Category: literature
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Utopia 1516
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to read Thomas More’s Utopia, first published in Latin in Leuven/Louvain in December 1516. It’s certainly one of those books you wish you’d discovered long ago. But 2026 isn’t a bad year to think about utopian worlds, at a time when we’re faced with so many…
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Aber, prifddinas llên
Ar 31 Hydref cyhoeddodd UNESCO fod Aberystwyth/Ceredigion wedi ennill statws ‘dinas llenyddiaeth’, gan ymuno â rhai cannoedd o leoliadau eraill ledled y byd a gydnabyddir am eu ‘ymrwymiad i ddiwydiannau creadigol a bywyd diwylliannol’. (Does dim ‘dinas’ gonfensiynol yn yr ardal, wrth gwrs, ond mae’n bosib dadlau bod Aberystwyth yn rhyw fath o ‘ddinas-wladwriaeth’, fel…
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Two (or three) naughty boys in Jesus
On a visit to Cambridge last week, the first for over fifteen years, we stayed in one of the guest rooms in Jesus College. We were free to roam the courts, and to eat breakfast with the students in the Hall. On the walls of the Hall were several indifferent portraits of College worthies, presumably…
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In praise of the dash
A few weeks ago the Observer columnist and internet technology expert John Naughton – one of the few columnists left who’s still worth reading after the Guardian carelessly disowned its Sunday sister – wrote a fascinating article – fascinating to a nerd like me, at least – about that chameleon of punctuation, the dash, or…
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Nelan a Bo
Nelan a Bo yw trydedd nofel Angharad Price. Ynddi mae’n mynd nôl i’w chartref gyntaf, Rhos Chwilog, ar bwys pentref Bethel yn Arfon. Llecyn bach iawn – rhaid troi at y map manylaf er mwyn rhoi’ch bys arno – ond, efallai yn union oherwydd hynny, lle arbennig yn hanes yr awdur, fel esboniodd hi mewn…
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‘Deud llai’: troli Tesco ac un esgid damp
deud llai (Barddas, 2024) yw’r trydydd casgliad o gerddi i’w gyhoeddi gan Dafydd John Pritchard. Roedd yr ail, Lôn fain (2013), dipyn yn llai fel llyfr corfforol na’r cyntaf, Dim ond deud (2006), ac mae’r gyfrol newydd yn llai byth. Bydd yn ffitio’n i mewn i boced fach eich siaced heb drafferth. Yn yr un…
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‘Mwy o sgwennwrs na darllenwrs’: yr argyfwng geiriau
Yn ei nofel ddeifiol newydd Hunllef Nadolig Eben Parri mae Arwel Vittle yn anelu ei arfau dychanol at dargedau niferus yn y Gymru gyfoes. Un yw pobl sy’n ysgrifennu a chyhoeddi. Mae bron pob grŵp yn ei chael hi’n arw gan ‘Ysbryd Cymru Sydd’: cofiannau (‘gormod ohonyn nhw’), academyddion (‘digon o ddadansoddi a gor-ddadansoddi ôl-drefedigaethol…
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Y llyn a ddiflannodd
Rydyn ni’n hen gyfarwydd yng Nghymru â’r arfer o greu llynnoedd newydd. Cronfeydd dŵr yw’r rhan fwyaf ohonyn nhw, wrth gwrs. Mae eu henwau – Efyrnwy, Clywedog, Elan, Claerwen, Brianne, Tryweryn – yn niferus, ac yn atseinio’n alarus trwy’r degawdau, ynghyd â geiriau cysylltiedig: boddi cymoedd, symud cymunedau, codi argaeau concrit. Ond mae hanes arall…
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Some books I read in 2023
It’s been a writing year rather than a reading one, but as usual I’ve found so much to enjoy in books, many of them happened on by accident, often in charity shops. The book club I belong to also threw up plenty of good reads, including the best novel I’ve read this year, Claire Keegan’s…
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Desperate causes: Tristram’s unorthodox circumcision
The early life of Tristram Shandy is marked by a series of unhappy accidents. His conception is badly planned, thanks to an untimely question asked by his mother. At his birth his nose is broken by Dr Slop, the inept man-midwife. And he’s given the wrong forename, after the name his father has chosen gets…