Opinion

Peter Williams

According to the definitions previously given, it can be seen that there is very little difference between the Category 1 model and that of model 2A since at least 80% of the curricular provision is through the medium of Welsh only. However, there is a world of difference between model 2A and 2B, for example, since the latter, despite continuing to provide 80% through the medium of Welsh to some, also offers the opportunity to choose the same curricular provision through the medium of English.

It is the choice of language medium being offered within the same establishment which is the crucial factor.

Is it not, therefore, perfectly logical to ask, if the aims of local authority language policies are to make all pupils fluent bilingual speakers, what linguistic advantages does this model have to offer?

According to local authority language policies such as that of Carmarthenshire, pupils are expected to be bilingual when they leave the primary sector and to show further continuous improvement in their linguistic skills during their secondary education. However, in those cases where the expected linguistic standards are not previously attained, rather than intensify the Welsh-medium provision in the secondary sector (without any detriment to their skills in English, as clearly evidenced in Category 1 and 2A schools), it seems easier to allow them to follow a curriculum which can subsequently be entirely through the medium of English. Such a decision is obviously based on a political rather than an educational/ linguistic principle.

Since it is not often organisationally possible to fulfil the curricular and linguistic needs of both groups in models 2B and 2C, the necessity to ensure an Englishmedium provision for those pupils less proficient in Welsh often deprives others of the right to an education in their mother-tongue when placed in mixed-language classes. Whereas such an arrangement also deprives the less proficient of the opportunity to become fluent bilingual speakers, it is on the basis of their advanced bilingual skills, ironically, that Welsh-speakers sacrifice their right to proper linguistic provision.

Therefore, despite the efforts of education authorities to ensure Welsh-medium linguistic and curricular continuity, at examination level particularly this is often provided (if at all) by creating mixed language classes in order to try to overcome organisational difficulties. Such provision is often referred to as “bilingual” although no clear indication is given of the teaching methodology.

On the basis of the parallel linguistic provision of these models one also sees pupils over a period of time changing from Welsh first-language to second language study programmes as well as to English-medium classes for other subjects. Such practice has been heavily criticised

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by Estyn.

Amongst the main linguistic and educational characteristics of linguistic models 2B and 2C , therefore, one can mention: (1) With very few exceptions, the only pupils who become totally fluent and proficient in both languages are the Welsh-speakers. Up until now, this model has not succeeded in realising the aims of local education authorities in enabling pupils to assimilate linguistically with their bilingual communities.

(2) Since this model does not succeed in making the majority non-Welsh-speaking pupils proficiently bilingual, neither does it succeed in building on the previous efforts of dedicated and committed teachers in the primary sector, thus wasting years of effective Welshmedium education in the process. In short, this model is not cost-effective, although “best value” is a fundamental principle in the endeavour of local and central government to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness in the present economic climate.

(3) Since this model of providing so-called “Welshmedium” education does succeed in making pupils from English-speaking homes proficiently bilingual, English inevitably becomes the medium of social discourse, Continued on page 47

MA Dwyieithrwydd ac Amlieithrwydd Rhan-amser / Llawn-amser / Dysgu o bell Dwyieithrwydd/Amlieithrwydd Cymdeithasol (agweddau gwleidyddol ar fywiogrwydd iaith); Agweddau Deallusol a Gwybyddol ar Ddwyieithrwydd/Amlieithrwydd; Datblygiad Addysg Ddwyieithog yng Nghymru; Modelau ar gyfer Addysgu Dwyieithog/Amlieithog

MA Bilingualism and Multilingualism Full-time / Part-time / Distance Learning Societal Bilingualism/Multilingualism (political aspects of language vitality); Models of Bilingual/Multilingual Teaching; Understanding Language Policy and Planning; Cognitive and Intellectual Aspects of Bilingualism/Multilingualism

Dr Hywel Glyn Lewis h.lewis@tsd.ac.uk +44 (0) 1267 676680

A Church in decline The state of the Church in Wales

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n my recent visit to Wales, one of my close friends, the Vicar of Valley, Anglesey, told me that he was having to close some of the churches in his parish because of the lack of parishioners. Apart from a few instances of revivals in some areas of Wales in chapel worship (as opposed to the established Church of Wales), such as in Ebbw Vale (venue of the 2010 National Eisteddfod), this decline is becoming all too regular, but it is not a new phenomenon. The Anglican Church, for centuries has harbored a clergy out of touch with their flock (depicted St. Asaph Cathedral). Even my friend in Anglesey was appointed Vicar in a Welsh-speaking area without an adequate command of the Welsh language and was having to take time off to enroll in an intensive language course. In a situation paralleled by events in Ireland, the established church (Anglican in Wales, Roman Catholic in Ireland) did nothing to keep alive the native tongues despite the completion of the Welsh version of the Bible in 1588 by a group of distinguished scholars led by Bishop Morgan, and its extensive revision in 1620 by Dr. John Davies. It is sad to relate that only a pitiful few of the regular clergy in Wales even as late as the 18th century knew the language of the great majority of their parishioners. From 1713, for the next 150 years, for example, not a single Welsh speaker was appointed to a Welsh bishopric.

Michael D. Jones’s college at Bala was the only one in Wales that honored the use of Welsh in the 19th Century. Before 1920, not a single bishop able to speak Welsh had been appointed to a Welsh see. At St. David’s Theological College in Lampeter (Llanbedr Pont Steffan) there was no requirement to be able to read, speak, or write one single line in the language of the parishioners the graduates would eventually come to counsel. Future clergymen studying at Lampeter ridiculed the idea of learning any Welsh.

In 1864, Author R. J. Derfel wrote that the greatest oppression for a conquered nation “…is to set foreigners who do not understand its language as spiritual pastors to it.” In a letter to Queen Victoria in 1895,

Lord Roseberry wrote that in Wales, the Church of England was similar to what Gibraltar was to Spain: “a foreign fortress placed on the territory of a jealous, proud, and susceptible nation.” In 1929, Welsh literary giant W.J. Gruffydd, in Y Llenor, in answer to the statement of the first Archbishop of Wales A.G. Edwards that “There is no room in the world for small and snarling nations,” responded, “There is no room in Wales for small and snarling prelates.” During the same year, Gruffydd stated the following: “If {Llandovery College} has grown to be one of the strongest instruments of the English mission in the Church and in the country, I doubt whether any other institution in south Wales has had such a damning effect on everything that is valuable in the eyes of the Welshman who loves his language.”

Strong words indeed. It is therefore no wonder that the Anglican Church, with its vicars incapable of conducting services in the language of their parishioners has been in a rapid decline. It no longer appeals to the vast number of Welsh speaking men and women. (and apparently, during the last decade, to the non-Welsh speaking congregations).The established Church, however, is not the only religious institution in trouble, for nonconformist chapels all over Wales have been turned into bingo halls, furniture stores, or completely demolished for lack of a congregation. In a recent radio poll, only 2% of the population in the UK say they go to church and even these may not be regular churchgoers. In that small percentage is included those who go only at Christmas and Easter. Coming back on the train from Nottingham earlier this year, a Welsh resident from Carmarthenshire passed a church beside the River Severn, somewhere in Monmouthshire. She states, “it looked so lonely, uncared for, unloved, I thought of how busy it would once have been, the hub of the community, graveyard neat, windows gleaming, now not even the pub is the centre of the community, the community no longer exists in the way it used to, the school gate is the closest one comes to it.“ Sadly, this is a situation we find all over the country.

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Sport

Nigel Short

Scarlets

Become an Ambassador!

Moving forward.

‘B

arcelona Model’ aims to put Scarlets at the forefront of European Rugby.

Emrys Bowen New Scarlets’ Chairman Nigel Short has a vision for this most iconic Rugby club in Wales. Not only must the club aspire to the highest pinnacle of success at national and international levels, but it must ‘democratise’ and become more rooted in its local community by actively engaging with supporters and well-wishers who will become stakeholders in its future success.

But there is more. Based on the success of what is known as the ‘Barcelona Model’, Short is convinced of the necessity to encourage the development of young talent for the future. To this end the club has launched an ‘Ambassador Package’ to underwrite the development of individual Academy Players, offering scholarships to young players showing signs of budding talent.

Short, who lives near Whitand in west Carmarthenshire, is well-placed to lead such a revolution. He is one of Wales’s leading entrepreneurs with a

wide range of international business interests, not least of which is his chairmanship of Penderyn Distillery, producers of another Welsh icon, the award-winning Penderyn single malt Welsh whisky. He is engaged in restoration of Laugharne’s Browns Hotel, made famous through its association with yet another national icon, Dylan Thomas. He is also passionate about the great game.

The ‘Barcelona Model’ is seen as key to the regeneration and success of the Catalan football club. It is characterised by the pivotal role played by fans and supporters through their intimate involvement in club ownership and the development of fresh sporting talent which grows from a sound commercial base.

Nigel Short sees this innovative and effective approach as ideal for the regeneration and invigoration of the Scarlets community, not only in terms of its business model, but because it can play a vital role in the development of new talent to set the next generation of Welsh rugby players on a successful course. He looks upon the

If you are an individual committed to the active development of Rugby in Wales, this is an unique opportunity to actively engage with the Scarlets Community as a Stakeholder in the Organisation, and as a Sponsor in the Individual Life Development of the next generation of Welsh Rugby talent.

The minimum investment required is £25,000. For full details of the Scarlets Ambassador Package investment and its associated benefits, please telephone Scarlets Chairman NIGEL SHORT on 07860 408300 or email Nvshort@aol.com

George North - a great example of our development system having worked so quickly - now the rising star of Wales international scene.

Rhys Priestland - now with Wales and in line to go to World Cup - a great example of Scarlets youth development - started in our system aged 14 all the way through to Wales now. Wears no 10 jersey alongside Stephen Jones and can also play full-back.

Scarlets as far more than just a club - rather an essential element of Welsh and local community life.

Short believes that the traditional business regime common to so many football clubs, needs changing to a new paradigm which allows fans and supporters to take ownership of their own club, rather than rely on the whims - and fortunes - of rich benefactors. To this end he is keen to attract Ambassadors committed to the development of Welsh rugby, and to instilling a spirit of excellence which will allow young players to compete with the evident talent shown by so many players from the Southern Hemisphere.

The Ambassador package involves an investment of £25,000 to £100,000. This would give the investor an equity stake in Scarlets, and it is anticipated that any such investment would be eligible for tax relief under the proposed ‘Enterprise Investment Scheme’, subject to EU approval.

An investment of £25,000 would provide a three-year full Academy and Vocational Scholarship for a designated player to include a Sixth Form/tertiary college or university and Rugby Academy programme. For the stu-

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dent the programme would also involve, in parallel with the sporting element, a sound academic education and vocational training.

In addition an Ambassador would be entitled to a whole range of ancillary benefits to include priority booking, special seats for Parc y Scarlets events, and, subject to availability, priority provision of tickets for Wales home and away full international fixtures. The scheme has the advantage of offering investors the same services and special relationship with the club as those enjoyed by directors, but without the onerous responsibilities.

At the heart of the project is the desire to see Welsh rugby go forward with real investment for the future. A number of enthusiastic individuals have already taken up the offer and Short is keen to spread the net. “It is” he says, “all about philosophy. I want to see a club going forward, rooted in the community, owned by the community and looking to the future by creating effective development pathways. We want to see a club that is both sustainable and has a place at the top table of European rugby.”

With this sort of inspirational approach and ambitious blueprint, and with the support of those who love the game, both Sospan Bach and Welsh rugby look set for a brighter future.

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Sport

Byron Kalies

The Rolls of Monmouth The worst kept secret in Wales

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’m not sure I should be writing this. I may well be ostracised from the South Wales region of the Golf Societies Organisers. As with a number of organisations there is a certain amount of information that is classified. The Rolls of Monmouth is one of those pieces of classified information. It is the venue where a number of golf societies come for a special treat – usually the final outing of the year. But don’t tell anyone else – it’s confidential.

There are many reasons the Rolls of Monmouth is exceptional – the course obviously, but much, much more. There’s the location, probably one of the finest parts of country. It is set in the Monnow Valley, close to the town of Monmouth, at the confluence of the rivers Wye, Monnow and Trothy with spectacular views of the Black Mountains. The thousand year old market town of Monmouth and the story of The Rolls, contain a wealth of history – ancient and modern, drama, danger, death and destruction.

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The market town of Monmouth dates back to the time of Roman settlement in Britain. Monmouth, just a few miles west of the English border has been the scene of a number of bloody encounters between the English and the Welsh throughout its history. The town was destroyed in the Battle of Monmouth and although not directly involved in the Glyndwr rebellion was an important stronghold. Notable features of the town include the only Norman fortified bridge remaining in Britain and the 12th century castle overlooking the River Monnow. This castle, developed by Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in the early 14th century was the birthplace of Henry V in 1387. Geoffrey of Monmouth, educated at a Benedictine monastery in the locality was the author of a number of books including a fictitious history of Great Britain, Historia Regum Britanniae (1136), which included legends of King Arthur and King Lear.

If you follow the winding B4233 road to

Abergavenny, west of Monmouth for a few miles you pass through the tiny village of Rockfield and the innocuous building that is the legendary Rockfield recording studios. Opened in the mid sixties as the first residential recording studio in the world it has been host to some of the finest artists of the past 40 years including Queen, Mike Oldfield, Adam and the Ants, Simple Minds, Manic Street Preachers, Nigel Kennedy, The Stone Roses, Coldplay, etc. A little further along the road and you will arrive at the impressive Rolls of Monmouth Golf Club.

As you enter the estate you will be overwhelmed by two aspects – the trees and the tranquillity, and then stunned by the magnificence of the Hendre Mansion House. The house was owned by the Rolls family from 1767 until 1987. John Rolls, MP for Monmouthshire 1880 to 1885 and later became 1st Baron Llangattock, bought a shooting lodge on this site at the beginning of the 19th century. Over the next 200 years John and his descendants expanded and developed the house and garden to form the magnificent 900-acre estate as it is today.

