New Welsh Review 58, Autumn 2002

Editorial:

Everyone's a winner... (Francesca Rhydderch)

Even as the BBC’s tired trot through the one hundred greatest Great Britons sent me to sleep in recent weeks, I couldn’t help being intrigued by a recent item in The Guardian which reported that panels of librarians and booksellers are among those being polled to find ‘books which say the most about contemporary England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland’. Apparently customers will be consulted too, and encouraged to vote in high-street bookstores across the UK. This is all a ploy, of course – the organisers of the poll are going to all this trouble simply to promote World Book Day (next March). Nevertheless, the four shortlists for the UK’s various countries made for interesting reading, from England’s Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and Scotland’s Adoption Papers by Jackie Kay, to Wales’s Cardiff Dead by John Williams and Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams.
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Features

• 'Stories of people who long to belong' by Kevin Crossley-Holland
  Kevin Crossley-Holland in conversation with 2002 Tir na n-Og winner Malachy Doyle.
  
  
• Getting to Grips with Ceri Richards by Peter Wakelin
  Ceri Richards is an artist of international importance, thoroughly Welsh in origins and motivation and often referred to as a painter's painter. Pater Wakelin discusses the artist's life and work.
  
  
• From Barthes to Butetown by Mark Jenkins
  Playwright Mark Jenkins in conversation with the acclaimed novelist Sean Burke. They discuss Burke's novel Deadwater, along with the challenge of making the transition from critic to creator.
  
  
• Negotiating with the Living by Emyr Humphreys
  Emyr Humphreys casts a readerly eye over Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing.
  
  
• Glancing Down the Cliff of Time: Pamela Hansford Johnson and Dylan Thomas by James A. Davies
  The influence of Dylan Thomas on the successful and prolific novelist Pamel Hansford Johnson.
  
  
• A Writer's Diary by Stephen Knight
  A personal look at the process of writing.
  
  
• Bookmark by Paul Henry
  Reading the dead and meeting the living.
  
  

Fiction

• Dog Days by Penny Simpson
  
• The Love I Carry by Maria Donovan
  

Poems

Poems by :
Annemarie Austin
Ruth Bidgood
Zoe Brigley
Paul Henry
Stephen Knight

Reviews

The majority of books reviewed in New Welsh Review can be bought online from gwales.com, the Welsh Books Council's online bookshop, by simply clicking on the 'buy now' icon. For any that are unavailable, please contact the publishers or ask in your local bookshop. All details were correct at the time of publication.

• Deadwater by Sean Burke
  Published by Serpent's Tail
  ISBN No ISBN supplied  £7.99
  Reviewed by Tony Padfield
  
  
• Residues by R.S. Thomas
  Published by Bloodaxe
  ISBN No ISBN available  £7.95
  Reviewed by Patrick Crotty
  
  
• The Witch Bag by Sarah Corbett
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Richard Poole
  
  
• Marble Sky by Vuyelwa Carlin
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN available  £6.95
  Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
  
  
• New and Selected Poems by John Davies
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN available  £8.95
  Reviewed by Jasmine Donahaye
  
  
• Crag Inspector by David Hart
  Published by Five Seasons Press
  ISBN No ISBN available  £No price given
  Reviewed by Teleri Williams
  
  
• The Echoing Green by Gladys Mary Coles
  Published by Flambard Press
  ISBN No ISBN available  £7.50
  Reviewed by Teleri Williams
  
  
• The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas by Dannie Abse
  Published by Robson Books
  ISBN No ISBN supplied  £14.95
  Reviewed by Tony Curtis
  
  
• Corbenic by Catherine Fisher
  Published by Red Fox
  ISBN No ISBN available  £5.99
  Reviewed by Jeni Williams
  
  
• Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
  Published by New English Library
  ISBN No ISBN supplied  £6.99
  Reviewed by Sarah Broughton
  
  
• The Deadly Space Between by Patricia Duncker
  Published by Picador
  ISBN No ISBN available  hb £14.99
  Reviewed by Nia Williams
  
  
• Strange Tunnels Disappearing by Gary Ley
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN available  £7.95
  Reviewed by Kirsti Bohata
  
  
• 2001: A Year in Wales by Patrick Hannan
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN available  £8.95
  Reviewed by Nick Murray
  
  
• A Life by Glanmor Williams
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN No ISBN available  hb £14.99
  Reviewed by David Barnes
  
  
• Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays, Volume 7 by Tony Brown (Ed)
  Published by New Welsh Review Ltd
  ISBN No ISBN available  £11.00
  Reviewed by Nathalie Wourm
  
  
• Waldo Williams: Rhyddiaith by Damian Walford Davies (Ed)
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN No ISBN available  £14.99
  Reviewed by Rowan Williams
  
  
• Wedding Poems by David Jones
  Published by Enitharmon
  ISBN No ISBN available  hb £12.00
  Reviewed by Duncan Campbell
  
  
• Capel Sion by Caradoc Evans
  Published by Seren
  ISBN No ISBN available  £5.95
  Reviewed by Rhian Reynolds
  
  
• Iron and Gold by Hilda Vaughan
  Published by Honno
  ISBN No ISBN available  £8.99
  Reviewed by Rhian Reynolds
  
  
• Celts and Christians: New Approaches to the Religious Traditions of Britain and Ireland by Mark Atherton (Ed)
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN No ISBN available  £14.99
  Reviewed by Rowan O'Neill
  
  
• Travels with The Flea and other eccentric journeys by Jim Perrin
  Published by The In Pinn
  ISBN No ISBN available  £12.95
  Reviewed by Roger Hubank
  
  

Letters

• 'The Beautiful Lie' (NWR 57) - Sheenagh Pugh
• Welsh Book of the Year - Deborah Fisher
• 'Wowsers' (NWR 57) - Paul Groves