Archive for 2021
Happy birthday Michael Rosen
When I consider how the government of our country – I mean the one with the satirical name ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ – has fallen under the control of a set of unscrupulous and heartless gangsters, who lack any kind of moral standard or basic competence, and when I consider that […]
Rhossili sunset
Three of us set off on the south Gower road to watch the sun set in Rhossili. It’s been another day of unbroken sunshine in this strange dry, cold April. The gusty wind of the early morning has dropped to a faint north-westerly breeze. The sky’s still clear, but it’s slowly losing its light. We […]
Edward Thomas in Gower
At last some warmth returned with the sun, and I took the rough path along the top of the cliff between Rotherslade and Limeslade. The sea was calm, empty and quiet, except for one thing: the bell of a floating buoy, its clear sound carried over the water by a light onshore breeze. I’ve been […]
Doethineb a dannedd
Yr wythnos ddiwethaf collais i ddant. Ffordd anghywir, wrth gwrs, o ddisgrifio’r hyn ddigwyddodd – fel petaswn i wedi anghofio mynd ag e gyda fi wrth adael trên neu fws. Mewn gwirioedd, tynnodd y deintydd y dant allan o’m genau yn eithaf treisiol, trwy ddefnyddio dull sydd heb newid rhyw lawer yn ei hanfod, mae’n […]
Billie Holiday’s last day
Billie Holiday died aged 44 in a New York hospital at 3:10am on Friday 17 July 1959. Some failed to notice. The New York Times published a short obit, but only on page 15. But for those who cared about her and her music, the news was a bitter shock. One of them was Frank […]
Closely observed hot chocolate
From my early childhood, an evening mug of hot chocolate has been a small but constant source of comfort. I suspect it’s a common addiction. Chocolate drinking is not a failing that many grown-up people own up to, and certainly not one that many would think of writing about. A notable exception is the poet […]
Prussian Blue
Like a teenager, C. has fallen hopelessly in love, with a visitor from the Continent. I didn’t see it coming. And the worst thing is that I’m not sure it’s a temporary infatuation that will soon pass. It’s taken a firm hold on her affections. Only time will tell whether everything will end in tears. […]
Sir Humphrey Mackworth, ‘a genius richer than thy mines below’
The earth, thy great exchequer, ready lies is the title of a superb new collection of stories by the Welsh writer Jo Lloyd, who won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2019. The nine pieces are very different one from another, in subject, setting and register. But they all share at least two things. […]
Murdering trees
A powerful symbol of the continuing human assault on the natural world is the wanton destruction of trees. The outstanding example must be the wholesale clearing of Amazonian rainforests by the Brazilian government (over 11,000 square kilometres were destroyed in the year to July 2020). Britain carries its own arboricidal guilt: the uprooting of whole […]
Y Cynllun Darllen, 1891-94
Heddiw mae clybiau darllen yn boblogaidd iawn fel ffordd i ddarganfod a rhannu llyfrau mewn cylch cymdeithasol, anffurfiol. Yn rhannol oherwydd esiampl ‘Oprah’ yn yr Unol Daleithiau a ‘Richard and Judy’ ym Mhrydain, sefydlwyd cannoedd o gylchoedd lleol (a rhithiol, yn yr oes Cofid). Erbyn hyn mae digon o enghreifftiau o glybiau sy’n trafod llyfrau […]