The stone clubhouse is the former workshop and garage of Charles Stewart Rolls, co-founder of Rolls Royce Company. Charles Stewart Rolls was a remarkable man. He was a man with a real passion for speed and danger. Born in 1877 he was part of the late Victorian / Edwardian era of technological innovation. In 1904 he teamed up with Frederick Henry Royce and co-founded Rolls-Royce manufacturing firm. However his passion changed to flight and after a career as a balloonist gaining his flying licence in 1903 (second licence granted in Britain) he became the first person to cross the channel in both directions in one flight. This passion for flying ultimately led to his death in a flying accident at Bournemouth. He was aged just 32 and was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident. He is buried in the church at Llangattock-Vibbon-Avel, a mile from the estate. In the 1980s the estate passed from the Rolls family. In 1982 Ubis Planning designed and built the superb, classic parkland golf course.

The course is a mixture of old and new, traditional and modern. The course looks and feels mature. The course is set in mature parkland with huge oaks and mature avenues of trees. The route feels well-established as it winds it’s way around the immense estate. There are also modern aspects in that there are few blind shots on the course and each of the holes are different and have real character. This is perfectly illustrated in the par 3s. There are four par 3s – all very different to each other. The first, the 4th hole is a fairly straightforward 167 yard shot to a tight green surrounded by bunkers. The 13th, a

downhill 190 yard to a long narrow green tricks you into believing once you’ve hit the green you’re job is over – it isn’t. The green is extremely tricky and the final hole, of which more later.

One of the things that strikes you when playing the course is the quiet. There could be a number of golfers out but there is rarely any noise. There is so much space and the holes so clearly defined that you feel you could be the only ones playing. The reason is the way the large 900 acre estate has been used. A number of courses in South East Wales valleys seem claustrophobic. There is the feeling of restriction The courses have been built on sparse land and there is naturally limited space. Tees and greens are pushed back to the edges of the courses. With this comes the feeling of constraint and limitation. The Rolls has space, lots of space, too much space. It’s nerve racking. It’s almost agoraphobic to a Welsh valley’s golfer like me – but in a nice way.

The true secret of the Rolls of Monmouth golf course are the greens. The greens are always perfectly maintained and immaculate. They are extremely difficult, fast but fair. Simon Aston, golf professional at the club believes these are the strengths of the course. He maintains that, “the greens offer the best possible protection for the course”. This is one of the reasons the course doesn’t need a mass of bunkers around each green, or excessively tight pin positions. Golfers need to think carefully about every shot. It’s not enough to get on the green and assume you will 2-putt. You need to think carefully about where you want to be on the green. The whole of the course needs careful management. It’s a course you need to play a number of times to get to grips with. It’s the reason that when you finish a round you can’t wait until the next time you play it. It’s a course where you need to keep learning, in order to keep scoring well.

The round culminates with the par 3, 18th. Standing on the tee you see the final flag 224 yards in front of you over a lake with the historic manor house forming the backdrop. This is perhaps the most dramatic, and dangerous, finishing hole in Wales.

You have to hit your shot between trees on the left and a stream on the right, over a small pond onto a fantastic green. The setting is superb and a fitting finale for a challenging, thoughtful, wonderful round of golf.

Tenby to Celtic Manor A History of Golf in Wales Gwasg Carreg Gwalch £5.75

The Rolls of Monmouth Golf Club, The Hendre, Monmouth, Monmouthshire NP25 5HG, Wales www.therollsgolfclub.co,uk Golf professional - Simon Aston, Office manager – Linda Kedward, 6733 yards, par 72.

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History

John Davies

On Castles

hundred yards from Ewloe Castle is hardly aware that it is there – a marked contrast with the glowering menace characteristic of Edwardian castles such as Harlech.

Ewloe’s earliest feature, a D-shaped tower characteristic of native Wesh castle-building, was probably commissioned by Llywelyn the Great c.1210 and as it stands only three miles from the estuary of the Dee, it is evidence of the territorial ambitions of the greatest of the princes of Gwynedd. Further building work took place c.1257 under the auspices of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, part of his attempt to secure the eastern border of his dominions following the acquisition of the earldom of Chester by the English king.

Equally intriguing is another of the castles of a member of the ruling house of Gwynedd. That is Hope Castle near Caergwrle, which came into the possession of Llywelyn’s brother Dafydd in 1277. That has an altogether more prominent site, crowning as it does a steep hill overlooking the valley of Afon Alyn. It too has a D-shaped tower, but most of the castle was slighted by

John Davies looks at the castles of the North East.

I

t is the castles of the north-west that have won international recognition. In 1986, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were declared to be World Heritage Sites. They represent the height of the skills of medieval military architects; they also constitute the ‘ring of iron’ with which Edward I girdled the territories he had seized from native Welsh rulers. This duality was neatly summed up the Flintshire writer and patriot, Thomas Pennant, who described the castles as ‘the magnificent badges of our subjection’. Almost the entire fabric of the north-western castles dates from a decade or so after the Conquest in 1282, and thus the castles lack the fascinating organic growth evident in others of the castles of Wales – Chepstow, for example, which has features extending from the 1060s to the 1650s, or Cardiff which offers examples of work from the 280s to the 1920s. Indeed, it could be argued that the Welsh castles which deserve World Heritage Status are not the royal castles of the north-west but the baronial castles of the south-east – Chepstow, Cardiff, Caerphilly and Raglan.

However, the most intriguing castles of Wales are not those of the north-west or those of the south-east. They are those of the north-east, several of which represent the ambitions of native rulers rather than those of incoming conquerors, and all of which are within easy reach of visitors attending this year’s National Eisteddfod at Wrexham. My favourite is Ewloe, a castle which nestles rather than threatens. It lies in a thickly wooded area above Nant Gwepra, the valley in which Owain Gwynedd almost waylaid Henry II in 1157. A visitor a

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Dafydd in 1282, when he rose in revolt against Edward I. A nearby castle, that at Hawarden,was the target of Dafydd’s revolt, the revolt which was the starting point of the collapse of native rule in Wales. Adjoining it is the newer Hawarden Castle, home of W E Gladstone, the first British prime minister to give a sympathetic hearing to the concerns of the Welsh people.

Another of the castles easily accessible from Wrexham was the stronghold of another Welsh ruling house. That

is Dinas Bran, dramatically located on a hilltop overlooking Llangollen. Built in the mid thirteenth century as the seat of Gruffudd ap Madog, ruler of Powys Fadog, it also has a D-shaped tower. It was abandoned following the Conquest, and the earl of Surrey, who acquired much of Powys Fadog, built a new castle at Holt. Little survives of Holt Castle, a marked contrast with others of the postConquest castles of the north-east – Denbigh and Chirk in particular. At Denbigh the three octagonal towers of the Great Gatehouse represent the best example of medieval military architecture in Wales, and the gates of the park surrounding Chirk Castle Park are the finest works of the Davies Brothers of Esclusham, the most skilful smiths ever born in Wales. Indeed, it is worth going to the north-east just to appreciate the genius of the Davies Brothers. In addition to Chirk, their work may be seen at Leeswood, Gwersyllt, Wrexham, Ruthin and elsewhere.

first part of Wales invaded by the Romans. The drama of the struggle to create a Welsh polity had the north-east as its main arena; it was the heartland of the revolt of Owain Glyndw^ r, it was the home of the finest poets of late medieval Wales, the centre of Renaissance learning in Wales, the birthplace of Welsh drama and novels, the home of the first trade union in Wales and the site of as much industrial innovation as was the far larger industrial area of the south-east. There are some who see the north-east as an appanage of the rest of Wales. Yet, as the region has played so central a role, it could be claimed that the rest of Wales is an appanage of the north-east.

John Keates Photography www.johnkeates.co.uk

It is remarkable that the far more extensive iron industry of the south-east produced nothing as wonderful as the masterpieces produced from the iron smelted by the relatively small-scale iron industry of the north-east.

The castles are not the places which should attract the attention of this year’s visitors to Wrexham. There is the superb Pontcysyllte viaduct, recognized as a World Heritage Site in 2009. There are the wonderful churches at Gresford and Wrexham, the fascinating industrial site at Bersham and the splendidly restored mansion at Erddig. Indeed, the north-east is the most under-rated part of Wales. It has been the source of much that is central to the history of Wales. The remains of the country’s earliest human beings were found there and it was the

NEW WEB SITE Cards from £2.20 Prints from £35 Limited edition prints from £95

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Photo feature

Barrie Llewelyn

Spirit of Place Gorsedd Gardens and Park House Cardiff

S

Photography by Carl Ryan

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ometimes I like to imagine what it would have been like to live in Park House at the end of the 19th century when it was still new – inspiring trends in domestic architecture. I would have liked to watch the workmen and planners preparing for the Eisteddfod of 1899 in Gorsedd Gardens, positioning the sandstones that made up the druids’ circle.

From the French Gothic windows and between the clump clip and commotions of the delivery men and their horse and carts, I might have been able to eavesdrop on the conversations, the negotiations.

Where to place the throne? How to plant the flower beds to the best effect?

Park House was designed

by William Burges for John

McConnochie, the third Marquess of Bute's chief dock engineer, who later became Mayor of Cardiff. A few years ago my daughter worked in the private members’ club that now occupies the building and I got to know the place a little – that incongruous main entrance on the side of the house, which means that when you enter, your first impression is of the underside of a grand

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– and what could have otherwise been imposing – staircase. I prefer to think of it as Burges’ folly, rather than a mistake. You have to walk around the backward-facing staircase to enter the drawing room which looks on to the Gardens. I imagine I would have spent a lot of time in that room: reading, watching from the windows, and recording in my diary how, in a growing city, each day looks, sounds and smells differently.

I came to Wales for a vacation in1979 and one of the first places I remember was Gorsedd Gardens – though I didn’t know the name of it then and for a long time. It was December and there is a photo of me, cold and wrapped up in a friend’s borrowed ski jacket posing as if I was about to dive into the fountain. The City Hall and

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the National Museum and Gallery – still the most important-looking public buildings in Cardiff – in the background. I like that picture; little did I know then that I would one day live in rural Wales and refer to Cardiff as ‘the city’, the place I go to find my essentials and to fulfill my possibilities. Somehow, those buildings and that Garden promise me everything.

Isn’t it a strange phenomenon that great cities are defined by their open spaces, parks and gardens as well as by their skyscrapers, events, back alleys and mix of people?

Think of Central Park, Hyde Park and in Los Angeles, where I come from, Griffith Park (named after Welshman Griffith J. Griffith, a mining tycoon who donated 3,000 acres to the city in 1896). Think of Gorsedd Gardens - so much smaller

than those others, yet for me, it captures the essence of Cardiff.

Besides being a point of entry – how many times have I walked from the National Museum and Gallery over the Boulevard de Nantes into Queen Street using the path that cuts though the formally landscaped garden, past the druids’ circle and under the eyes of several watchful statues of important Welshmen – it’s also a natural gathering place.

Last spring when I served my jury duty at the Crown Court in the middle of a heat wave, I spent lunch hours sitting near the fountain drinking a mocha frappacino and taking off layers of clothing.

My mind wandered from the legalities I was being presented with and the consequences of my ability to understand them to the way the people who work in the city flock to

the gardens whenever the weather allows, and how they relax in groups or alone for a few minutes between their ‘important’ things.

This gathering place changes with the seasons – nowadays in spectacular ways. Thirty years later, I couldn’t pose over the fountain in December unless I was also posing within the Winter Wonderland which dominates Cardiff every year at Christmastime. It’s worth taking that £5 slow ride on the huge illuminated Ferris Wheel just to see the great views of the city, the Bay and beyond. Though I’m not so struck on the giant blue-scarfed snowman, there is loads of fun to be had on the outdoor skating rink: the exhilarated faces of children doing a tough physical sport in the cold, dark winter confirms it.

Late in summer, another annual

event, The Big Weekend transforms the area once again into another kind of gathering place. There is a fairground all over Cathays Park with merry-go-rounds and megaspins, burger stands and beer tents. Then, the Gardens are dominated by a stage which hosts a variety of bands and musicians and every inch of ground space is taken up by the mellow or the rowdy; groups of listeners, sunbathers, drinkers, smokers. Partakers partaking…and why not? Mostly, I get the impression that Big Weekenders are easy-going and just want to enjoy the atmosphere, have a good time.

Recently, I retraced the steps I would have taken from Park House across Park Lane into the Gardens especially to find out if the name was signposted anywhere. I

could find it on maps and on the Internet, but I have never seen it or heard it referred to. Though I was on a present-day mission, I couldn’t help but slip back into make-believe and pretend I was the lady of Park House or one of the McConnochie daughters taking my daily stroll. It was winter again, but even so the formal arrangement of the flower beds promised spring and renewal and celebration. Under the eyes of the permanent residents:- David Lloyd George, John Cory and Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart - I could only see a sign which read ‘City Hall Lawn’. I hope fervently this isn’t the new improved tourist-friendly name.

Gorsedd Gardens is much better: it evokes thrones and modern bards.

It’s the right and romantic name for my imaginings and for the historical heart of a beautiful capital.

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A Taff in the Land of the Gogs.

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he most bonkers programme on television must be Escape to the Country in which they round up city slickers and try to find them a suitable home in the countryside.

And they come with their £1million wanting paddocks for Samantha’s ponies, a huge garden for Papa and an enormous kitchen with an Aga the size of a bus for Mummy to entertain should their guests ever manage to find their way there. Oh and don’t forget some lovely views.

Don’t these idiots know anything about the countryside? Life in the wilds for many of us North Walians is unbelievably hard and many dream of a penthouse in the city with a decent night club in the basement. We’ve just survived two years out in the country, up a mountain and with views like no other when it wasn’t raining - which it often did even on sunny days - and I’ve never been so happy as on that sublime day when we managed to scuttle back to a flat above our gallery right in the middle of Bala.

The first thing to remember about the countryside is that there is almost always an animal where it shouldn’t be. On our first day there a lamb got stuck in the cattle grid at the entrance to our yard and just wouldn’t come out. Another got stuck in a hedge hanging off a ravine and I would have left it there had not a carpenter freed it and nearly killed himself in the process.

