New Welsh Review 57, Summer 2002

Editorial:

Shapes of Wales (Francesca Rhydderch)

As New Welsh Review was about to go to press, the National Eisteddfod was still in full swing. Sitting over proofs of this, my first issue, I couldn’t help pondering the apparent fragility of the Welsh literary scene in English, compared with her seemingly far stronger Welsh-language sister. Isn’t it ironic, I thought, that the prose-writers and poets who write in Welsh – a language which is still seriously embattled, after all – seem to be freer to experiment with different contemporary forms than Welsh writers who write in English? Two of this year’s Eisteddfod winners did just that: Welsh-language poets are still arguing about the merits of the experimental poem by Aled Jones Williams which won him the Crown, while Hywel Teifi Edwards, one of the judges of the Prose Medal, declared himself delighted that the winning entry, by Angharad Price, had dared to engage with such a traditionally literal genre, autobiography, in such a fresh, contemporary and fictive way. Common to the work of both writers is a successful appropriation of essentially non-indigenous genres or literary techniques into a contemporary Welsh tradition.
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Features

• 'Isn't that how life is for you?' by Sarah Broughton
  Sarah Broughton talks to award-winning novelist Sarah Waters.
  
  
• Related Twilights by Josef Herman
  An extract from the book of the same name, which offers a new generation of readers the opportunity to appreciate the importance of Josef Herman to the arts of his adopted country.
  
  
• 'Is it a competition?' by Paul Ferris
  A reflection on the experience of judging the Welsh Book of the Year Award 2002.
  
  
• Before The Deluge by Peter Finch
  Peter Finch on John Briggs' photographs of Cardiff's dockland communities in the Seventies.
  
  
• Castles and All Hallows: The first two symphonies of The Welsh Commoedia by Tony Conran
  The Gwyn Jones Lecture 2002, specially commisioned by the Welsh Academy and delivered in Cardiff on 17 April.
  
  
• Bookmark by Ali Smith
  Books. Everywhere.
  
  
• A Writer's Diary by Matthew Francis
  Time for inspiration.
  
  

Fiction

• Flock by Jo Mazelis
  
• Stump by Niall Griffiths
  An extract from a novel in progress
• Street Talk by Simon Howells
  

Poems

Poems by :
Tiffany Atkinson
David Constantine
Ann Leahy
Rhian Saadat
Robert Seatter
Virgil Suárez

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.

• After the Hurricane by Robert Minhinnick
  Published by Carcanet
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Mary-Ann Constantine
  
  
• Kelly & Victor by Niall Griffiths
  Published by Cape
  ISBN Not supplied  £10.00
  Reviewed by John Williams
  
  
• The Beautiful Lie by Sheenagh Pugh
  Published by Seren
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Tiffany Atkinson
  
  
• Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams
  Published by Planet
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Kirsti Bohata
  
  
• Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed Race Britons by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
  Published by The Women's Press
  ISBN Not Supplied  £11.99
  Reviewed by Kirsti Bohata
  
  
• The Bird Hospital by Anna Wigley
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Stephen Knight
  
  
• The Chosen Poeple: Wales and the Jews by Grahame Davies (Ed)
  Published by Seren
  ISBN Not supplied  £9.95
  Reviewed by William Rubinstein
  
  
• Heaven's Gate by Tony Curtis
  Published by Seren
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Richard Poole
  
  
• Wowsers by Paul Groves
  Published by Seren
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.95
  Reviewed by Richard Poole
  
  
• Accidents in the Home by Tessa Hadley
  Published by Cape
  ISBN Not supplied  £10.00
  Reviewed by Clare Morgan
  
  
• Sunbathing in the Rain by Gwyneth Lewis
  Published by Flamingo
  ISBN Not supplied  £14.99
  Reviewed by Glyn Elwyn
  
  
• Chwileniwm: Technoleg a Llenyddiaeth by Angharad Price
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN Not supplied  £14.99
  Reviewed by Fflur Dafydd
  
  
• Ice by John Barnie
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN Not supplied  £7.95
  Reviewed by Nicholas Murray
  
  
• The Chivalry of Crime by Desmond Barry
  Published by Vintage
  ISBN Not supplied  £6.99
  Reviewed by Stephen Knight
  
  
• A Bloody Good Friday by Desmond Barry
  Published by Cape
  ISBN Not supplied  £10.00
  Reviewed by Stephen Knight
  
  

Letters