literature
Anti-metropolitanism, 1759
In Volume I, Chapter XVIII of Laurence Sterne’s great novel, Tristram Shandy’s mother, as soon as she finds out she’s expecting him, absolutely insists that, when the time comes to give birth, she will be attended by no one but the old midwife who lives in the neighbourhood of Shandy Hall – even though within […]
Two walk New York
I’ve been reading Teju Cole’s celebrated novel of 2011, Open city, set mainly in central New York. It’s an unusual piece of writing. The book captures the experience of Julius, a young Nigerian-American (Cole himself being one) who’s in training to be a psychiatrist, as he wanders about in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan […]
Sioe Dicw a Jerry
Yn ei cholofn yn Barn yn ddiweddar tynnodd Catrin Evans ein sylw at y rhaglenni radio hynny sy’n trafod pynciau diwylliannol sylweddol trwy gyfrwng sgwrs neu ddialog. Ei hesiamplau yw In our time gyda Melvyn Bragg ar Radio 4 a rhaglen Dei Tomos ar nos Sul ar Radio Cymru. Mae gan y rhaglenni hyn y […]
On the writing of blogs
This month gwallter is ten years old, and this is his 598th blog. It seems a good time to look back and reflect on his progress so far. When I started in 2013, blogs were still quite fashionable, and I felt some pride in joining a fraternity of online scribblers. Nowadays, you often have the […]
Sarn Helen, end to end
Several stretches of Roman road in Wales are labelled ‘Sarn Helen’. The one Tom Bullough sets out to walk, in a roughly straight line except for a lurch eastward to Brecon Gaer, is the road that leads from the fort at Nidum (Neath) to Canovium (Caerhun, near Conwy). He has recorded his trip in a […]
How do you do?
When you meet someone new, and especially when you know you might be spending a long time in their company in future, how do you begin the relationship? Do you try to prime yourself by asking others beforehand? When you meet, what do you say about yourself, to give the other person an idea of […]
Y postmon
Un o’r ychydig swyddi sydd heb newid yn ei hanfod dros y blynyddoedd yw postmon. Mae rhywbeth sylfaenol, anostyngadwy am gerdded o ddrws i ddrws lawr yr heol i ddanfon llythyrau a pharseli i’r trigolion, a thorri gair cyfeillgar â nhw ar y ffordd. Daeth y gair ‘postmon’ yn gyffredin yn yr 1860au, ac ers […]
Dorian Gray discovers world music
In the cosy light of our post-colonial glow-lamps we tend to imagine that ‘world music’ was discovered, and given its long-deserved recognition, by our own generation. We still have dozens of LPs and CDs of Indian and west African music, rooted out in Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus in the 1980s. We kept an eye […]
Battle of the buildings
Felicia Hemans, the leading woman poet of the Romantic period in Britain, came to Wales in 1800 when she was seven years old. (Felicia Browne was her original name: her father, George, owned a wine-importing business.) Her first home was a cottage near Abergele, before the family moved in 1809 to St Asaph to live […]
Lasseter’s last ride
Our school was just across the road. I could have left our little brick house, Corton Cottage, at one minute to nine and still have been in time for lessons. The school building was small, built of warm stone, and handsome in its modest way. It dated back to the 1860s. At first not much […]