And there was this brainless badger who came out at night and ran for his life in our headlamps for a good mile never once thinking he could just swerve out of the way. A squirrel took up residence in our loft and started chomping his way through electricity cables.

Then let’s not forget the subArctic winter cold which can work its way into every nook and cranny, freezing up all your joints. When the snow came we had logs, coal,

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Diary by Tom Davies gas and electric fires and central heating and still wore blankets on our shoulders. The sheep would come from miles around and just stand at our gate bleating about how cold they were and would we give them some food. It was only when we finally added up what we were paying for fuel that we decided we had to get back into town or go bust.

Things didn’t much improve in the summer. On a fine day we might decide to have a little barbecue. Huh! Such decisions are immediately transmitted to all the midges who have been lying fast asleep all day. They then have a quick conference and decide it’s party time.

They give you enough time to burn a sausage or two and then they’re up and running, heading straight for my bald patch where they like to skate around or else, if that stops being fun, take it in turns to bite a big hole in my head. They can even do this in formation and manage to take off again before I start slapping my head hard, adding to the general pain.

So wake up you saps who want to live in the countryside. Stick to the towns and cities where we all belong. *** Now that I’m growing old and full of sleep I’m finding my shortterm memory disappearing fast.

Names and dates seem to go pothol-

ing down into the darkness unwilling to show their faces again until I’ve stopped trying to remember them and then they pop up again, often in the middle of the night, smiling like Jack Nicholson who has just decided to bump someone off.

Only recently I rang someone and we were having a nice conversation when I found myself asking him if he had any idea why I’d called him.

Then my wife joined in the general hilarity and sent me a birthday card showing a man in pyjamas standing next to his wife who was lying in bed and asking her: “Help me out here darling. Have I just got up or am I about to go to bed?” Yes, it’s all pretty witty I don’t think, but I’ve got a good plan to sort it all out - as and when I can remember what it was. ** * My Welsh broadcasting career has finally gone into something like a permanent slump which is not surprising really as I’ve been working hard to kill it off for years.

When it began it was quite enjoyable and I’d wander into Broadcasting House in Llandaff to rattle off the odd Pause for Thought for the religious department. You could usually develop a few real thoughts in such talks in a medium where you don’t find much thoughtfulness any longer. But the snag was their fees were quite religious while they were was quite the worst I’ve ever come across for giving you a plug for any books you may have written.

Things brightened up a bit when I became the Old Git on the Jamie Owen programme, ranting and raving about everything and anything, week after week. One of its highlights was when I had virtual sex with Michelle Pfeiffer although, to be honest, I don’t think anyone

knew what I was talking about or else they would have certainly canned it.

I got fed up with broadcasting after that, turning all the producers’ ideas down. But I did agree one week to do a phone-in about Dylan Thomas from my farmhouse outside Bala because I had written a novel about him which, yet again, they failed to mention. This discussion was going well until the window cleaner turned up as I was in full flow and Wales was then treated to a chat about the state of my windows, costs etc along with other bits and pieces about Dylan’s use of language. Paul Ferris announced that he thought he’d come in to talk about Dylan Thomas and not the state of Tom Davies’ windows.

“But I need a window cleaner too,” Paul added. “Ask him how much he charges.”

I was sure I wouldn’t hear from BBC Radio Wales again after

the window cleaning fiasco, but some time later I was invited to join a lunchtime discussion about the media presented by Jason Mohammed. At the time there was yet another fuss about how the tabloids were exposing celebrities and their wayward sex lives and an editor from the Sun joined us saying that such stories were valuable to society and helped the celebs in question to become better people.

When he had finished Jason asked me what I thought about the editor’s views and I used a Very Bad Word. “Well there’s only one word to describe all that and it’s complete bollocks,” I said.

Poor old Jason, who is from Ely in Cardiff where they would never use such a word, actually began pouring apologies over what I went on to say - in the heat of the moment I first thought he was apologising to me which made him get even more aerated. But then, glory

be, another caller said I had been absolutely right. “It was all bollocks and more people should say so,” he cried as Jason moaned and groaned and cranked up his apology machine all over again.

Well that had to be my Welsh broadcasting career all over for sure when I had another call a few months back. Would I join a new phone-in on Sundays although what they really wanted to do was record my contribution beforehand so, I guessed, there would be no possibility that I could use any bad words or generally act the goat. Keep it bland, keep it straight. This is BBC Wales.

Well I wasn’t falling for that and there it is - the corpse of my Welsh broadcasting career lying flat out in the gutter. But this is a very proud corpse and I can put my hand on my heart and say I worked damn hard to get it there.

And then they asked me again...

North Wales in all its artistic glory William Selwyn Keith Bowen Tina Holley Gareth Wyn Jones Kyffin Williams Irene Taylor David Pollock Barbara Goolden Malcolm Edwards Rob Piercy Elaine Jeffreys Julia Harris Huw Jones Ogwyn Davies Diana Williams Geoff Beckett

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oriel Tan yr Hall gallery High Street, Bala, Gwynedd LL23 7AB

www.tanyrhallgallery.co.uk

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POETRY PWLL CLAI

Barddoniaeth

Overheard on a local bus

Books Overview

Meic Stephens

T

he National Eisteddfod, with Christmas, is the busiest time of the year for publishers in Wales, says Meic Stephens. I am doubtful whether it makes good commercial sense to bring out so many books at the same time but our publishers are wedded to this idea and so they are probably making a kill, and it seems there’s nothing the Books Council can do about it anyway. So keep an eye out for new titles at Wrexham, especially in the Aladdin’s Cave that is the Cyngor Llyfrau

stand (where they also make the best cup of tea on the Maes), if only to wonder at the number and variety of new books. Best of all, buy as many as you can afford, and then a few more, and you won’t have to fork out again for the rest of the year.

He’s learnin’ Welsh with his work

is Canol y Dref Yr Wyddgrug.

and they’ve said it was Beginners,

I never quite grasped that one –

but there’s some there that are brushing up on it.

moving everything around.

It’s not the same is it

When I first went to Wrexham

as us lot doin’ it?

I thought the College

We never had any in school did we?

was a Cart Refill, and it was Cartrefle,

and Acre Fair the English way I used to say

Buckle, bwcle or summat,

not Acre Fair.

that’s our Buckley in Welsh.

That’s beautiful – Mary’s acre, Acre Fair.

NOVELS • Dewi Prysor, Lladd Duw (Y Lolfa, £9.95) • Mihangel Morgan, Pantglas (Y Lolfa, £8.95)

Well, we’ve always said Buckley ave’nt we?

And as for Froncysyll – well, Fron…

Jean Mead, The Widow Makers : Strife (Bwthyn, £11.95) • Stead Jones, Make Room for the Jester

God, imagine if we said

I couldn’t grapple with that one!

“A single to Bwcle” on the bus.

(Library of Wales, Parthian, £8.99) • Jon Gower, Uncharted (Gomer, £8.99) • Margiad Evans, Turf

Any road, they’re all wrong because it’s Pwll Clai really,

But Les is enjoying this Course,

only the English couldn’t say it

it’s fun to do.

when they came to make the maps.

He says he’s learning where we’re from,

POETRY • Mike Jenkins, Moor Music (Seren, £8.99) • Aled Lewis Evans, Amheus o Angylion

Pwll Clai – Clay Pit... yes it is the other way around.

“Digging deep in the ‘Pwll Clai’ enai’, as he puts it,

(Barddas, £7.95)

and I’m all for that!

Myrddin ap Dafydd (gol.), Iwan, ar Daith (Carreg Gwalch, £12) • Menna Elfyn, Merch Perygl (Gomer,

I am a mine of information actually.

I might go with him,

£12.99) • Gwyneth Lewis, Sparrow Tree (Bloodaxe, £8.95) • Peter Finch, Zen Cymru (Seren, £8.99)

I tell them it’s Mynydd Isa, not Mynydd ISA like one

as long as I didn’t have to stand up

of those

and say Mold Town Centre in Welsh

new instant access thingies in the Nationwide

or worse still Fon…

I can’t say the Welsh for Mold.

you know the one I mean.

Philip Gross, The Water Table (Bloodaxe, £8.95) • Nerys Williams, Sound Archive (Seren, £8.99)

How can a four-letter word come to be so big?

Dafydd Glyn Jones (gol.), Canu Twm o’r Nant (Dalen Newydd, £15)

Oh yeah, I forgot it was there before Mold...ay

“Yn araf os gwelwch yn dda.

OTHER • Tony Curtis (ed.), The Meaning of Apricot Sponge: Selected Writings of John Tripp (Parthian,

Yr Wyddgrug

Dwi’n dysgu siarad Cymraeg.”

That’s the trouble with the language

But it’s more than just the language, the words,

£9.99) • Martin Shipton, Poor Man’s Parliament : Ten Years of the Welsh Assembly (Seren, £12.99)

all those long words,

isn’t it?

and then when you put it together,

It’s in here..

it’s all the wrong way round.

Mold Town Centre

The usual crop of books has appeared in the last few months and I propose, this time, listing only some of the most important.

or Stone (Library of Wales, Parthian, £8.99) • Richard Hughes, The Fox in the Attic (Atlantic Books, £14.99)

Sally Roberts Jones, Notes for a Life (Headland, £7.95) • Hywel Griffiths, Banerog (Y Lolfa, £5.95) Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones, Lynne Rees (eds.), Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales (Gomer, £9.99) • Patrick McGuinness, Jilted City (Carcanet, £9.95)

• John Barnie, Fire Drill: Notes on the Twenty-first Century (Seren, £9.99) • Hywel Gwynfryn, Hugh Griffith (Gomer, £9.99) • Jon Meirion Jones, Ol Traed T.Llew: Deg Taith Lenyddol (Gomer, £6.99) • Richard Hartnup, Gold Under Bracken: the Land of Wales (Y Lolfa, £9.95) • Wyn Lodwick, Count

Aled Lewis Evans

Yourself In: a Man and his Jazz (Carreg Gwalch, £7.50)

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.

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Encounter

Russell Thomas

On William Evans

I

t was just before Christmas 1968. I was in London for the first time on my own, and it wasn’t going well.

I was due to spend a week on a familiarisation course at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.

I’d arrived in London with a streaming cold after a miserable train journey from Swansea. My father’s cousin was a doctor in London and his wife was a chemist, so I called to see them and left with a bottle of pills prescribed by Cyril and dispensed

by Dorothy. I rang the M.o.D. on Monday to tell them I wouldn’t be in, and spent the day asleep in my room at Hopkins House in Sussex Gardens.

I felt better by about eleven o’clock on Monday night. And hungry. So I ventured out to see if I could buy a few snacks to take back to my room. It came as a shock to me that Paddington was full of people at that time of night, and that many restaurants were still open. The ‘Pancake House’ looked inviting, so I walked in and ordered plaice and chips, bread and butter and a cup of tea. The restaurant was packed, and I’d been lucky to nab the last free table.

It was a table for two and just as I started eating, a waitress came across to ask me if I would mind sharing with another customer. I said I’d be happy to, but wondered why she appeared to be so nervous about asking . She went back to the entrance, returned to my table leading a very short-sighted man by the arm, and helped him to settle down in the chair opposite mine.

My fellow diner must have been in his eighties. He was a short but thick set man, with a long white beard and a full head of tangled white hair which curled untidily

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on to his shoulders. His brown gaberdine overcoat, stained and frayed, was far too long for him and was buttoned tightly up to his neck. His skin was grimy and his fingernails were black. I assumed he was a tramp. He wedged his white stick firmly between the legs of his torn corduroy trousers when he sat down.

He made no attempt to study the menu which another waitress dropped absent mindedly in front of him, but asked me if I could read it out to him. I started to do so, but he stopped me after a few items and said:‘Your food smells nice.

What have you got?' I told him and he ordered plaice and chips as well. Then he said ‘You’re not from around here. Which part of South Wales do you come from?’.

I told him I was from the Swansea Valley and, before I could be more specific, he asked me if I spoke Welsh. When I confirmed that I did, he switched to Welsh himself.

Though he claimed that he’d hardly used the language in the fifty years that he’d lived in London, he could have fooled me as he began to chat confidently in a Carmarthenshire dialect and accent.

When I complimented him on retaining his command of Welsh in spite of his long exile in London, he told me that he’d kept up his knowledge of the language over the years by singing Welsh hymns to himself, and by repeating verses from the Bible over and over in his mind. He proved it too. Did I know the hymn ‘Dod ar fy mhen...?’ I did, and I recited the first verse: ‘Dod ar fy mhen dy sanctaidd law’ O! dyner fab y Dyn! Mae gennyt fendith i rhai bach,

Fel yn dy oes dy Hun.’ When I got stuck, he carried on: ‘Wrth feddwl am dy gariad gynt, O Nasareth i’r groes Mi garwn innau fod yn dda A byw er mwyn fy oes.’

Was I familiar with ‘Efengyl Tangnefedd’?

Yes, I was: ‘Efengyl tangnefedd, O! Rhed dros y byd: A deled dy bobloedd i’th lewyrch i gyd; Na foed neb heb wybod am gariad y groes, A brodyr i’w gilydd fo dynion pob oes.’

And he took over: ‘Sancteiddier y ddaear gan ysbryd y ne’ ; Boed Iesu yn Frenin a neb ond Efe: Y tywysogaethau mewn hedd wrth ei draed, A phawb yn ddiogel dan arwydd ei waed.’

He recalled hymn after Welsh hymn. Until he switched to to the Bible. He loved the Psalms, particularly the Twenty Third Psalm, so I started it off: ‘Yr Arglwydd yw fy mugail, ni bydd eisiau arnaf. Efe a wna i mi orwedd...’ but he couldn’t wait, jumped in and finished it to the end.

On he went from one book of the Bible to the next, from one chapter to another. Word perfect in his recollection. Hazy eyes welling up with tears. Lost in his memories.

