gwallter

  • Next week we’ll be completing the Wye Valley Walk, and one of our stops will be the Griffin Inn in the village of Llyswen, on the banks of the Wye half way between Brecon and Builth.  Years ago, my colleague…

  • Rhodfa lydan â dwy linell o dderw a ffawydd oedd y Lôn Goed, a dim mwy na hynny, i ddechrau. Enw yn unig oedd y Lôn imi tan y ddiweddar, pan ddarllenais gyfrol ddifyr Rhys Mwyn, Real Gwynedd, a darganfod…

  • It’s been a bad six months for funerals.  Maybe the Grim Reaper has been busier than usual lately.  More likely, I’m now entering that danger zone of an age when I can expect him to visit my friends and acquaintances…

  • What sort of country do we want Wales to be in future?  Rowan Williams and Laura McAllister have recently invited us to answer that question.  They are the joint chairs of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales,…

  • In Aberystwyth last week I called in the School of Art to see an exhibition, arranged by Mary Lloyd Jones, and organised by Neil Holland and Phil Garratt, as a tribute to her husband, John Jones, who died last year…

  • If you’re like me, at any given time you’ll have several half-read books lying about, probably in different parts of your house or flat.  Each book will have a place-holder inserted to remind you where to resume reading.  Unless you’re…

  • 1 Concrit Llwybr newydd sbon, ei wynebau goncrit yn sgleinio wedi’r glaw.  Aeth y peiriannau mawr a’u dannedd rhwygol wythnos yn ôl.  Clwyf yn ymagor ar yr allt.  Cerrig drylliedig a thalpiau mawr o fwd ar chwâl, yn ddi-hid, ar…

  • The poet and writer Ruth Bidgood died in Rhayader last week, six months short of her hundredth birthday.  She never raised her voice loudly in print, and few people, asked to name five contemporary Welsh poets writing in English, would…

  • Dear Priti Patel I’m writing to you with a simple request: to search your conscience.  Just to avoid doubt, I don’t mean your political calculus.  You don’t need any encouragement to exercise that.  No, I mean your personal moral conscience.…

  • Paintings, not painters, you’ll notice.  And the artists are all safely dead (this avoids treading on the toes of the living).  Third, I wouldn’t claim that these are the best ten paintings.  They’re just works that have given me special…

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