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Turner and Constable
At Tate Britain is an exhibition that’s received a great deal of critical praise. That’s surprising, in a way, because it features two of the stalwarts of British art, whose works are familiar enough to most art lovers: J.M.W. Turner…
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Tri aderyn gaeafol
1 Dryw Codi’n raddol y mae’r llwybr o’r traeth. A finnau yng nghanol fy negawd olaf o dringo’r llethr yn fy sgidiau rhedeg, bron ar unwaith bydda i’n ymladd am wynt, cyn bod y llwybr yn mynd yn fwy gwastad…
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A zombie doctrine and a crisis in Venezuela
There’s been much talk, since Donald Trump kidnapped the President of Venezuela and declared that he would ‘run’ the country, of a reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine. This set me thinking about what exactly is or was the ‘Monro Doctrine’,…
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Imaging Fanny Price
Mansfield Park isn’t, I suspect, the favourite novel of Jane Austen of those who value her for her cutting wit and comforting social outlook. Because, though not without its share of humour, it’s a far from comforting work. It asks…
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The war on fonts
The Trump administration has just opened a new front in its intensifying war on the rest of the world. It’s a typographical war, and it concerns a common font called Calibri. Personally, I’m quite fond of Calibri, and use it…
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Agor y Storfa
Ar ddechrau mis Rhagfyr digwyddodd rhywbeth rhagorol yn Abertawe. Mae trigolion y ddinas wedi hen arfer disgwyl clywed newyddion o fath gwahanol. Dirywiad, wedi’r cwbl, fu ei hanes ers blynyddoedd maith – ei economi yn methu, pob corff cyhoeddus bron…
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Peter Finch: Wales’s Mr Poetry
In front of me is a 24-page pamphlet published by ‘second aeon publications’ in 1971. It’s held together with a couple of rusting staples and contains seventeen short poems, typewritten and photocopied. Back then, that’s how you produced a skinny…
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Dust and roses: Philip Pullman’s vision
The rose field, published in October, completes Philip Pullman’s massive ‘Book of dust’ trilogy. More than that, it completes the whole cycle of ‘Lyra’ novels that Pullman began thirty years ago with Northern lights. It seems to me that it’s…
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Kyffin in Bangor
This is the edited text of a public talk given in Bangor University on Wednesday 19 November 2025 about the eleven oil paintings by Kyffin Williams housed in the University. The talk was followed by a guided tour of the…