And his memories poured out of him. His name was William Evans, though he had been known more familiarly as Wil Bach Ifans throughout the time he’d lived in Wales. Brought up in a large coal mining family in Cross Hands, he’d excelled at school and was studying at a theological college when his father was killed in a colliery accident. He abandoned his studies, went underground to support

Craig Cefn Park

the family financially, and worked at collieries in the Gwendraeth Valley and at Ystalyfera. When he could no longer find work in South Wales he moved to London where he worked in a variety of jobs until he retired. He lived on his own in a rented bedsitter now, and had no family.He spent most of his time in cinemas during the winter because he could get in for concessionary rates, which was cheaper than running up heating bills in his bedsit.

He apologised for his unkempt appearance. He guessed that he looked pretty rough, but couldn’t see himself in the mirror well enough to tidy himself up.

He went on to ask me about my own backround and when I explained that I’d been brought up in Craig Cefn Parc, he said

that he'd been a miner at Moody’s Colliery on the Graig at one time.

I told him that my grandfather had been a coalminer in Craig Cefn Parc. What was my grandfather’s name, asked Wil Bach Ifans. ‘William John Jones’, I said.

He thought quietly for some time before asking me if William John Jones was the man who lived on a small-holding on the edge of Mynydd y Gwair, and worked underground only in the winter because he devoted his summers to farming. I confirmed that he was.

He went on to reveal that he and my grandfather had been workmates and friends at Moody’s Colliery, and told me stories which I’d first heard from my grandfather himself when I was a boy. As we finished our plaice and chips in the ‘Pancake

House’ in Paddington, William Evans revealed simply that he and my grandfather used to sit together to eat their bread and cheese and pickles during their meal breaks underground.

We sat quietly for a while.

At ease in each other’s company, there was no more to say. The waitresses cleared the tables. It was one o’clock in the morning and we were the last customers in the restaurant. I had to be at the Ministry of Defence by eight-thirty, and William Evans had to find his way home to his bedsit. I helped him to the door, and watched him shuffle away along the streets of Paddington. The ‘Tap, tap’, tapping sound of his stick on the pavement is my last memory of him.

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Books Mike Hall, Monmouthshire Curiosities (The History Press, £12.99)

Sam Adams

T

he author claims Monmouthshire was English until 1974. I beg to differ on sound historical grounds and so will thousands of others.

Since his book includes Newport and a glance at the eastern and western valleys, the title invites confusion. ‘Gwent’ would have far better suited his purpose. The frontispiece map is of little use and the absence of an index is a further handicap. The book has its strengths, notably in its description of small ancient churches wrapped in rural obscurity at the end of narrow, winding lanes, of which Gwent can boast a fair few. It would not have occurred to me to think of Llangwm as ‘reminiscent of deepest Devon’, but let that pass.

There are, inevitably, omissions. For instance, the entry on Capel-y-ffin has no reference to David Jones and Eric Gill; that on Caerleon omits to mention Arthur Machen, despite the plaque on his birthplace; the Newport Wetlands National Nature Reserve is ignored, although Goldcliff is only a stone’s throw distant; Lord Rhondda, buried at Llanwern, is given a glowing report with not a word about the Cambrian Combine or the Tonypandy Riots; Blaenavon doesn’t exist. And there are errors:

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‘coru (sic) hirlas’ and ‘Soidir’ (sic) for ‘Seidir’ (perhaps a misreading of the ancient pub sign in Llantarnam or a Devonshire influence); the ‘industrial museum’, years now in Swansea, lingers in Cardiff; Robert Owen, born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire in 1771, is described as a ‘Scots industrialist’; Lady Llanofer, whose knowledge of Welsh was at best sketchy, is said to have collaborated with Charlotte Guest on the latter’s translation of The Mabinogion, which is grossly unfair to John Jones (Tegid); and at Rorke’s Drift there were 139 British soldiers, not eighty, and eleven VCs were awarded, not eight.

The book is by no means perfect; few tourist guides are. Travellers interested in churches and castles and TV series locations in Gwent will be grateful, and it is nicely printed and illustrated. There is room for an up-to-date tourist guide of the area of the relatively cheap and cheerful sort and for most purposes this will serve well enough.

Gwen Davies (ed.), Sing Sorrow Sorrow (Seren, £9.99)

Gareth Evans

T

here’s something perverse about settling down to read a collection of horror stories when the most perilous act you’ve planned for the evening is putting another log on the burner. For years I’ve tried to figure out why I enjoy plunging out of my comfort

zone to visit the darker places of the soul. The answer is simple: as long as I’m here in my own spook-free home, I’m safe, and the ghastly fates of the characters that live (or die) within the covers of this anthology of twenty-two stories by Welsh authors are their own and not mine.

I’m glad to say, there is no House Demon here and I’ve never had to placate one with cups of tea. Indeed, as you read Maria Donovan’s tale you grow rather fond of her faithful hobgoblin, that is until the final page when its true character is revealed. The next tale is Box

by Deborah Kay Davies, and though it’s only a few pages long, it’s beautifully crafted. It starts off innocently enough with the narrator describing his (or her) box of treasures, a home for the keepsakes that most of us hold dear. It’s only as we recognize the narrator’s growing excitement as he (or she) gets nearer to the point of describing the contents of the box, that we realise all is not well and this is a very sick mind that we’re getting to know.

My dog Haf might be borderline psychotic (she is not at all like the Cerberus-like creature in Lloyd Jones’ excellent The City), but she is very persistent and, whatever the weather, must have her evening walk. So I’m dragged off by a panting Haf protected by coat, cap and gloves, my torch the only light on the dark country lanes. It’s no surprise that it’s at times like this the tales of Sing Sorrow Sorrow come back to haunt the reader. As I begin my ascent to Tan y Bwlch, I wonder whether our wariness of shadow and the darkness is a primeval survival strategy from a time when humans were indeed prey. On rounding a corner I momentarily have to convince myself that it’s a sheep at the foot of the ‘tomen’ and not a local version of John Gower’s cannibalistic miner in his harrowing tale The Pit. This is a dark and vicious story of how a decent man’s life can fall

Books to pieces as easily as the horse hair on which Damocles’ sword was suspended could snap at any time – for any one of us.

Every now and then Haf stops in her tracks and she stares into the darkness that surrounds the feeble light of my torch. To our left, the snow-covered, semi-spherical slopes of Moel Wnion glisten and I’m reminded of my favourite tale in the collection which is The White Mountain by Charlotte Greig. This Mabinogi-like tale of young, naive Gwydion Griffiths’ visit to Môn Gwyn Studios to record his first album is not the scariest but it’s the one that left the deepest mark on this reader. There is a nightmarish quality to this tale – Gwydion’s inability to leave the studios and the hospitality of Brân and Arianrhod reminds us of childhood nightmares where we try to will ourselves to flee but our feet are tarred to the ground, leaving no choice but acceptance of whatever fate awaits.

Like the best short stories, The White Mountain leaves questions unanswered.

Haf and I walk for well over an hour and don’t see another soul, which isn’t such a bad thing given my unusually jumpy state. The evening’s loneliness echoes Glenda Beagan’s Yellow Archangel – a troubling account of rural life in post-pandemic Wales. In this world where people are desperate for some sign of hope, a little girl’s vision of a yellow archangel brings about a religious revival. For me this is the most disturbing story in the book.

As we reach the familiarity of the lamp-lit village a spring returns to my step and the shadows shorten and the darkness lifts. My confidence grows as I pass the welcoming homes of friends and neighbours.

I stride past the cemetery gate and cockily peer into the darkness, as I always do, hoping to see some animated corpse or ghastly spectre.

Soon, in the words of this book’s blurb, I draw up a chair: the fire’s lit.

Cure for a Crooked Smile Chris Kinsey (Ragged Raven Press, £7)

Mary Uzzell Edwards

T

his latest volume of poetry from Chris Kinsey has a lapis-tongued hound on the cover, but the 'crooked smile' of the title refers to a bloody childhood battle with her dentist.

She deservedly won the BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year 2008 and watches life like one of her greyhounds who, past and present, haunt her work. Most of these poems grow from the countryside where she walks, day and dusk, snow and wind - though possibly not in beating sun. They talk about seasons, weather changes, migrations, rivers. And a single magpie feather, clover that smells of a powder-compact, being eye-level with eyebright, the 'swell and drip' of snowdrops, like 'wingnuts'. To me, every word she chooses is the right one, and what rich language is here. Reading this is like hearing the best of music.

But here, too, is her involvement in the lives of others, in their illness and in their death, which links to her daily vision: 'Swallows race down the burial field cutting through the crowd just the way you did.....'

Just occasionally, as in 'River lines' there seems a slight overload of onomatopoeia, perhaps like a writing exercise. I think rivers can suck you in like that!

Another strong group of poems takes you into her stubborn schooldays, her early face-to-face encounter with a toad, and the truly horrific title poem. I don't think I will ever eat another pomegranate.

And then, bright as her buttercup petals in the barn light, you come across: 'I love a good hoar... ...Walk with her and she'll give you the slip' which is a multi-punned delight, and I would enjoy hearing her read it aloud.

Finally, I loved the empathy in 'Greyhound Rescue' where she offers: '...the dull thud of my pulse as a backing beat to steady yours' and it is this steadiness and consistency of good writing that you will find in this very readable volume.

Deborah Kay Davies, True Things About Me (Canongate £10.99)

Barrie Llewelyn

T

he unnamed narrator in Deborah Kay Davies’s debut novel, True Things About Me, is ethereal, purposely insubstantial. The man, also unnamed, whom she allows – almost encourages – to abuse and torture her is equally uncharismatic. As her obses-

All books reviewed in cambria’s Literary Section are available online from www.gwales.com

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Books

sion grows and her work, home and other relationships are destroyed, the only characters who come to life, with whom we can identify, are the people who try to rescue her: her parents and her friend, Alison.

Some readers may find this disconcerting. How can we care about a main character, in so much trouble of her own making, with whom we cannot connect? There are more questions than answers. Why has she only one friend? How can she afford a house and a car while working as a clerk in a benefits agency?

How could she allow a new client – a claimant just out of prison – to take her into a car park for quick and violent sex against a wall? And what compulsion makes her take his address from his file so that she can pursue him afterwards?

The narrator tells her story in minute detail using short list-like phrases: ‘I kept my arm around his waist… Everything was so lovely. I could see how we looked together.

After a while I asked him if he was having a good time; I’d begun to think he might be getting bored.

But he didn’t answer me. I don’t think he heard. I started to feel jumpy and nervous. I had that feeling you get when something is slipping away, and you can’t stop it. Like the light on a short winter afternoon. I needed something to happen.’ Although this may seem like honesty, the only believable thing is that she is becoming increasingly unhinged and selfdestructive. When Alison tells her, ‘…you’re not a bad person, …just a mixed-up, self-absorbed one.’ it is the truest sentence in the book.

Yet these devices, the unanswered questions, the two-dimensional characters are what make True Things About Me unputdownable and, probably, unforgettable. This is not a nice story; it’s not supposed to be. It is supposed to disturb the reader. Its incompleteness and the

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self-obsessed voice of the narrator do exactly that.

Last year, Davies’ collection of short stories, Grace, Tamar and Lazlo the Beautiful won the Welsh Book of the Year Award. The characters in the stories were as unsympathetic as they are in the novel. Motives and actions were hazy. The difference is that while this approach was unsatisfying in the short stories, it works brilliantly in True Things About Me.

Sue Bruley: The Women and Men of 1926: A Gender and Social History of the General Strike and Miners’ Lockout in South Wales (University of Wales Press, £48).

Dai Smith

S

ue Bruley’s book groans under a box-ticking title and an eyewatering price tag. In every other respect it is a heart-warming delight and a triumph of the oral historian’s craft. I read it with admiration and pleasure. Admiration at her expert marshalling of wellknown sources and at her expertise in uncovering fresh material and insights. Pleasure for the unpretentious but determined way in which she tells a story that restores the women and men of 1926 to their own sense of themselves in the desperate context of their own times.

It has become historically fashion-

able -- that is the latest modish wear of revisionism---to underplay the out-of-the-ordinary significance of the General Strike of 1926, and of its ambient society. Back in 1980 in The Fed, Hywel Francis and I dared to give to some aspects of life in the South Wales coalfield of the 1920s the descriptor “alternative society”.

Yet so much of that time and place was similar to elsewhere and limited in its aspirations that the phrase has had, for some, a hyperbolic ring.

What Sue Bruley demonstrates in impressive detail -- of communal feeding, of the disorder implicit in the Carnival Jazz Bands, of Festivals of sport and concerts, of the explicit disorder shown openly in violence against blacklegs, of the significant shift observable, albeit temporarily, in gender relationships, of women’s activism, of wider solidarities from chapels to illegal poaching and huge but orderly marches -- is that South Wales did stand out from other British coalfields in its commonality and in the intensity of its oppositional stance, one that went far beyond the Union and political parties.

Sue Bruley is not the kind of historian willing to bend the evidence to make a point. Her theoretical and conceptual concern throughout is with gender and the way in which negativities outweighed the potential for change glimpsed in such a maledominated society. However, with convincing lucidity she explains how the overwhelming structures of feeling in the coalfield were shared by both sexes and coalesced around the identity of class and the moral code of of solidarity. Both were the real deal for the women as well as the men: “…the Lockout brought unexpected opportunities to raise the status of women in the community, to assert equality with men… to make real challenges to the power of men. The fact that women did not collectively take more advantage

Books

of these possibilities…is largely due to the power of class solidarity… the cause meant everything to both men and women and could not be separated from male dominance and gender identities.This is a story about gender. It also demonstrates the overwhelming power of class in 1920s Britain…”

Read this book for the clarity of an analysis respectful of the actual lives which she assembles as oral witnesses of their fate. Read it for their testimony to joy and bravery conjured up out of deprivation and defeat. Above all read it because Sue Bruley has served us brilliantly in reminding us exactly why seven months in 1926 ranks amongst the most searing folk memories of Wales. The Press should now issue it as an affordable paperback.

