Wednesday 27 March 2024

Writing and reading

I don't know about March "coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb"; with only four days left of the month, today started bitterly cold, then this afternoon we've had a mixture of thunderstorms and hail. The spring that Sunday promised appears to have gone AWOL .... 

March has actually flown past, with a lot of time spent on editing (which is, I think, the real hard work of writing!) and more research for my next book. I've also been trying to catch up on my reading list. I'm having a year of concentrating on Welsh authors and books about Wales. Although my Welsh is slowly improving, I'm afraid I still have to read most original texts in translation, but I'm enjoying the "greats", such as Saunders Lewis, immensely anyway. Currently I'm reading The Edge of Cymru by Julie Brominicks, another Welsh learner - it's part travelogue (describing her walk around the edges of Wales) and part discussion of the environmental issues particularly affecting our countryside. It's beautifully written and very thought-provoking, a good read.

I've also been reading Addlands by Tom Bullough, who tutored me at Ty Newydd a few years ago. It's a story about a mid twentieth century Radnorshire family, and - as a son of Radnorshire - Tom captures the landscape, the dialect and the life choices that had to be made brilliantly. Some time ago I remember being caught up in a debate about "writing what you know" and "writing what you imagine". To me the authenticity of the author's voice is paramount. The imagined may well have a vital role, woven into the tapestry of a story, but when a setting is a real place with a real history its presentation by an "insider" who knows the bones of it makes the world of difference. 


Monday 12 February 2024

Learning from the experts

It's something about which I had to be very disciplined when writing Digging Up The Family too - reigning in material to make the project manageable and the book readable! Drawing up sensible parameters, and keeping within them, is so important in non-fiction, but it does mean that all sorts of fascinating avenues have to be bypassed and a lot of material "parked", shelved for future use. I'm hoping to start writing up my current project before Easter and a coherent structure is at last emerging from the plethora of research I've been working on. A day spent with the author Tiffany Murray at CreativeCardiff last week, looking at some of the issues she raised about writing her forthcoming memoir "My Family and Other Rock Stars", was certainly helpful.
Another interesting meeting last week was with the Welsh writer and broadcaster Ifor ap Glynn, who came to speak to the Uwch (higher level) learners at the Palmerston Centre in Barry. Ifor has won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod not once but twice and he's as inspirational to listen to as his work is to read. The closing date for entries for this year's Eisteddfod writing competitions is fast approaching and I think Ifor's presentation may well have prompted several of my learner colleagues to have a go! I certainly look back on my good fortune in succeeding in the Tregaron Eisteddfod two years ago with great satisfaction. And I find that writing creatively in a language that you're learning definitely helps you get to grips with the nuts and bolts of it!

Sunday 28 January 2024

Moving on

Yes, spring is on the way! I was up in mid Wales last week, where it never comes before March, but there were snowdrops out everywhere and even some early lambs in the fields. I was enormously cheered by it all. Although it's not been a bad winter so far, it seems to have gone on for ever, so the prospect of longer, warmer days is very welcome.
It's been a busy month and the final version of Once Upon A Time In Wales is now safely at the publishers. I have the greatest admiration for the writers who can move seamlessly on from one book to writing their next in a matter of days. That's of course what the publishers want of their successful authors, but some of us mere mortals perhaps need a bit of a breathing space to recuperate and regroup after putting so much time and energy into a book. I'm very much looking forward to my next venture and am well under way with the research, but it will be a little while yet before the end product sees the light of day!

Monday 1 January 2024

Welcoming in 2024



After a troubled ending to 2023 for so many people around the world, here's to a new dawn and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2024 for us all. Despite the wet and chilly start today, I saw one or two signs in the Wye Valley this morning that spring is on the way - yes, we've got a couple of months of winter still to weather but they promise that brighter days aren't all that far away.

For the last couple of months I've been dogged by health issues but at last my book of Welsh folk tales, "Once Upon A Time In Wales", is about to head to the printers and it should then be out in the spring. Whereas my other books have reached fruition relatively quickly, for a variety of reasons this has been a project a long time in the making. Like all long-time bed-fellows, I shall miss it when it has actually left home! But there are a couple of new ventures calling and it's exciting to start the New Year exploring some new paths.

  

Wednesday 20 September 2023

Out and about

After the summer September somehow seems a very much "back to the desk" month (there's certainly plenty to catch up on at it!) but I've been at two very interesting book launches this month. One conjured up a very different, mythical world, the other was literally very much down to earth.

"The Land of Lost Things" is the sequel to the very popular "The Book of Lost Things" by John Conolly. With his Irish heritage, full of ancient folklore, he explores the recovery of Phoebe, a young girl involved in a car accident, through myth and legend. It's certainly a good read - as is, in a very different way, "Walking the Bones of Britain" by Christopher Somerville, the walking correspondent at The Times. Although his is the story of the rocks of which the UK is composed, in no way is it a dry geological textbook. He takes the reader on a fascinating journey from the ancient stones of the Isle of Lewis to the newest rocks on the south coast, never losing you on the way. He's also a poet of course, and his prose is a definite testament to that.

And it's also been good to take the opportunity for the odd day out to continue photographing places that will feature in my forthcoming Welsh tales book. There are many places in Wales that lay claim to Arthurian legends. Was Caerleon the site of Camelot? Is Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island)  really Avelon? Only a couple of miles from where I live there's a series of caves in a hillside - and one, where a very tall skeleton was unearthed in the early nineteenth century, rejoices under the name of King Arthur's cave. Whether or not it has any Round Table connections, it certainly has some atmosphere and it doesn't take much imagination to people it with knights of old and courtly romancing in the woods ...



