Tag: memoir

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Yew for Two

As the tree-felling season once again approaches, and in Part 2 of his 1960 autobiographical notes, Jim Pratt moves on from Osbaston to another piece of ancient woodland in Monmouth Forest

PUBLISHED ON: 10/11/21

CATEGORY: Column, Memoir

As the tree-felling season once again approaches, and in Part 2 of his 1960 autobiographical notes (Well laid Hedges and Cider) Jim Pratt moves on fro …

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Dare to Do: Taking on the Planet by Bike and Boat

Amy Aed takes a fast-paced global journey, with record-breaking adventurer Sarah Outen, which doesn’t shy away from mental distress

PUBLISHED ON: 03/05/21

CATEGORY: Reviews

Dare to Do is a fast-paced, engaging travel memoir by rower and adventurer,Sarah Outen, following her journey as she cycles, kayaks and rows across Eu …

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Jim Neat: The Case of a Young Man Down on His Luck

Desi Tsvetkova concludes that this hybrid novel/confessional narrative poem is an exceptional piece of literature

PUBLISHED ON: 05/05/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

Mary J Oliver’s father passed away in 1983, but it isn’t until twenty-five years later that a spark ignites inside the author, urging her to find out …

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Fight and Flight: Essays on Ron Berry

Peter Goulding writes about the pros and cons of writing between worlds, those of manual labour and literature, and of Wales and London

PUBLISHED ON: 03/04/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

‘Can’t wait to find out who Ron Berry is,’ I type, not meaning it. I haven’t heard of him. When I get Fight and Flight: Essays on Ron Berry in the pos …

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Thinking Again

When a travel writer has been everwhere, writes Chris Moss, there is something radically enlightening – as well as saleable – in writing about home and stasis. Jan Morris demonstrates the arts of seeming intimate without ever being truly confessional, stoicism and the ability to find a quiet poetry in social isolation

PUBLISHED ON: 01/04/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

A national treasure, Jan Morris can do no wrong. As she approaches her mid nineties, each new book is offered as the last. With more than sixty alread …

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The Nightingale Silenced and Other Late Unpublished Writings

‘The Nightingale Silenced’ was Margiad Evans final extended prose piece before her death. Ed Garland assesses it as feat of creative self-observation, a report from the unsettling parallel universe of a 1950s neurological institute and a memoir of what the author herself describes as ‘a prose illness, though many would expect its explosiveness to uncover poetry’

PUBLISHED ON: 01/03/20

CATEGORY: Reviews

‘The Nightingale Silenced’ was Margiad Evans final extended prose piece before her death. Ed Garland assesses it as feat of creative self-observation, …

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The Lark Ascending

Provocative, informing and deeply exhilarating, is Richard John Parfitt’s impression of this musical exploration of era and place

PUBLISHED ON: 29/10/19

CATEGORY: Reviews

Richard King starts The Lark Ascending with a declaration: ‘The landscape is never truly ours.’ He then takes us on a journey through that landscape, …

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Reclaiming Gay Rural Wales

Kaja Brown

PUBLISHED ON: 26/02/19

CATEGORY: Blog

The Ceredigion Museum is transformed for the evening. The lights are dim, life is bustling, and there is that air of anticipation that comes before a …

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Just Help Yourself: Tom Jones, The Squires and the Road to Stardom

Chris Moss roots for the author, who literally dragged Tom Jones out of a pub to sing in his band, and finds this also-ran far more interesting than his one-time buddy who achieved mega-success but ended up rich but remote

PUBLISHED ON: 29/01/19

CATEGORY: Reviews

Tom Jones belongs to a tiny niche of the very famous that seem always to have been around. As a mainstream artist whose creative peak was some five de …

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The Light in the Dark

The perfect cure for winter blues, is Suzy Ceulan Hughes’ assessment of a celebration of this season as ‘part of a sacred cycle in a post-sacred world’

PUBLISHED ON: 29/10/18

CATEGORY: Reviews

The Light in the Dark is a beautiful thing, with a stunning cover wrapped around thoughtful, careful writing that speaks from the heart. It is a winte …

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