Gwen Parrott, Gwyn eu Byd (Gomer, £7.99) & Geraint Evans, Llafnau (Y Lolfa, £7.95)

Rhodri Ll. Evans

S

now, like the sea, the desert and the darkness of night, has the ability to isolate people. The uniformity of its blanket whiteness closes in on the mind with a sense of vulnerable claustrophobia and hopelessness as it appears that time itself is frozen

for the duration. The snow of 1947 – an event that brought fragile post-war Britain to its knees for three months – is the setting for Gwen Parrott’s latest novel, Gwyn eu Byd, a murder mystery set in closed-off rural Pembrokeshire. The main protagonist is Dela Arthur, a young teacher from Swansea sent to Nant-yr-eithin, who stumbles onto a curious tale of death, blackmail and forbidden love as she tries desperately to survive one particularly heavy night of snowfall.

The premise is certainly a good one. The snow offers itself naturally as an instrument capable of adding further layers of tense drama to Dela’s attempt to solve the puzzle behind the strange deaths of Glenys and Lenard at their farm.

The result, however, is extremely disappointing. Instead of a taut and tension-filled thriller, Gwyn eu Byd merely rehashes characters and subplots read a thousand times before.

As for the snow, it melts into nothingness after the first couple of chapters.

The novel features a large cast, from the inept local policeman to Welsh-speaking Italian POWs to peroxide-haired harlots, and almost inevitably, the broth is spoiled, leaving the reader with nothing more than two-dimensional beings of little substance. The dialogue – although faithful to the local vernacular – is clunky and old fashioned and regularly scuppers the narrative’s attempt to create any atmosphere or emotion. This novel looks and feels like a first draft copy; there are countless typing errors and the font itself seems to change size on a regular basis and some of the novel’s scenes feel as if their only purpose is to act as wallpaper covering sizeable and noticeable cracks. A wasted opportunity that fails to explore its own potential.

Far better is Geraint Evans’ Llafnau, the follow-up to his successful 2009 debut, Y Llwybr.

Detective Inspector Gareth Prior and his team lead the investigation into the murder of a local farmer mired in a controversial bid to install wind turbines on his land.

Martin Thomas’ attempt at cashing in on his dealings with a less than scrupulous Cardiff-based firm garners him many enemies, so when his body is found slumped in his crashed Land Rover, Prior’s team have numerous possible suspects.

Key to Llafnau’s success is its pace. The story moves at breakneck speed as lines of enquiry are chased, solved and discarded. A multitude of characters appear along the way; some offer help while others are a hindrance to the team’s efforts, but all add to the novel’s gathering momentum. It is an enjoyable novel but not without some faults.

Gareth Prior is still a cardboard cut-out of a CID officer (a wine and food connoisseur with a penchant for the Guardian crossword and Ella Fitzgerald CDs) and his relationship with Mel feels awkward throughout. He’s a too-suave character that could benefit from having a complex or two. Llafnau’s ending is a slight letdown as it appears that the momentum has already peaked a chapter or so before. Nevertheless, it is an unashamedly pacy novel which proves to be, in its own unique way, an entertaining read.

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Books

T.H.Blackstock, E.A.Howe, J.P.Stevens, C.R.Burrows, P.S.Jones Habitats of Wales: A Comprehensive Field Survey, 1979-1997 (University of Wales Press, £55)

D.P.Stevens, S.L.N. Smith, T.H. Blackstock, S.D.S. Bosanquet, P.S. Jones.

Grasslands of Wales: A Survey of Lowland Speciesrich Grasslands, 1987-2004 University of Wales Press (£70)

Dafydd Rhys These well-illustrated scientific surveys are primarily concerned with comprehensively defining and mapping the habitats of Wales, dominant building blocks of its landscape.

Our perception of landscape is coloured not only by previous studies but by the powerful images of artists, photographers, poets, and

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writers, as well as other modern media, folklore and Tourist Board campaigns. We all have our inherently incomplete and differing mental maps based on our experiences and attachment to place. In that context these thoroughly researched and factual volumes provide a reality check.

Habitats of Wales presents the findings of a unique Countryside Council for Wales survey covering the whole land surface of the country on a field-by-field basis. Major types of terrestrial habitat, including woodlands, grasslands, heathlands, mires and coastlands were recorded.

Included are summary distribution maps and information on habitat extent, change and management.

The challenge of condensing two decades of research into an appealing and informative reference book has been impressively achieved.

There are also useful sections on the history of Welsh habitat, land use and vegetation surveys.

Full colour photographs and maps of outstanding quality appear on nearly all the crisply typeset pages of both volumes, complementing the detailed and disciplined scientific meter of the text.

A good peppering of Welsh place names and Latin botanical terms hint at the occasional poetic undertone. Indeed, described are the same barren landscapes featured in the works of Waldo Williams, R.S. Thomas and Wordsworth. Calluna Vulgaris and photographs of heather heathland bring to mind Kate Roberts’s famous novel and Inness’s Arennig. Images of Pembrokeshire maritime cliff habitats remind one of Dewi Emrys and his thoughts at Pwllderi.

Incorporating influences from numerous academic disciplines, Habitats of Wales should prove to be an useful companion not only to conservationists, countryside professionals and the agricul-

tural community but to anyone intrigued by Wales’s landscapes, habitats and heritage. Ultimately the spatial mapping and analysis make it a landmark publication for Welsh Geography. Every school and college library would benefit from a copy. With the growth of Welsh-medium education a Welsh version would be welcome. Some indigenous landscape terms such as ffridd are used effectively. However, an opportunity has been missed to incorporate a full glossary of those rich Welsh terms for habitats, terrains and species that need conserving and reviving as much as the features they describe.

Grasslands of Wales provides a thorough and pioneering account of the vegetation of threatened, species-rich grassland in lowland Wales and is dedicated to the late David Stevens, co-ordinator of the Lowland Grassland Survey of Wales. Its more focused brief will lessen its appeal to the lay reader compared to its sister volume. The principal aim and mission of both surveys is to inform and facilitate habitat management and conservation, its urgency highlighted by the extensive and on-going loss of natural grassland.

Despite the ever-changing habitats, these two fascinating volumes have the potential to facilitate a far more accurate personal and national awareness of our ecological heritage, laying further foundations for its future conservation.

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Music Judgement Day CD Review

Gavin Wilson

J

udgement Day is the first solo album from a veteran of the Welsh music scene, Ray Phillips, drummer and founding member of 1970s rock act Budgie. It could almost be said to be an album of two distinct halves with the bulk of the rockier riff-laden tunes placed up-front and the more introspective ballads and acoustic songs occupying the second half of the disc.

It's almost impossible to review music without likening it to something else so please forgive me when I say that album opener "For The Love of Cleo" with its Egyptian flavour (yes, that Cleo! I didn't think it'd be about Cleo Laine somehow) put me in mind of Led Zeppelin.

Elsewhere there's a hint of Black Sabbath, a touch of Pink Floyd - particularly on the second part of the title track, a song which addresses the corruption, disruption and sheer shambolic state of the modern world - and there’s even a hint of stadium rock with the "Eye of the Tiger"-like beat of "Song to a Friend" which is thankfully a much better song than the afore-mentioned anthem

by Europe and which also features a guitar solo that could almost have been delivered by Queen's Brian May. Don't be put off by the fact that the artist is primarily known as a drummer. This is not a technical drum workout album. Indeed, Mr Phillips is a multi-instrumentalist and plays many of the instruments here, with the drums on several tracks being laid back or minimal. "Redneck Riviera", however, has an infectious guitar riff with some nifty interplay with the drums as its main hook.

The album finishes on "Sea of Ayr", an uplifting, optimistic-sounding instrumental with a Scottish lilt and a quasi-bagpipe drone that all too soon finishes to the beat of a marching drum.

And that's the feeling I get from this album, that of optimism. It cunningly avoids all the rock clichés, the doom and gloom, aggression and destruction, allegiances with the devil and all that other nonsense and instead stands up very nicely as the debut solo album from a mature musician with many years in the business.

RAY PHILLIPS £9.99 Available via www.therayphillipsband.wordpress.com

Continued from page 24 (A living language) a dynamic which also influences linguistic behaviour amongst the Welsh-speakers themselves within such schools and eventually penetrates social interaction in the external community.

Bluntly stated, there is evidence that, in certain parts of the Welsh-speaking heartlands, these models of so-called Welsh-medium or bilingual education are actually contributing to a more rapid Anglicisation of communities.

(4) The advantage of the Category 1 or 2A model of Welsh-medium education is the right to adopt strong and unambiguous language policies which, however, cannot be exercised by other “bilingual” models of curriculum delivery. Within 2B or 2C schools, in-migrants to Welsh-speaking areas can demand a totally Englishmedium education for their children at the expense of effective Welsh-medium provision for indigenous pupils.

It can be seen, therefore, that these are political rather than educational models of “Welsh-medium / bilingual” education which have been conveniently adopted over the years in order to appease the conflicting wishes of two linguistically different factions as well as to overcome organisational difficulties caused by demographic trends totally beyond local authority control.

In the light of the Welsh Assembly Government’s positive efforts to create a bilingual Wales, therefore, and the emphasis which it places on the crucial role of the education system in achieving this linguistic aim, is it not time to recognise the failings of these models, both in terms of their inability to provide the necessary continuity of linguistic curricular provision from the primary sector and their long-term negative effects on Welshspeaking communities?

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Opera

Opera

welsh national opera

Cosi fan Tutte

W

elsh National Opera’s Summer season opened with Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, in a new production by the company’s long-serving Staff Director, Benjamin Davis. Set in a mid-twentieth-century Cardiganshire seaside town with no name, but a familiar coastline beyond the prom, the show is visually stunning, and has many opportunities for high comedy. Unsurprisingly, this updating and translocation was not without its problems. Even in an eighteenth century setting, this comedy of manners requires the considerable suspension of belief, presenting disguised lovers wooing each others women, and a maidservant posing as two different men. Here, however, the inconsistencies stacked up almost exponentially. With no exotic and glamorous costumes for the disguises, the two very attractive suitors were presented incognito by means of false noses, moustaches, and tennis shorts, rendering them so utterly hideous, one suspected that Despina had slipped narcotics into the girls’ morning chocolate, possibly even before she had tasted it. This Despina, skittishly played, and prettily sung by Claire Ormshaw, was quite capable of such an act, although her wholesome, sixth-form larkiness was at odds with her characterisa-

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Photos by Catherine Ashmore

tion as an unmarried mother, in exile from her native Italy, as most of the characters, indeed, seemed to be.

Ferrando and Guglielmo were packed off to war (Suez?

Israel?) from what seemed to be a holiday camp of such depravity that, had the town been named, I suspect its current Council would sue for defamation. Some of us can clearly remember the firmly corseted respectability of the post-war British seaside, as Adrian Mourby’s article in the programme attests.

Setting these reservations aside, it was an evening of huge entertainment, with much to delight the eyes and ears. The singing was secure throughout: Robin Tritschler excelled himself as Ferrando, and, as Guglielmo newcomer Gary Griffiths, a particularly accomplished actor, transcended his unsavoury appearance with an apparently effortless and truly beautiful vocal performance. Camilla Roberts mastered Fiordigligi’s demanding music without difficulty, and if Come scoglio was rather less imperious than it might be, I felt this was a result of the general coarsening of her character in the Director’s interpretation and setting, both girls being more Roehampton than Roedean, as one might expect of young ladies staying in rooms

above Despina’s Italian café.

Neal Davies was a very seedy Don Alfonso, presented as a pier entertainer, whose cynicism expressed itself fairly viscerally, but, again largely through the magic of Mozart’s music, he, unlike the four lovers, managed to stay just the right side of outright vulgarity. Indeed, the “tone” of the evening was constantly restored by the incomparable, if on this occasion rather rebellious, WNO Orchestra almost under the baton of Daniele Rustioni.

Max Jones designed a sumptuous and ingenious set and commendably witty costumes and, if we must have a girly get-together in the bathroom, this setting was cleverly contrived. Life-sized Punch and Judy characters and a funfair merry-go-round were entertaining, whilst failing to convince that all the “swinging” was merely good clean fun: Mozart (and Don Alfonso)) knew otherwise.

In the revival of Christopher Alden’s 1994 production of Turandot, which I had not seen before, Rebecca Evans was a predictably touching Liu in an otherwise lacklustre cast of protagonists. The evening was significantly graced by David Stout’s Ping, with sidekicks Philip Lloyd Holtam and Huw Llywelyn as Pang and Pong, whose superb ensemble, set off by brilliantly clever staging, only served to highlight the lack of moment in

the main characters, again, particularly in the case of Anna Shafajinskaia’s platinum-voiced Turandot, severely handicapped by inappropriately modern, somewhat Thatcheresque costume and wig.

Lothar Koenigs had reclaimed his orchestra, drawing a meticulous performance of ensemble and revealing several striking solo passages, and the chorus, whose collective might, both vocal and dramatic, ironically dwarfed the fascisti, triumphed over all.

The WNO chorus will, by the time you read this, have completed a performance tour of the country which their talent and skill richly deserves. Anyone who ever visits choral concerts who has not heard the chorus is in for a major treat, and I deeply regret that our deadlines did not allow for advance notice. Enjoy!

Music

Norma Lord

Three Welsh Tenors Novelty act to stardom

M

any “headline” performers at the National Eisteddfod’s opening concert have grown to fame in international arenas before, perhaps, they have been fully recognized at home. Heading the bill at Wrecsam this year, however, is an act which has barely begun to reveal its native talent outside the country.

The Three Welsh Tenors were convened for the 2009 Celtfest, as a one-off novelty act, for the pre-match concert when Wales met New Zealand that year. Now, two years on, Aled Hall, Rhys Meirion and Alun RhysJenkins are seriously concerned about compromising their solo careers in order to respond to demand for 3WT recitals.

