Wales Coast Path, day 91: Llandudno to Pensarn
I’ve always had a soft spot for Llandudno, despite its pretensions and its appeal to royalty, domestic and foreign. It has many attractions: the languid curve of its bay bookended by the two Ormes, its numerous coffee shops, its graceful shopping arcades, its pride in whitewashed tidiness, the splendour of the Mostyn Art Gallery, the […]
Wales Coast Path, day 92: Pensarn to Rhyl
Caravans and coasts go together like Morecambe and Wise. It’s seldom that we walk a day on the Wales Coast Path without seeing at least a few caravans. But the coastal strip between Pensarn and Rhyl, our gentle afternoon introduction to the north Wales coast, is so caravan-saturated that, on the top of a double-decker […]
Roger Cecil
I met Roger Cecil just once, in 2011. There was only one way of making initial contact with him, according to my instructions, that had any chance of success. You rang his number, twice, then put the phone down and rang again. If you were lucky he would then answer. I was lucky, and arranged […]
Micromuseums
Micromuseum is a new word for me. But that was the topic of a presentation to the Friends of the Glynn Vivian last week by Fiona Candlin of Birbeck College. It was the ideal talk – funny and self-deprecating but full of ideas that rattled your lazy assumptions about what museums are about. And it […]
Domenico Scarlatti and Basil Bunting
Under his full wig he looks like a successful but no-nonsense, even grumpy eighteenth century aristocrat or businessman. It would be hard to guess, if you didn’t know, that this is Domenico Scarlatti, the composer of the most inventive, quirky and joyful Baroque music ever written. Born in Naples in the same year as Bach […]
Two Scilly visitors
On 22 October 1707 Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell was guiding his fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ships back towards the England coast after a failed attempt to defeat the French fleet near the Mediterranean port of Toulon during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was a difficult voyage. The weather was stormy, and Shovell, […]
Y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol
Dyma destun anerchiad i Gynulliad Blynyddol y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol a gynhaliwyd yn y Neuadd Fawr, Prifysgol Abertawe ar 8 Mawrth 2017. Bum mlynedd ar hugain yn ôl des i i Brifysgol Abertawe, neu Goleg y Brifysgol Abertawe fel yr oedd hi ar y pryd, i fod yn gyfrifol am ei Llyfrgell – syndod mawr, […]
The socialist submariner
My friend J. asked me the other day whether as a child I’d read stories set in schools. I said I couldn’t recall reading any, despite being a greedy reader – unless you counted Tom Brown’s schooldays, a present from some well-intentioned aunt, which I found unreadable and never finished. The only explanation I could […]
George Ace, pioneer cyclist
Wandering among the memory theatres of Wales over the last year or two I’ve come across some fine institutions, some striking objects and some remarkable characters. In Tenby Museum they remember the happily named George Ace, a distinguished figure from the heroic days of cycling. George Ace was born in 1861 and came from Swansea. […]
Philip Gross’s ‘Betweenland’
A while ago, I can’t now remember where, I saw a relief map of Britain as it might be a few centuries from now. Most of England was under water, though Wales and Scotland were largely intact. The queues at the borders, it occurred to me, will be lengthy. Many people prefer to turn their […]