Necrologies

Meic Stephens

Perhaps nothing captures the zeitgeist of a person or their society than their obituary. Necrologies – as the French call them – is a gathering of sixty obituaries written by Meic Stephens for The Independent of “writers, historians, artists, broadcasters, political activists, cultural mandarins, educationalists and cranks” which holds up a mirror to Wales’ (and in some ways Britain’s) cultural life …

Real Wrexham

Grahame Davies

“Grahame Davies has a lively mind and a fine turn of phrase, which he puts to good purpose here.” Meic Stephens, Cambria, Feb 08

Wrexham, the biggest town in north Wales gets the ´Real´ treatment from novelist and poet Grahame Davies. Born in Coedpoeth, now much-travelled, he´s still endlessly fascinated by his home town. Mixing personal experience and memory with history, topography, journalism, and an unflagging interest, Davies looks beyond the town´s workaday image and finds something rather special …

The ´Real´ series is edited by Peter Finch and also includes Real Cardiff, Real Cardiff 2 and Real Newport.

Check out a BBC blog review of the book here, and another two blogs here and here!

At Arm´s Length

Geraint Talfan Davies

Devolution to Wales and Scotland may prove to have been the most profound change in the UK in recent years. The consequences are far-reaching, and not just political. Geraint Talfan Davies, media and arts executive for more than three decades, recalls and reflects on the impact of this development for culture and civil society…

“The story is beautifully told, with diary entries, dramatic suspense, humour and wickedly accurate pen portraits all brought into play.” Peter Stead, New Welsh Review, May 08

Real Aberystwyth

Niall Griffiths

Real Swansea

Nigel Jenkins

Welcome to the breezily resurgent, ´ugly, lovely´ city of Swansea. Once a dynamic port and the metallurgical capital of the world, it was later famous for a vibrant artistic life, which included poets Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins, artists Alfred Janes and Ceri Richards and composer Daniel Jones. What does it offer now, in post-industrial Wales?

Series Editor, Peter Finch.

Real Wales

Peter Finch

In the latest ambitious offering from the Real… series, following acclaim for Real Cardiff and Real Cardiff Two, Finch takes on the alien land he didn’t know was his, until he grew and went to see it: Real Wales. A cotton-wool nation, full of football and big-brother slim-screen television, or a land of demons, where white robed druids would wail at you through a never ending mist? ...

Fishlock’s Sea Stories

Trevor Fishlock

In ’Fishlock’s Sea Stories’, the popular broadcaster and author Trevor Fishlock turns his attention to Wales’s maritime history. In his elegant and informative style Fishlock explores the history of Wales’s relationship with the sea, from shipbuilding and seafaring to smuggling and emigration ...

Flowers & Fables: A Welsh Herbal

Jocelyne Lawton

In ’Flowers & Fables’ Jocelyne Lawton reminds us of a time when, through a mixture of religious belief, country superstition and medical lore, flowers and herbs had an essential place in everyday life. This book recognises a revival of contemporary interest as modern consumers look for organic and holistic approaches to daily life ...

Green Agenda

Robert Minhinnick

In the 1970s, it was ignorance, in the 1980s, enthusiasm, and from the 1990s environmental issues were greeted with a peculiar fatalism. ’Green Agenda’, the first popular volume of its type to be published in Wales, confronts head on our ideas of what constitutes ’the environment’ and how we perceive it ...