All three singers are firmly-rooted Cymro Cymraeg, and they present a range of Welsh material (in several

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languages!) as well as music from many other cultures, here and there with a hint of quietly amused and amusing send-up. Aled Hall is a native of Carmarthenshire, read music at UCW Aberystwyth and attended both the London Colleges’ Opera School and the National Opera Studio. Since then he has performed stage roles varying from Mozart to Nicola Lefanu, with particular success in comedy roles. Rhys Meirion, whose almost rich chest voice would probably allow him to succeed in most baritone roles, is from North Wales and trained as a singer at the Guildhall School after a career as a teacher. He too has a wealth of stage roles under his belt, including two WNO roles in productions alongside Bryn Terfel.

Lyric tenor Alun Rhys-Jenkins, cherubic of face and voice, also began life as a teacher, having studied music at Bangor University, and changed course after winning

an Eistedddfod scholarship in 2004. A year and.several singing prizes later, he did a four-year stint in the WNO chorus, performing and covering a number of roles, both with WNO and elsewhere.

By luck these three very different tenor voices are all managed by the same agency, which sent them together to Celtfest. Since then they have harnessed the not inconsiderable talent of young Carmarthenshire pianist Caradog Williams, and the four have coalesced into a polished theatrical entity, providing an entertaining and uplifting evening of music in an aura of comedy.

Cambria caught up with them over the border at the Ludlow Festival where a substantially English audience of several hundred demonstrated great enthusiasm for the boys’ performance in the majestic town church of St. Laurence. They did happen to mention here the fact that they have put down a CD, for which they were about to travel to North Wales to film, and that record company Sain had engaged an orchestra to accompany them. (but I hope they might include a sample of Caradog Williams’ playing too!) The CD will be available at the Eisteddfod, and, of course, elsewhere!

The inspiration for all this was, of course, the triumvirate of giants Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, but “our boys” have the extra dimension of their Cymreictod.

They also select and arrange their music in considerably more depth than the originals, who sang mainly the “lollipop” arias from popular operas, generally in unison. 3WT, in their Ludlow Festival programme, ranged from Joseph Parry’s Myfanwy, through Rogers and Hammerstein and Neapolitan song to Sosban Fach in a variety of solo and harmonized trios. They told me that this was their third English gig, and sounded surprised that they had been so well received at all of these. I was not! I believe it was Alun Rhys-Jenkins who expressed doubt as to the reception of rugby songs in Sherborne Abbey earlier this year, but he was persuaded, and with a very rewarding and positive result.

When asked the unanswerably philosophical question, “What is a Welsh tenor?”, spokesman Aled Hall gave me a plethora of answers, and we agreed on most of them, including the essential ingredient of a particular, warm, rather Italianate, sound to the voice, as opposed to the crisp, clear German or English sound of Peter Pears or even Welshman Stuart Burrows. Hall also volunteered that the trio was determined not to yield to the element of parochial schadenfreude which sometimes interferes with the progress of Welsh cultural export. I do so hope it succeeds, as this is a highly exportable commodity which could serve Wales well.

Opera

Cardiff Singer of the World Showcase of future opera greats

T

he BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is where directors and managers of the great international opera houses come to cast an eye over tomorrow’s stars. Agents and directors the world over descend on the capital, chequebooks and contracts in hand. “Cardiff�, as the competition is known in classical circles, gives that final boost for young classical singers on the threshold of the big time. It is the top show case for the emerging talents. This competition, which has been held every other year since 1983, attracts the best young talent from all over the world but retains a modest profile and the immediate rewards are, by comparison to reality “talent� TV shows, small.

But for singers on the threshold of an operatic career it is the prize that will guarantee a glittering career. A chance encounter I had in 2009 with Jennifer Condon of the Hamburg State Opera orchestra summed it up. “I had a few days off so I nipped over to take a look at some of the singers I shall be conducting in future years.

Cardiff is the place to be this week.�

From world-wide applications, over 600 were auditioned and 20 invited to take part in this year’s competition.

Once more the musical traditions of the east European countries triumphed. Valentina Nafornit¸a˘ from Moldova, at 24 the youngest of all the competitors, took the ÂŁ15000 main prize on Sunday, 19th June.

She also scooped the £2000 Joan Sutherland Audience Prize, voted for by the audience at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, and the radio and television audiences.

The Song Prize final, held on the Friday night, two nights earlier, was won by Andrei Bondarenko, of the

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Ukraine.

Bondarenko and Nafornit¸a˘ , both aged 24, won the hearts of a critical Cardiff audience in a tough week of competition.

First on stage in the final was Meeta Raval, of Indian extraction representing England, singing arias from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Manon Lescaut by Puccini and a Lieder by Richard Strauss. With her flashing, dramatic eyes allied to a lovely voice her performances could not be faulted.

The Russian mezzo Olesya Petrova has a rich, warm voice, a beautiful sound along the whole range. With arias by Rimsky-Korsakov, Verdi, Mascagni and Bizet she showed great versatility, moving comfortably from language to language, musical styles and varied emotions. Her performance of Ulrica’s aria from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera was one of the high spots of the evening.

Hye Jung Lee, the South Korean soprano, delighted the audience winning the Thursday night heat with a stunning performance of I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung from John Adams’s opera Nixon in China complete with beautiful red dress and Little Red Book in hand.

As in the heat she restricted herself to two songs - Tornami a vagheggiar from Alcina by Handel, followed by the coloratura showpiece A vos jeux, mes amis from Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas. Another glorious voice and remarkable colouring of high notes hit with pin-pointed accuracy.

Valentina Nafornit¸a˘ and Andrei Bondarenko were coming to the final on the back of a punishing schedule. They had sung their heat on Wednesday; competed against each other for the Song Prize on Friday – both won by the young baritone.

Two nights later, with new programmes they faced each other again.

That they overcame the fatigue barrier is another sign of their immense potential.

Of the two Bondarenko was the first on stage. At 24 he is already the complete, finished package. A lovely lyric baritone, he sang four arias, Verdi, Tchaikovsky and two by Mozart.

His engaging personality endeared him to his piano accompanist – the excellent Lly^ r Williams, a star in his own right - in the Song Competition and to Jac van Steen conductor of the sympathetic BBC National Orchestra of Wales in both his heat and the final. His performances were subtle, witty and brilliant.

The glamorous and charismatic Valentina Nafornit¸a˘ was the last to sing. She emerged as the ultimate audience pleaser. She sang three arias, by Donizetti, Dvo˘rĂĄk’s Song to the Moon, and Juliette’s Waltz Songs from Gounod’s RomĂŠo et Juliette.

Beaten twice by Bodarenko during the week, she took her revenge. A beautiful, charming singer and looks to match she has an eye-watering future and her experience and performance in Cardiff has enhanced her career greatly.

A word about Wales’s representative, John Pierce the tenor from Holywell. He did his prospects no harm and had the misfortune of competing in the strongest heat in the main competition. We shall watch his progress with interest. “Cardiff� again has thrown up a number of amazing voices, careers have been enhanced and the competition’s status as the world’s most important show case of emerging operatic stars firmer than ever.

Welsh Journals online

http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk http://cylchgronaucymru.llgc.org.uk

Gwyn Griffiths

Cylchgronau Cymru ar-lein http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk http://cylchgronaucymru.llgc.org.uk Darllen hamdden ac academaidd Leisureamser time Hamdden and academic reading Darllen ac Academaidd

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Welsh Outlook & Archaeologia Cambrensis

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Telynau Teifi has had a make over

T

he re-vamped showroom of this Community Enterprise company now houses Pilgrim Pedal Harps, Harpsicle Harps and small lap harps ideal for music therapy. These are in addition to the harps crafted at the Telynau Teifi workshops based in Llandysul - the beautiful 34 string Gwennol and Telor models and the 36 string Eos harp.

The Telor harp, the latest addition to the Telynau Teifi range, is available with a variety of string choices. It has proved very popular with harpists in Ireland and Europe as well as in Wales.

Personalisation of harps with pyrography, portholes with carved birds or stained glass inserts are now available – there is even an eye catching Harlequin Harp, created from an eclectic selection of timbers of all shades, textures and grain.

For customers wishing to spread the cost of their harp purchase, there is a Harp Finance Facility available to UK residents.

Harpist Susan Berry is in residence three days a week - contact Susan on 01559 363222 for details of current workshops.

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Environment

Jerry Fonge

Fires on the Brecon Beacons Ecosystems Report

A

s fires swept across a large chunk of the Brecon Beacons this spring, farmers argued that a change in Government policy lay at the root of the problem. A new approach to agricultural support, they claimed, had led to a reduction in sheep numbers on open moorlands, thus leaving the Beacons covered with an excess of highly-flammable, ill-grazed dead foliage.

The claim was echoed throughout the upland areas of Wales and the UK. That said, the exceptionally hot, dry weather conditions of March, April and May had left large swathes of all Wales at the mercy of fires (which were said to be the worst for 30 years), regardless of changes to moorland grazing densities: but the farmers’ claim does raise the question as to what is or is not an ‘ideal’ or ‘balanced’ ecosystem. After all, huge areas of the Beacons were once covered in forest: what we treasure today is an ecosystem created first by the demands of industry and then agriculture. The relatively recent growth and (now) decline of sheep grazing on our open moorlands is but a ‘blip’ in the course of history. So how do we link the past with the present and extrapolate for the future in our efforts to better protect and understand our ecosystems?

The answer lies in a report from the Bangor-based ‘Wales Environment Research Hub’, which has spent two years compiling a ‘Domesday Book’ on UK ecosystems and the benefits they provide to the people of

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View of fire taken from ten miles away, photo credit Mari Owen.

significant declines in many seafish species, and several marine habitat types are assessed to be in an ‘unfavourable condition’.

On a more positive note, the report tells us that, despite intrusive developments relating to energy, transport, tourism and softwood forestry plantations, recent agri-environment schemes (such as the reduction in moorland sheep numbers), native tree planting, and other environmentally-aware developments have started to reverse this environmental degradation. And this includes the expansion of greenspace in urban habitats.

Added to which, the ‘Hub’ team discovered that while some ecosystems still suffer from an industrial legacy (for example, metal pollution from mines) remediation measures are working – to the extent that the water quality of Welsh rivers and lakes (so often a critical measure of pollution levels) is, in general, better than that experienced in England. However, under current climate change scenarios (the team warns) the whole of the UK - including Wales - is likely to suffer from flood events and water shortages that could lead to greater pressures on water quality in the future.

Throughout this, agriculture (which has such a major visual, economic and social impact on the vast majority

of Wales’ landmass) cannot be ignored, particularly as – the researchers point out - Wales imports considerably more foodstuffs than it exports. And yet the researchers found that ‘provisioning services’ from agriculture contribute only about 1% to the Welsh economy, even though the agriculture accounts for more than 10% of total employment in Wales and contributes to a wide range of ‘ecosystem service benefits’, including the ‘cultural services’ of landscape value and tourism.

So where does this all lead us in financial terms, bearing in mind that it is commerce in its broadest form which has created the environment in which we live? In fact, does ‘the environment’ – as opposed to its many elements, such as farmland and forest – carry a specific financial value? Well, the Bangor team estimates that in 2001 the environment as a whole contributed £9 billion worth of goods and services to the Welsh economy, accounting for 9% of Welsh GDP and one in six Welsh jobs. These were mainly in the leisure and tourism, agriculture and forestry, water abstraction, conservation and waste management sectors. Forest resources alone contributed £429 million to the Welsh economy in 2007, and an estimated 8,900 jobs. The annual value of wildlife-based activity to the Welsh economy was estimated

The difficulties of fire fighters tackling extensive fire in open country and wooded areas, here they are looking for water sources ie small streams.

the UK. The dynamics of ecological and environmental change are well-illustrated by some of the key points raised in the report regarding Wales.

Outstanding among these are that over 90% of unimproved grasslands (such as flower meadows) were transformed in the 20th Century to species-poor improved grasslands, while the woodland areas of Wales have almost tripled and now cover 14% of the nation’s total land area – albeit (it has to be added) in largely coniferous rather than native form.

But there again, the report points out, farmland is not only valuable for food and fibre provision, it has the potential to play a greater role in controlling green house gas emissions, water pollution and flooding, and enhancing biodiversity and tourism. The same goes for the three National Parks and five Areas of Outstanding Beauty which cover 24% of the land surface of Wales.

At a more detailed level, the researchers found that there have been significant changes in the number of plants and animals in Wales over the past 70 years, with some species thriving (or recovering from earlier losses) while others have contracted in numbers. More specifically, the numbers of some seabird species have increased during the past 30 years, while those of many wild plants, butterflies and farmland birds have declined.

Particularly worrying, honey bee numbers fell by 23% in the 20 years from 1985 and 2005. There have also been

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at nearly £2 billion in 2007, contributing 3% of Wales’s national output and 3% of employment. In fact, the research teams goes as far as saying that: “The environment is therefore relatively more important to the Welsh economy than it is to the other UK nations”.

Time, therefore, for all of us to pause for thought, because, in the words of the Bangor team’s leaders, Dr Shaun Russell: “This is the first time that such a breadth of information has been drawn together in a single reference source, and the Report is expected to provide evidence for policy decisions on land-use and environmental management in Wales for many years to come. It provides a valuable baseline for the Welsh Government’s new ‘Living Wales’ policy initiative which aims to take ecosystem services more fully into account when planning the use of our land and seas.”

Dr Russell stressed that the study: “has shown up lots of gaps in our knowledge, including how close we might be to ‘critical thresholds’ with some of our ecosystem services. [Furthermore] we still know little about how ecosystem services might alter in the future due to the effects of climate change”.

“Society will have hard choices over land use in the future. The National Ecosystem Assessment considers a range of possible scenarios that will help inform these decisions, which will ultimately be taken by the Welsh Government. “ The UK Government is already discussing the possibility of a ‘Phase Two’ of the National Ecosystem Assessment to address these knowledge gaps, Moreover, Dr Russell is confident that Wales can play a leading role (both locally and internationally) in the developing field of ecosystem studies for human well-being.

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Motoring

Motoring

Infiniti

A Tale of Two Austins

A 'Guardian Angel' comes as standard

W

John A. Edwards

with any problems and matters such as servicing. Cars are picked up and returned free of charge within a 150-mile radius.

