Author Archive: Andrew Green
Celf a chrefydd: George Herbert a’r anffyddiwr
Rai blynyddoedd yn ôl ces i wahoddiad i ymddangos ar y rhaglen radio Beti a’i phobl, i sgwrsio â Beti George a dewis ychydig o recordiadau. Un ohonynt oedd darn o waith sy’n bwysig iawn imi, ers y tro cyntaf imi ei glywed rhyw ugain mlynedd yn ôl: Spem in alium, y motét i ddeugain […]
Wales Coast Path, day 49: Llangrannog to New Quay
We’re back in Llangrannog, at an early hour, for a longish walk north to New Quay. It’s a cooler, cloudier morning, for which we’re thankful. From the beach the path climbs up, past Carreg Bica, a ‘great lump of freestanding Ordovician rock’, in Gerald Morgan’s words. Bica was a giant afflicted by toothache; in the […]
Wales Coast Path, day 48: Aberporth from Llangrannog
With extreme care we nudge the car down the narrow winding road and hairpin bends down to Llangrannog. At the seafront M. and his binoculars join us for a shorter trip than yesterday, from Llangrannog to Aberporth. It’s a breezeless morning as we set out up the hill above the sleepy village. The first person […]
Wales Coast Path, day 47: Cardigan to Aberporth
Today we open a new front on the Wales Coastal Path: Ceredigion. Our starting point is the old quay in Cardigan – Aberystwyth without the university, as C. calls it. We’ve already toured the car parks until we find one that doesn’t ban all-day walkers. A sculptured dolphin marks the beginning of the path, but […]
Wales Coast Path, day 4: Newport from Rumney
The Wentloog and Caldicot Levels are like no other part of Wales. They’re flat lands that lie partly below sea level, protected from the Bristol Channel by earth walls and drained by artificial watercourses – more like the Lincolnshire fens than Wales. Three of us set out, on a fine windless April day, to walk […]
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. […]
Barbarians and idiots
It’s Saturday evening, and the three of us are sitting round the kitchen table after a meal, with the remains of a bottle of cheap but perfectly good red wine from Bulgaria. Its label says, ‘from the Thracian lowlands’. A. recalls that he went to Bulgaria on holiday, many years ago, in communist times. All […]
‘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 – […]