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On 20 January Donald Trump, having been sworn in at the start of his second term as US President, outlined in his acceptance speech his mission for the next four years. Simply, he would put America first. He blamed ‘the…
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Owen Glynne Jones on Cader Idris
Owen Glynne Jones, everyone agreed, was the outstanding rock climber of his age. Born in London in 1867 of Welsh-speaking parents and educated in science and engineering, he made his name by pioneering new routes in the English Lake District,…
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The courage of Thomas Thrush
Less than four miles from Kilburn, my brother’s home in north Yorkshire till his death last November, is the village of Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe. It sits at the foot of the steep escarpment known as Sutton Bank, on the main road between…
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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…
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Farewell to Yorkshire
My parents used to tell me that when I was small I’d tell them that York Minster was, in my opinion, the best building in the world. Of course, I’d not seen much of the world then, just bits of…
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Myfyrdodau Mr Ebeneser Sgrwj ar ŵyl y Nadolig
Roedden ni’n trafod amser y Nadolig y dydd o’r blaen, a sut mae e wedi newid dros y blynyddoedd. Sut, er enghraifft, mae’r tymor yn dechrau – neu’n ymddangos i ddechrau – yn gynt ac yn gynt bob blwyddyn –…
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The other Capel-y-ffin
There were two other people, a man and his wife from Caerffili, at St Mary’s church when I visited Capel-y-ffin last week. They stood and shared my wonder at the wonky beauty of the tiny building, with its wooden bellcote,…
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The bee boy
On 12 December 1775 Gilbert White, the naturalist of Selborne in Hampshire, wrote a letter to his friend Daines Barrington in which he recalled a remarkable character who had lived in the village ‘more than twenty years ago’. He doesn’t…
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Francis Place at Coxwold
I’ve written before about Francis Place, late seventeenth century artist and potter, and about Coxwold in north Yorkshire. This piece brings the two together. Place was a landscapist ahead of his time, in vision (he anticipated the watercolour painters of…
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How to make an icon
The three of us were talking, as we strolled along the front at Porthcawl the other day, about modern icons. J. had just been for a return visit to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, so the Angel of the North in Gateshead soon came…