I recently had my first chance of sampling the promised delights of the luxurious Infiniti brand and one of the main attractions is undoubtedly its rarity value which brings an aura of belonging to an exclusive club. Apparently the company badge represents Mount Fuji and a road running into infinity. It can also currently be seen on the Red Bull Formula 1 cars and their drivers’ overalls.

The Infiniti model I tried was the M30d GT Premium saloon with a 3-litre V6 diesel developed from a Renault design – the result of the alliance between the Japanese and French companies. This is an extremely refined engine in fact so quiet that unfamiliar drivers may well be advised to do a double take when it comes to refuelling.

The whole emphasis of the car is on 5-star luxury plus all-enveloping safety while a top speed of 155mph and 0-62mph time of 6.9 seconds means that performance is not in any way compromised. However despite the use of a 7-speed automatic gearbox the combined consumption of 37.7mpg is rather disappointing for a diesel.

The list of high-tech features is truly mind-blowing including four-wheel-steering, navigation system with traffic message channel and voice recognition, front and rear double glazed windows, dynamic Safety Shield Package which includes Forward Collision Warning, lane departure warning, blind spot warning/intervention and Distance Control Assist. Phew!

And weirdly, there are four cameras mounted around the car which on the dash-mounted screen gives the driver an aerial view of the vehicle and any objects nearby. Almost like an out-of-body experience! No excuse for any parking scrapes then.

One feels that this Infiniti has its own guardian angel hovering on high ready to protect the occupants from any shortcomings on the part of the driver or other road users.

Selling at £45,640, the M30d faces stiff competition from established luxury makes and a lot depends on how highly motorists value exclusivity. After all, despite their many virtues, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar cars are not exactly a rare sight on our roads.

Infiniti is definitely a car to put you one up on the Joneses whether you live in Wales or not!

The Infiniti M30d GT

ith advanced technology now increasingly used to combat car crime, it is interesting to look back at car security in years gone by, or rather the lack of it.

I remember the experience recounted to me by Peter a former work colleague who, in the fifties, when he couldn’t afford a car calling at his girl friend’s home to pick her up to take her to the cinema as one did in those days of limited entertainment options. When he knocked on the door her father answered and said to him: ‘You’ve just missed the bus into town, why not take my car?’ So the couple drove off in his old Austin Seven and left it in a car park near the cinema in Wrexham.

When they’d seen the film they drove back home and a grateful Peter handed the car back to the father who said: ‘That’s not The Austin 7 Tourer.- minimalist motoring, twenties style. my car. It is an Austin Seven alright and its black but it is NOT my car.’

So a worried Peter hurriedly drove back to the car park expecting to find a furious owner and police presence but all was quiet with ‘his’ car parked exactly where he’d left it. He looked around furtively, then swapped cars and drove back greatly relived.

Of course car keys then were often no better than a flat piece of metal very much like a screwdriver which in fact could often be used in lieu of the key. I wonder whether the owner of the ‘borrowed’ Austin noticed a small drop in his fuel level though !

The cars involved in this little episode were Austin 7 saloons but pictured here is the much rarer open top Tourer model and is a reminder of its tiny dimensions.

It was so narrow that I can remember once when sitting in the front passenger seat having to put my right arm round the driver through sheer necessity rather than affection I hasten to add!

Weighing just 9 cwt it was also a very light car and as a jape, was sometimes carried up steps and deposited in the most unlikely public places by rag day students.

Selling at £225 in 1922, the Austin 7 was not exactly cheap but reached a sales total of 300,000. It was also built under licence in the USA, Germany and France.

Production only ceased in 1939 with the outbreak of A journey into the amazing WW2. world of fungi Like its natural successor, the Mini, it was the kind of Stunning new exhibition car that built up a deep well of affection.

Open now, daily from 10am Photography: Ray and Elma Kearney

T

he idea of motor manufacturers having a ‘posh’ brand of car to enhance their more workaday products is not exactly new and a good example is Toyota with their up-market Lexus marque successfully boosting the company’s image.

Even the world’s leading manufacturers are not averse to this practice with Mercedes (Maybach), BMW (Rolls-Royce) and Volkswagen (Bentley) all adding blue riband marques to their portfolios.

In similar vein, Nissan has launched their luxury Infiniti range in the UK but the two makes are kept distinctly apart with no such cost-saving exercises as shared dealerships for example. This means that the number of Infiniti outlets are strictly limited with only a maximum number of twelve planned for the whole UK which will inevitably result in large areas being left without local dealer cover.

Despite Cardiff’s increasing prosperity and status as a capital city there are surprisingly no plans for it to be added to this list but then Infiniti apparently does not consider a convenient ‘local’ dealership to be strictly necessary. Instead, owners are assigned their own dedicated contact at Infiniti who will deal

John A. Edwards

From Another Kingdom National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne Carmarthenshire, SA32 8HG Tel: 01558 668768 www.gardenofwales.org.uk

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Food

Elisabeth Luard

The Welsh Kitchen

Bwydydd Castell Howell Foods - Supporting Welsh Producers

Food for Autumn

with a little milk till smooth, then whisk in the eggs and the rest of the milk to make a pancake batter. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot drippings in the pan and fry till firm. Slice the pancakes into thin strips and add them to the soup. Bring all back to the boil and sharpen with a splash of vinegar. Finish with chopped dill and savory and serve in deep bowls with white cheese and dark rye bread.

Dorothy Davies is away but will return in September with a series on food and drink producers of Wales incorporating regular tastings and profiles of producers.

Sarmale

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his being my first contribution to the pages of Cambria, dear reader, Ill set my cards on the table before we begin. As something of a newcomer - twenty years is not long in the uplands of Mid-Wales - I would like to solicit the co-operation of the readership in supplying me with their favourite family recipe for a traditional Welsh dish. This request as much for my own enlightment as from a desire to gather together what can all too easily be lost.

In the years since I first came to live and write in my stone-built farmhouse on a wild and windy plateau in the foothills of the Cambrians, I have set about acquiring the vocabulary I know best, the language of food. I expected no fancy recipes - we are a region which prides itself on the quality of the raw materials rather than fancy ways to cook them. Culinary strengths are a fine appreciation of the flavour of things - the taste of handchurned butter, the quality of a cheese, the distinction to be made between meat reared on mountain or valley pastures, the taste of a perfectly-toasted welshcake fresh from the griddle. Culinary skills are those commonly found in the Celtic kitchen: use of the bakestone and the boiling-pot, expertise in baking bread, rolling pastry and cake-making - strengths which depend on the quality of the flour, the freshness an egg, the sharpness and sweetness of home-made jam.

Those who labour for a living, social historians complain, do not write their life-stories or record whats set on the table. What was known and understood - wildgatherings, the noise the churn makes when the butter comes - can all too easily vanish along with the skills on which livelihoods no longer depend. Reason enough, it seems to me and I hope you too, to share the recipes

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which speak of hearth and home. The Editor, no slouch at the stove herself, has promised to publish at least one contribution per issue - and you cant say fairer than that.

Meanwhile, since my own vegetable-patch is currently overflowing with shot lettuces and leggy brassicas, heres what the Romanians do with whatevers left in the garden at the end of summer.

Romanian Lettuce Soup Frau Klein, wife of the Lutheran Bishop of Sibiu, whose recipe this is, says these soup-stew dishes are typical of the ancient dishes of the Sibiu Saxons. Readers will recognise an affinity with the Welsh cawl.

Serves 6 3-4 firm-leafed lettuces (romaine or cos), shredded 1 large nugget butter A handful of diced bacon 2 tablespoons plain flour 1/4 pint/125ml milk 2-3 fresh eggs 1-2 tablespoons wine vinegar Dill and savory Salt Pack the lettuce into a roomy pot, add 3 pints water and teaspoon of salt, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile fry the bacon gently with the butter till it browns. Remove the bacon-bits with a draining-spoon and add them to the soup. Meanwhile mix the flour

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

Illustration by Elisabeth Luard

Sarmale are to the Balkans as dolmades to the Greeks - a recipe which varies from place to place and according to the season. You can include minced meat, chopped mushrooms, diced bacon.

Serves 6 1 small green cabbage 2 carrots, scraped and finely chopped 2 sticks celery, finely chopped The filling 250g round-grain rice (risotto or pudding rice) 4 tablespoons oil 1 medium onion, finely chopped 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped Handful finely chopped parsley and marjoram 1-2 eggs, forked to blend Salt and pepper Scald the cabbage with boiling water in a bowl. Drain, pull off 18-20 of the larger outer leaves and press them flat. Nick out the central stalk, shred the remaining inner leaves and spread in the base of heavy casserole with the carrot and celery. Fry the onion and garlic in half the oil till soft and golden, stir in the rice and turn it over the heat until the grains are translucent. Add enough water to cover the grains, season, bubble up, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, when the grains will still be chewy and the liquid all absorbed.

Transfer the rice to a bowl, let it cool a little, then work in the herbs and egg thoroughly to make a firm mixture.

Drop a tablespoonful of filling on the stalk-end of each leaf, tuck the sides over to enclose, roll it up neatly and transfer to the bed of cabbage in the casserole. Continue until all is used up. Add just enough waterd to submerge the little rolls, season, trickle with the remaining oil, turn down the heat, lid and simmer gently for about an hour, until all the liquid has been absorbed.

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Cambria talks

Frances Davies

Myrddin John Cambria talks to Myrddin John, Welsh Weightlifting Champion and a world wide influence in his sphere.

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yrddin John can’t quite remember how he became hooked on the sport of weightlifting, but his mother came from a large family where talk was dominated by tales of physical prowess. From early childhood he therefore knew that physical strength was important – to the extent that his dedication to weightlifting eventually saw him become President of Wales Weightlifting Federation(WWF), a one time Vice President of the Commonwealth Games Federation and a member of the Sports Council for Wales.

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Born in 1933 in the Amman Valley, Myrddin belonged to Yr Urdd and, he recalls, “a group of us all chipped in for a set of weights and started training – honing and playing around really”.

However, joining the RAF for his National Service took him to another level in the sport. At his station in Gloucester Myrddin not only enjoyed regular access to a gym and proper training, he also made friends with the then British Heavyweight champion and started to compete himself.

Following National Service,

Myrddin studied physical education at Trinity College, Carmarthen, before going on to teach at Llandybie and then Tregib, Ffairfach. Throughout this period he was involved in weight lifting competitions to the point where he was selected for the UK team in the Commonwealth Games in 1958.

In Iran and Turkey, weightlifting is the national sport, and it tends to flourish in poorer countries: those where playstations and computers are still luxuries not to be had by the majority. In this country, as other entertainments have become more accessible and a part of everyday life, so the one time popularity of weightlifting has waned.

It is a demanding sport: commitment, concentration and coordination are essential, and training has to be done day in day out, not just a couple of times a week. And there is mental application involved: “When you are competing,” Myrddin points out, “not only does the actual lifting require concentration but part of your brain must also be keeping an eye on what the competition is lifting, working out what you need to add and lift, not only to keep up but to be better, to win.

As Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM said at the dinner celebrating the 80th anniversary of the WWF “a hard sport such as weightlifting contributed to the social education of those who took part, as it required self discipline to a high degree which was an important ingredient in creating good citizens.”

The lack of opportunity and encouragement experienced by Myrddin in his boyhood rankled and has made him ‘passionate’

about nurturing talent in the young. He believes there should be more support for sport and more freedom for the governors of sporting bodies to raise essential funds: grants come tied up with bureaucracy via administrators who dictate the way in which money should be used and deployed. He argues that this often detracts from groups achieving optimal benefit from the money. Sporting Clubs are in decline “but they were good – encouraging the young to compete, take part, feel a part of a bigger community”. Myrddin talks from experience: the WWF have never received a grant for competing.

His one major success has been to fight successfully for the inclusion of under 17’s in lifting competitions, and this has now spread throughout the world - even the Olympics now have a youth level.

He has also fought long for recognition of Wales as an independent competing nation: until 2004, records broken by Welshmen would not be accepted unless they became

members of the British Association.

Quite simply, without Myrddin the WWF would never have achieved its “long-desired international status” a status it may well lose as there is a move to bring it back into the Team UK fold (Scotland and Northern Ireland, who followed Wales’ lead also face the same risk).

Myrddin is adamant that “Wales should not continually make the excuse that it is a small nation. This is only done because we are situated next to England, a nation with 55 million people which makes it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Wales has a population of three million and we should be compared with the great number of countries of a similar size, most having less than a million people. We should be making constant requests for greater national recognition, and keep doing so until we succeed. Perseverance is often a stronger force than power.”

In 2005 Myrddin John was given the Gold chain of honour by the International Weightlifting

Federation (the tenth largest sporting federation in the World) and last September - despite a recent by-pass operation - he and his newly-acquired pacemaker travelled to Turkey where Myrddin was received into the prestigious Hall of Fame of the International Weightlifting Federation by its chairman, M. Alain Lunzenfichter of France. In presenting the award, M. Lunzenfichter said:: “ But for his many years of struggle, his endless and never failing love and devotion for his Country and for the sport of weightlifting, the Wales Weightlifting Federation would never have achieved its long-desired international recognition by independent affiliation to the IWF, an act finally approved in 2004.” Let’s hope they keep it!

Dr Tamas Ajan of Hungary, President of the IWF and IOC Member paid tribute to Myrddin’s immense contribution to weightlifting at all levels who fully deserved to be included in the Hall of Fame.)

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John Uzzel Edwards O N L O O K E R

photographs

Š cambria

at the Hay Festival Art Exhibition

International Poetry Festival photographs by carl ryan

Clockwise from Top left: Dan Jenkins, Jill Goodwin-Croke, Luke Williams, Steve Grey and Julie-Anne Grey performing in Peter Thabit Jones's verse drama THE BOY AND THE LION'S HEAD; Mario Moroni, of Italy, performing with Luigi Polsini from Italy, at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Dylan Thomas Birthplace; Lynn Hopkins, Brynamman-born biligual poet.