Thursday 31 August 2023

The warrior princess

Although I think we had the best of the summer in June, one or two days this month have provided some decent weather to take forward a project that I started a while ago but that's only just coming to completion. I wanted illustrations to accompany a collection of tales from Wales, stories based on myths, legends and historical events in the country's sometimes turbulent past; I decided to photograph as many locations as possible myself. A good excuse for some very pleasant days out too! Ten days ago we had a fascinating day in Kidwelly, exploring its castle and the surrounding area. At the foot of the drawbridge there is a memorial to Gwenllian, the warrior princess. My name is an anglicized version of hers and I've always felt an affinity with her! And below you can read a preview of her story (and that of another Welsh heroine) as it will appear in the forthcoming collection.




Why wait for the boys?

“Revenge for Gwenllian!” - for centuries the cry rang out as Welsh armies attacked English invaders. But who was Gwenllian and why did she need avenging? Like most Welsh women she was not backwards in coming forwards when there was a job to be done, never mind that the job was considered the preserve of the men – but she was to pay the same price as would a man for what she did.

Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd was the youngest of the eight children of the Prince of Gwynedd and his wife Angharad; she was born on Anglesey around 1100AD. She grew up to be a strong, determined – and very beautiful – young woman and eloped with Gruffyd ap Rhys, the Prince of Deheubarth, going on to bear him two daughters and six sons. Their home was at Dinefwr but the area was plagued by Norman invaders and the family frequently had to take to forests and mountainous strongholds for safety. From their hideouts Gwenllian (even when heavily pregnant) and Gruffyd would launch guerilla raids on the invaders, taking from them what they could and redistributing it to local families sorely in need after a series of bitter winters and poor harvests.

In 1136 England was embroiled in the political chaos that became known as “The Anarchy” with the succession being fought over by Mathilda and Stephen. With the reduced interference from over the border, there were concerted uprisings in several parts of Wales to recover lands that had been lost to the Marcher Lords. Gwenllian’s husband rode off to Gwynedd to seek support from her father and brothers to deal once and for all with their foes. Whilst her husband was away, however, news reached Gwenllian of further attacks on their land. She immediately set about raising an army herself and marched on Kidwelly, where she led her troops (which included two of her sons) into battle. Sadly they were hopelessly outnumbered and, despite valiant efforts, one of her sons was killed and she and her other son were taken prisoner. Despite the convention that a defeated ruler should be held to ransom rather than killed, both of them were executed on the battlefield. To this day the site is known as Maes Gwenllian, and the spring that rises there is said to have welled up as she was beheaded.

Gwenllian is the only known example of a medieval woman leading a Welsh army into battle. But whilst her bravery may have cost her her life, it inspired others to continue the rebellion. Gwent fighters attacked and slew the Norman lord controlling Ceredigion and when news of her death reached Gwenllian’s father and brothers in the north they marched on Llanfihangel, Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn and seized the towns. The patriotism of Gwenllian, the “Warrior Princess”, soon became, and remains, legendary.

Several centuries later a very different Welsh woman was to gain similar respect and veneration - not a noble woman this time but a cobbler’s wife from Fishguard. If you go to the town today you can visit Jemima Nicholas’s grave and see the commemorative tapestry worked to mark the two hundredth anniversary of what has become known as “the last invasion of mainland Britain", in the repulse of which Jemima played a memorable role.

In early 1797 fourteen hundred men sailed from Camaret in Revolutionary France to take part in a three pronged attack on Britain. One of the landings was to take place on the Pembrokeshire coast and the plan was that the invading force would march through South Wales to Bristol. However the 800 strong contingent landing at Llanwnda was poorly manned (consisting largely of convicts, Royalist prisoners and deserters) and poorly trained. Discipline seems to have broken down completely almost as soon as they were on the beaches and bands of French soldiers began attacking and looting local communities. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knox, the British officer stationed in the area, did not have adequate forces to deal with the situation however; reinforcements were mobilising under Lord Cawdor but they would take a couple of days to reach the north Pembrokeshire coast from his seat down at Stackpole in the south. Knox decided to abandon Fishguard to its fate.

In the ensuing panic in the town, Jemima Nicholas decided to take matters into her own hands. She was helped by a band of women armed with nothing more than pitchforks and local knowledge. One very useful bit of local knowledge was that a Portuguese ship had been wrecked off the coast a few weeks beforehand and the vessels' washed-up cargo of wine had found its way into most nearby homes. A woman of the world, Jemima no doubt had a good idea what state a lot of the French would be in. It must still have taken considerable courage however to leave the town, to seek out and round up a contingent of drunken invaders as she and her companions did, to march them back to Fishguard, incarcerate them in the church and guard them under lock and key until relieved of their duties by the astonished commander of the arriving reinforcements. The following day the French officer in charge of the invasion surrendered unconditionally at the Royal Oak tavern. Whilst it couldn’t be said that Jemima and her companions routed the French singlehanded, there’s no doubt that they helped to save the day.


Monday 7 August 2023

Challenging times

Yet more radio silence, I'm afraid - another difficult few months with illness, a family death and one or two other traumas. I should be away now at the Eisteddfod but fate stepped in yet again with another bout of Covid, so I'm currently confined to quarters. I'm sincerely hoping this is going to be the last in the series of calamities though, and that life gets back on as even a keel as possible very soon.

There always have to be some positives though and the last couple of months have seen some publishing success, a "Highly Commended" for a poem in the Cheltenham Literature Festival GWN competition and an interesting (if completely knackering!) weekend course at Ty Newydd. As a Welsh learner I had read several books by Bethan Gwenas (below, with the author and broadcaster Sion Tomos Owen), but it was great to have her as a creative writing tutor. I do find writing in a language is a really useful way to learn and really embed it - though I'm pretty sure that at this stage none of my resulting attempts in Welsh would get a "highly commended" anywhere!