In praise of bookmarks
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 one of those people who turn down the edges of pages to keep their place […]
Rhwng dau fae
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 y naill ochr a’r llall. Faint o amser cyn bydd glesni’n dechrau ail-feddiannu’r llethr? Sbel […]
Ruth Bidgood at Ystrad Fflur
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 probably have chosen her. But the poems she wrote, in a steady stream over forty […]
A short letter to Priti Patel
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. As the UK Home Secretary and a senior member of the UK government you’re responsible […]
Welsh paintings: gwallter’s top 10
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 pleasure and contemplation. Many aren’t very well known. But see what you think about my […]
Cefn Bryn and the writers
The sandsone ridge of Cefn Bryn is an obvious magnet for painters, but it doesn’t seem to have drawn many creative writers, despite its brooding presence along the backbone of the Gower peninsula. One exception is Amy Dillwyn, the pioneering industrialist, feminist and lesbian, in her best-known work The Rebecca rioter (1880), an historical novel […]
Be welwch chi o gopa Cader?
Llynedd, am y tro cyntaf ers blynyddoedd, methais i ddringo i gopa Cadair Idris. Sa i’n gwbod pam. Covid a’i ofidiau, siŵr o fod, neu absenoldeb meddwl, neu ohirio oherwydd pwysau eraill. Ond, o edrych yn ôl, dwi’n teimlo rhyw fwlch bach yn fy mywyd, rhyw rwyg yn yr edafedd o lwybro rheolaidd ar y […]
Can the British Museum change?
The recent return to Nigeria of some of the Benin bronzes from collections across Europe has heightened the debate about ‘repatriating’ museum objects to the places from which they were illegally seized. The finely made bronze plaques and sculptures once adorned the royal palace in Benin City and were made over a lengthy period, from […]
Tair cerdd gan Guillaume Apollinaire
Pont Mirabeau O dan bont Mirabeau rhed afon SeineAc ein serchauOes rhaid imi ddwyn i’m cofLlawenydd wastad yn dilyn y dolur Dechrau nosi taro’r cloc Treigla’r dyddiau sefyll wna i Law yn llaw arhoswn wyneb yn wynebTra dan y bontEin breichiau ymhlyg tremiau hir ton flinedig Dechrau nosi taro’r cloc Treigla’r dyddiau sefyll wna i […]
Sir Boris Walpole and the cartoonists
It’s a commonplace that since George Osborne set in motion the immiseration of poor people, through his programme of austerity and big cuts in benefits, Britain has seemed to regress to the time of our Victorian ancestors. ‘Poor laws’, and the nineteenth century distinction between deserving and undeserving poor, are back with us, and so […]