Lynn's first poetry book, CREATURES OF A DEAD COMMUNITY, was published by Peter Thabit Jones's The Seventh Quarry Press in Spring 2011; Luis Alberto Ambroggio, a leading Latin-American poet, based in Washington DC; Deanna Gooding and Andrew Matte of the New England Dance Academy performing in American Peter Fulton's drama HOW TO CARVE AN ANGEL; Les Merton from Cornwall, a poet and a Cornish Druid.

O N L O O K E R

Cultural Olympiad O N L O O K E R

photographs

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© cambria

he enormous Following the Flame / Dilyn Y Fflam exhibition uses next year’s Olympics as the basis for celebrating the inspiring history of oftenforgotten Welsh men and women who have been involved in the modern Olympics at many levels.

The project takes us back to the Games’ Grecian origins in 776BC, through their demise more than 1,000 years later, and then to the important role Britain played in the re-establishment of the Olympics’ in Athens in 1896 – and also Britain’s part in establishing the Paralympics in 1948.

Focussing on Welsh participation and achievement, the exhibition includes a new film with a specially-composed soundtrack by the composer Andrew Griffiths of Ystradgynlais; new portraits of Welsh Olympians and Paralympians commissioned from Lorraine Bewsey and Samuel James Hunt; a life-size sculpture of Paulo Radmilovic diving, and a fine collection of sporting memorabilia relating to Welsh Olympians and Paralympians, including Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson’s racing chair.

Unreliable record-keeping during the early years of the Modern Olympics makes it difficult to establish who was Wales’ first competitor. We are, however, certain about our first medal winners.

Between 1908 and 1928, Cardiffborn Paulo Radmilovic won one swimming and three waterpolo golds, and remains Wales’ greatest Olympian, his medal trawl remaining un-matched by any UK competitor until Sir Steve Redgrave won his fifth gold in Sydney 2000.

In 1912, the swimmer Irene Steer became the first Welsh woman to win gold in the

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Cultural Olympiad Stockholm 4x400m freestyle event, the same year that David Jacobs won a 4x400m track gold.

Welsh competitors have also featured prominently in the Paralympics. Chris Hallam became an inspiration to many by winning medals in 1988, 1992 and 1996 in both his wheelchair and the pool.

John Gronow and Ken Bridgeman won bowls golds in Arnhem in 1980, and in Barcelona, Neil Robinson won gold and silver at table tennis, while John Nethercott won gold and bronze on the track.

And Wales also boasts two of the world’s greatest Paralympians, in Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dai Roberts, each currently with eleven gold medals on their mantelpieces!

Yet these Olympic and Paralympic successes are hugely out of proportion to our seemingly insignificant place within the world. At Beijing, for example, Welsh athletes won five of the 915 medals on offer (three golds and two silvers), exactly ten times more than our international stature would suggest. And at the Beijing Paralympics Wales’ incredible 10 golds, three silvers and one bronze were nearly 20 times more than one would expect. In short, Wales topped the medal table at the Beijing Paralympics with one medal per 359,000 head of population, compared to second-placed New Zealand at 855,000, and England (6th) with 1,550,000.

And, even though Wales represents just 5% of the UK population, it won nearly 11% of the British medals at the Beijing Olympics and nearly 14% of the Paralympic medals!

What are the qualities needed to become a great Olympian or Paralympian and why does ‘tiny’ Wales often seem to have these in abundance? Phil Cope cura-

O N L O O K E R

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Cultural Olympiad O N L O O K E R

tor of the exhibition at a recent Following the Flame workshop asked a class of primary school pupils how many medals Wales should have won if only 915 were available. One boy promptly replied, “All of them!” Perhaps this attitude is part of the answer.

Yet there is no such thing as a ‘Welsh’ Olympian or Paralympian.

Apart from when the Welsh hockey team won a bronze medal at London 1908, Welsh athletes have always competed in a UK vest, alongside those from Northern Ireland, Scotland and England.

This situation frequently causes problems for the athletes who

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are not English: as Tanni GreyThompson remarked, in the press she was ‘British’ when she won and ‘Welsh’ when she lost!

Whether Wales should or should not become an Olympic nation is the cause of fierce debate. What is un-contestable, however, is that many Welsh Olympians and ParaOlympians, while comfortable within their ‘GB’ skins, will always find ways to reveal their deeper identities.

Small nations need to emphasise their positives. In neglecting the stories of some of our greatest Olympians and Paralympians, Wales is clearly missing a trick.

Cultural Olympiad The Olympic and Paralympic Games have contributed many significant chapters in our history, chapters which help define who we are and how others beyond our borders see us.

Wales has much to be proud of: Following the Flame / Dilyn y Fflam undeniably shows that the Promethean gift of fire has always warmed the bellies of the Welsh: and, when the Olympic Torch was kindled on Mount Olympus to startle and inspire humanity all those ages of fact and fiction ago, people from Wales - it seems were blessed with an extra spark... or two!

O N L O O K E R

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ENvironment

Caroline Palmer

Gardens

Tea and Cake and Inspiration

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he National Garden Scheme or “Yellow Book” as it is popularly known, co-ordinates the opening of private gardens and raises a handsome amount of money for charity. Many of the gardens are large and beautiful, the settings for enviable houses; others are small and meticulous plantsman’s gardens, concentrating on particular themes like alpines or old roses. But when I followed the yellow pointers to an Open Garden in Aberystwyth I came instead to a little Eden, hidden away behind a high fence beside the footpath from Penparcau to Parc y Llyn, - the Council Allotments. Here NGS and Allotment Association volunteers took the ticket money, and, with considerable ingenuity and no electricity provided an unfailing supply of cakes and tea.

To the casual overview, allotments always have a shanty-town air. Each has a garden tool shed, supplied by the Council, but in addition there will be water butts, greenhouses, fruit cages, cloches, compost heaps, and a

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diversity of nets, poles and bamboos up which peas and beans may be grown. There are any number of designed or improvised objects to prevent you poking your eye out on a bamboo cane. It is a showcase for re-cycling and self-sufficiency. Seldom in so small a space does one find so many budget solutions to gardening needs.

One should visit allotments in the spirit of a visit the small gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show, for each is an entity in its own right, and on the open day many of the gardeners were present to expound their techniques and philosophy of gardening.

I started with Jim Jones, Chairman of the Allotment Association, who had every inch of his 60 foot plot under traditional cultivation. I learnt how his water needs are supplied from the water butt beneath the guttering on the tool shed, and his fertilizer is made in fermenting vats of comfrey in lidded plastic drums. Here were onions, peas, broad beans, scarlet runners, parsnips, spinach, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, courgettes, cabbages and carrots. Ah carrots! So many solutions to the carrot root fly problem now that Bromophos is outlawed from the market. Jim was growing his carrots under a timber and netting frame, fine enough to exclude these troublesome insects. Nearby he was trialling another two rows, interplanted with French marigolds to confuse the low-flying root fly in its quest for a suitable carrot on which to lay its eggs.

Around the allotments I was to find many designs of carrot fly frame. A locally-popular design uses short lengths of stiff alkathene water pipe, bent with the ends slotted into a wood frame to create a tunnel pegged tight to the ground. Insect mesh netting stretched over the frame excludes the root fly, or the same design, stretched with polythene forms a polytunnel cloche. Jim’s runner beans climbed a particularly robust and stylish netting, as did many other bean rows. The allotment associa-

tion struck gold when they approached a local company which provides the safety netting to protect workers on high buildings. Used nets still have years and years to serve on the bean row.

The next plot I visited was haze of green, mauve and orange like a Monet painting. Here I found Nicki, a

greenery.

Others among the twenty seven plots were established garden hideaways, with picnic furniture and even a lawn, fruit trees, neat paths edged with timber, an additional inviting shed or summerhouse among the fruit and vegetables. What a refuge! Leave the mobile phone at home and peace reigns here. Whether it’s digging or dreaming, these allotments offered soothing possibilities.

The gardeners I met were thoughtful careful people, many of them concerned for the well being of butterflies and bumbles bees, and growing not only food, but roses, poppies and sweet peas for their beauty. Two ladies had set up tables offering tastes of their recipes: there were delicacies like Beetroot Chocolate Loaf, and Sticky Rhubarb Cake, and various preserves. The allotment holders’ carbon footprint is miniscule, their food miles negligible, their well-being palpable. And they are saving money. Allotments here, and in most locations, are so desirable the waiting list for one may stretch for many years ahead. In these recession-stricken times much more land should be made available to meet this demand.

knowledgeable organic gardener, who trained at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth. No bare earth here, the vegetables grow up in a froth of benign weeds, like fumitory and chickweed, and beds are set aside for green manure, and will be planted another year. The mauve Phacelia, blue borage and orange marigolds were for the bees and butterflies. The burgeoning potato crop would need no copper sulphate spray, they are a blight-resistant strain. I itched to help myself to the fine clean broad beans pods reaching out through the

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ENvironment

Chris Kinsey

Nature Diary

ish flag irises still roared from the bank. In drainage ditches below, mimulus and forget-menots made a pact. Sweet-frothing Frances, can you put a title along here please. meadowsweet flourished along with common valerian, figwort, and flat-topped hogweeds. All around, uncut, ungrazed watermeadows fumed silver-purple with flowering grasses mixed with buttercups and bitter red sorrel.

Boundary hedges were bedraggled with dog and field roses - a scatter of heart-shaped petals confettied the towpath and the perfume welcome after the excess of meadowsweet. Elders have flowered in long succession and I was glad of their occasional astringency too. ut beyond the Breiddens, under the buzzard’s wings - the flood plain of the Afon Efyrnwy as it snakes out to meet the Severn is one of the few places in Powys it’s possible to get a sense of big skies. June 22nd June was a good day for watching cumulus clouds form trains bound for ShropshireCheshire. Look north from Middletown Hill or through a gap in the trees along Wenlock Edge and you can often watch these moderate clouds tower into giant cumulonimbus in the wide skies over what was once a vast glacial lake. To avoid a crick in the neck, slowmoving water is a good place to sky-watch. The canal aqueduct over the Vyrnwy reflected patches of brilliant blue, the colour of paint on a baroque church ceiling, all rinsed bright by morning rain. A shoal of medium-sized roach nuzzled this sky-skin then darted from our reflecSouth, towards Four Crosses, the canal was knitted tions. Every time cloud darkened the waters a pair of tight with duckweed. The friends who were paddling swallows skimmed them clear again. gave up wrestling with it. Tufts of it flicked up into Just to the north, the canal was riveted by yellow their canoes and the roots were five to six inches long. water lilies and plated by their leaves. Needles of electric The dogs and I carried on until I spied a family of mute blue damselflies darned the gaps between them or rested swans, alarch dof,* ahead. The cob sailed out, stiffly, on the rounded heads of wild angelica. A few dragonwings taut. I decided not to risk provoking a territorial showdown. Some swans are quite relaxed, others merely wary; this one was on the defensive. The swan population has steadily increased since the mid 1980s, thanks mainly to anglers abandoning poisonous lead weights.

As I clipped the lead on, I was pleased that Tango, the more reckless of my two greyhounds remembered the treachery of duckweed. Two weeks previously, near Belan Locks she sniffed cautiously, stepped boldly and was betrayed into a resounding belly flop. * I couldn’t get a circumflex onto the o of dof - sorry.

Photograph of yellow water lily by Tess Pearson, all other photographs by Liz Hinkley.

O

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EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS at ABERGLASNEY GARDENS Llangathen, Llandeilo Showing work by:

DAVID BELLAMY, JENNY KEAL WENDY POWELL JONES, ANTHONY RICHARDS

Wendy Powell Jones

David Bellamy

Anthony Richards

Jenny Keal

September 9th - 22nd 10.00 - 6.00pm Artists will be available on certain days to demonstrate techniques and to answer questions.

Please enquire.

Signed ‘learn to paint’ books and CD’s will be for sale.

Further information:

www.davidbellamy.co.uk www.wendypowelljonesartist.co.uk www.cornerhouse-gallery.co.uk Garden admission charges apply

What’s

hot in Wales

Real milk, mushrooms, artisan cheeses, a Radio 4 food quiz, a taste of Puglia, cooking in the real world, the finest spices, and luxury chocolate – all are part of the fascinating menu for the Abergavenny Food Festival on the weekend of September 16th and 18th. Plus – almost of course – Bryn Williams, whose classical French training brings the taste of his native North Wales to his highly-rated of Odettes in London. In the Festival organisers’ own words: “It’s all about sensory extremes and subtle contrasts. Come and hear passionate performers, soap-box rants and electric debate”. Note the Food Academy, which takes place at The Castle. Its role is to inspire a new generation of cooks to try something new with a mouth-watering series of workshops. Children can take part for free on a first-come, first-served basis. In fact, free entry to the Festival is offered to all children under the age of 16 if accompanied by an adult. New sponsors for 2011 are Brewin Dolphin, an independent private client investment management firm. Find Abergavenny Food Festival on the ‘net’ for all details, and to book tickets. An event not to be missed.

Cardiff Music Festival gathers together some of Wales’ most

exciting young musical talents for the weekend of September 16th to 18th. Supported by Only Men Aloud, the event features Steffan Morris, cello, Anne Denholm, harp, Steffan Jones, baritone, and Sophie Cashell, piano. Based mainly at The Gate Arts Centre, Roath, and Y Tarbernacl Church, The Hayes, the Festival also features an Opera Gala at the Millennium Centre with Dennis O’Neill, Wynne Evans and Tim Rhys Evans, director of OMA. Tickets can be bought on the door or in advance according to the event. Contact cardiffmusicfestival.co.uk/tickets for details.

The Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, presents its Annual Summer Exhibition 2011 from 2 July to 11 September 2011. The exhibition includes some of the most vibrant art work created

by Wales’s stunning artists. The gallery exhibits a mix of the best contemporary Fine Art in Wales, historical shows and open exhibitions. Come visit the Academy and buy a ticket for the Grand Raffle 2011: the prize, a David Lloyd Griffith original painting. 11am - 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, 11am - 4pm Sundays (Closed on Mondays). For more information call 01492 593413

Clive Betts and others with much more on Welsh Politics

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

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