Winding Up the Week #216

An end of week recap “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – Elie Wiesel This is a weekly post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of…

Winding Up the Week #215

An end of week recap “What millions died – that Caesar might be great!” – Thomas Campbell This is a weekly post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings. CHATTERBOOKS >> If you are planning a…

DEWITHON 22: Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams

A brief introduction and a few shared thoughts on my book choice for Reading Wales 2022 “…the African thing hung about me like a Welsh Not, a heavy encumbrance on my soul; a Not-identity; an awkward reminder of what I was or what I wasn’t.” Published by Planet Books in 2002, Charlotte Williams’s Wales Book of the Year-winning autobiographical ‘novel’ has long been lauded by readers and critics…

Winding Up the Week #214

An end of week recap “Words are the clothes thoughts wear.” – Samuel Beckett This is a weekly post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings. CHATTERBOOKS >> If you are planning a reading event,…

DEWITHON ‘22: Llyfrbabble (Bookbabble) #2

A series of short posts highlighting recent cultural and bookish chatter from Wales This is the second post of D22 in which we look at literary and other cultural goings-on (Welsh speakers may prefer sgwrsio llenyddol Cymraeg) from the land of poetry and song. ****************************  Choosing the Next National Poet of Wales  Literature Wales, the national company responsible for the…

Winding Up the Week #213

An end of week recap “My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.” – Dylan Thomas This is a weekly post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related…

1st to 31st March Welcome to the fourth Reading Wales celebration (aka Dewithon 22), a month-long event beginning on Saint David’s Day, during which book lovers from all parts of the world are encouraged to read, discuss and review literature by and about writers from Wales. For more in-depth information on this reading jolly, head over to DHQ (Dewithon Headquarters), and to see what’s happening…

A Poem by Hedd Wyn

We commence the first week of Reading Wales 2022 with a poem written by the Welsh-language poet Hedd Wyn To mark Saint David’s Day and the start of Dewithon 2022, I share the moving poem Rhyfel (War) in both English and Welsh. It is one of Hedd Wyn’s best known and most frequently quoted works in which he interweaves ideas about faith, music, class and conflict in a lament for the brutality and…