Archive for 2014
Wales Coast Path, day 11: Porthcawl from Port Talbot
Port Talbot, Tai Bach, Margam: for J. and me this is new territory, but it’s home turf for C. and H. So we’ve the luxury of expert commentators as we take to the streets and move east. We parked in the centre of Port Talbot, near where H. grew up and C. went to school. […]
‘Sweet sister death has gone debauched today’: artists and writers in Mametz Wood
Mametz Wood: three syllables that have lost none of their power to appal, after almost a hundred years. On 7 July 1916 the infantrymen of the 38th or Welsh Division, most of them volunteers and amateur soldiers, were ordered to make a frontal assault on a German-held line in front of a wood, roughly a […]
MOOCs and other animals: ‘open & online’ report published
The Welsh Government today published a major report entitled Open & online: Wales, higher education and emerging modes of learning. The report covers all aspects of courses and resources freely available online at higher and further education levels in the UK and beyond. It contains the most up-to-date and balanced assessment so far of Massive […]
Erlid ac alltud: Heini Gruffudd a W.G. Sebald
Does fawr o wirionedd yn yr honiad na all llyfrau Cymraeg ddod i afael â digwyddiadau mawr y byd. Ond os ydych chi’n dod i hyd i rywun sy’n ceisio ei honni, yr ateb syml yw ‘Darllenwch Yr erlid gan Heini Gruffudd’. Erchyllterau gwaethaf yr ugeinfed ganrif – dinistr yr Iddewon gan y Natsïaid – […]
Wales Coast Path, day 10: Dunraven from Porthcawl
By now we tend to see the Wales Coast Path as ‘our path’. We don’t expect to see many other long distance walkers, and having planned our routes we expect to execute them without hindrance. Imagine our indignation, then, when we find that the car park at Dunraven is closed because filming is taking place […]
An innocent abroad: inside Stadio San Paolo
In Sorrento the four of us walk towards the bus hired to take us to Naples for the Europa League match between Napoli and Swansea. Some of the more liquid Swansea supporters are already shouty. We’re met by a surprising number of well equipped police. They search us for potential weapons before we board. The […]
Postcard from Sorrento
Islanders, when they travel, feel a natural attraction to islands. So almost the first thing we do after getting to Sorrento is walk down the deep gorge from the town to the Marina Piccola and take the first available boat to Capri. At the port we queue for the little bus for Ana Capri, with […]