Category: Reviews

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Expeditions Unpacked: What the Great Explorers took into the Unknown

From parrots to monkeys to gigantic boxes of British tea, Amy Aed is fascinated to read what was packed for world-changing adventures

PUBLISHED ON: 30/10/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

The concept behind Ed Stafford’s Expeditions Unpacked: What the Great Explorers took into the Unknown is quite simple: what did the world’s best explo …

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Hello Friend We Missed You

Jacob Powell admires a bleak yet humorous debut novel, set in north Wales, about loneliness, guilt, personal trauma, privacy and communication

PUBLISHED ON: 30/10/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

Hello Friend We Missed You is Richard Owain Roberts’ debut novel, and continues the characteristic bleak yet humorous style found in his previous shor …

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A Beginner’s Guide to Japan

Pico Iyer Amy Aed is intrigued by a very unconventional guidebook (more poetry and internal dialogue than a cheat-sheet for tea shops) to a nation with American surfaces and non-American values

PUBLISHED ON: 29/10/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

Pico Iyer is often referred to as one of the best travel writers of the twenty-first century. I had not heard of him, I’m embarrassed to reveal. But t …

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The Rhino Conspiracy

For Amy Aed, this fast-paced bold thriller by the former Labour Minister is one of her picks for the year

PUBLISHED ON: 28/10/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

The Rhino Conspiracy by Peter Hain is a dynamic, fast-paced thriller based in apartheid South Africa. It is emotional and compelling, educational and …

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The Hare Book and The Hedgehog Book

Suzy Ceulan Hughes recommends two gorgeous, stunningly illustrated hardback books which treat wildlife to a cultural, factual feast

PUBLISHED ON: 29/09/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

In an essay in the current issue of New Welsh Reader [Issue 124], I confessed to my obsession with hares. And I drew on Jane Russ’ The Hare Book for i …

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My Mother Taught Me How to Sing and Graveyards in My Closet

Alex Diggins finds that these two creative radio pieces, an unabashed celebration of sound, music, motherhood and fulfilling Charlotte Church dreams, are epic as well as bang up to date

PUBLISHED ON: 29/09/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

Welsh boys and their mothers, eh? A cup of milky tea, a hunk of barabrith and mammy’s becardiganed cwtch – these have a Proustian ability to melt the …

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Kidnapped by my Father: BBC One Wales

Chris Moss hails an honest, crafted and true documentary about an indomitable Cardiff woman, a first-hand account of why immigration happens, and the long stories behind every tearful airport reunion

PUBLISHED ON: 29/09/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

Yemen is one of the world’s shadowlands. We only see it on the news, usually under a pall of smoke after mortars or aerial bombings. It’s a source of …

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What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo: Essays on Sex, Authority and the Mess of Life

Luanne Thornton concludes that Wypijewski’s essay collection is bold in its discussion of love, brutality, sex, capitalism and the profiteers of scandal entertainment

PUBLISHED ON: 27/08/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

With extensive experience in journalism and editing at the Nation, the American author seeks out her own topics of interest in this exciting insight i …

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We Could Be Anywhere by Now

Katherine Stansfield’s latest poetry collection is a perceptive, humorous exploration of identity, language, and the boons and pitfalls of relationships, Luanne Thornton writes

PUBLISHED ON: 20/08/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

The poems in Katherine Stanfield’s second collection bristle with curiosity and the desire to understand the world through personal experience. Embedd …

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Just So You Know: Essays of Experience

Jacob Powell finds that these essays on difference and sameness redefine notions of centre, periphery and Welshness, all in a highly positive way

PUBLISHED ON: 28/07/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

What does it mean to be marginalised? While the term itself is eschewed by some contributors, this is the question that the essay collection Just So Y …

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