Category: books
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Glyndŵr’s Way, day 10: Pont Llogel to Meifod
Eleri delivers us by car back from Meifod to Pont Llogel, for us to make the journey in the other direction, much more slowly, and by a different route. There’s a change in the weather today: it’s cooler, rain’s spotting in the strong breeze, and we spend a lot of time through the day pulling…
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In praise of Paul Oliver
The name Paul Oliver probably won’t ring a bell for you, unless you’re a vernacular architectural historian or a blues enthusiast. But if you belong to either camp or (unlikely, but possible) both, then you’ll almost certainly feel a debt to him. Born in Nottingham in 1927 and brought up in London, he was many…
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Swansea’s golden age of innovation
After five years of labour our baby was born last week. It weighed in at a whopping 1.88 kilograms and almost 600 pages. Its many parents are rightly proud of it. You’ll have guessed by now that it’s a big book. Entitled Swansea’s Royal Institution and Wales’s first museum, it will stand for many years…
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Yn y Gororau
Nid yw’n bosib i Mike Parker ysgrifennu llyfr sych a difywyd, a dyw ei lyfr diweddaraf ar y ffin rhwng Cymru a Lloegr, All the wide borders, ddim yn eithriad. Mae i’r gyfrol strwythur diddorol. Tair rhan sydd ynddi, sy’n gyfatebol i’r tri phrif afon yn ardaloedd y ffin, Afon Dyfrdwy, Afon Hafren ac Afon…
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Afon ar ei gwely angau
Y peth mwyaf trist am ein taith gerdded llynedd ar hyd Llwybr Afon Gwy, o Gas-gwent i Bumlumon, oedd Afon Gwy. Hynny yw, cyflwr amgylcheddol Afon Gwy. Y gwir blaen – gwir na allai neb ei wadu erbyn heddiw – yw bod yr afon yn prysur farw. Roedd yr arwyddion yn amlwg, hyd yn oed…
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Some books I read in 2022
Covid may have loosened its grip, but its ‘stay home’ message has lingered, so just as many books got read in 2022 as in the previous year. I’ve been steered to some of them by research needs, but that hasn’t reduced the enjoyment. Here are some of my favourites. The list doesn’t include any charity…
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Jim Crace’s angels
It might seem that everything that can be said about angels has already been said. But Jim Crace, in his latest novel, eden, gives them a new look, and a new, sinister identity. In his eden (not Eden, you’ll notice) Adam and Eve were expelled some time ago (‘what fools they were to sacrifice their…
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E.M. Forster invents the iPad
Years ago my friend C and I challenged each other to read, all the way through, a Classic Long Book. My challenge was Moby-Dick, and his was Bleak House. Whether C ever reached Melville’s majestic final line, ‘… and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago’, I…
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‘Rhyngom’ gan Sioned Erin Hughes
Pan enillodd Sioned Erin Hughes y Fedal Ryddiaith yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Tregaron ym mis Awst am ei chasgliad o straeon byrion Rhyngom, roedd yr ymateb gan ddarllenwyr yn gynnes ac yn frwd. A dim syndod, achos bod y llyfr yn dod â llais newydd, hollol ffres a chyffrous i ffuglen Gymraeg gyfoes. Teitl cywir a…
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Tlodi, nawr a ddoe
Beth yw tlodi? Am flynyddoedd bellach fe’i diffinnir yn y wlad hon fel ‘tlodi cymharol’. Hynny yw, dych chi’n dlawd os ydych chi’n derbyn incwm sy’n 60% yn is nag incwm cyfartal pobl eich cymuned. Dyw hi ddim yn syndod clywed fod tlodi o’r math hwn yn cynyddu ers blynyddoedd, wrth i anghyfartaledd godi, a…