New Welsh Review 56, Summer 2002

Editorial:

First a gripe...And then the good news (Victor Golightly)

What’s the difference between Socialist Worker and New Welsh Review? Bizarrely, the revolutionary tabloid is the one that’s welcome in W.H. Smith’s, the show-home of metropolitan print-capitalism, while we understand that New Welsh Review may no longer be sold in any of their stores in Wales, after a directive from Head Office.
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Features

• Dylan Thomas's New Quay by David N. Thomas
  It's a commonplace to say that Dylan Thomas worked best away from the temptations of London, in his "vegetabledom", as he once described New Quay. David N. Thomas finds that it was more Bombay Potato than Boiled Cabbage.
  
  
• Dannie Abse's Autobiographical Fiction by James A. Davies
  Abse explores a middle-class world of responsible behaviour, respected family life, love, security, hard work and professional concern, as well as the opposites to all these. Davies explores Abse's work against a background of critical neglect.
  
  
• 'My World Stock Fluctuates a Good deal!': An appreciation of R.S. Thomas from the western side of the Atlantic by John G. McEllhenney
  Drawing on his correspondence with the poet, McEllhenney reflects on America's appreciation of R.S.Thomas.
  
  
• Taking Soundings by Mary Medlicott
  Medlicott examines the causes and consequences of lost cultures by telling of her experiences with an impending Eistedfod visit, a Welsh Choir in North America, the American Indian culture of the area and stories of seals basking on dinghies.
  
  
• Lore of the Rings by C.W. Sullivan
  Sullivan discusses the influence of Welsh myth and legend on fantasy literature in the 1960s and 1970s. In this article, Sullivan explores the use of Welsh Mythology and landscape as inspiration for a range of fantasy novels during the ‘60s and ‘70s.
  
  
• Shakespearean Revels by Sally Harper
  Harper looks back at a musical Christmas held at Lleweni Hall, Denbighshire in the 1590s and examines the nature and number of the performers in attendance as well as looking at the life of the hall’s host, John Salusbury.
  
  
• Tower of Power by Mike Jenkins
  Mike Jenkins interviews Tyrone O’Sullivan, Chariman of Tower Colliery on the release of O’Sullivan’s autobiography, the position of the arts in Wales, politics, OBEs and the buyout of the Tower Colliery by its workers.
  
  
• Regenerating Wales by Gareth Williams
  Williams undertakes some sociological reflections on the past and future of the South Wales of coal and steel by drawing on a study of the impact of the Chorus steel closures.
  
  
• In search of Niclas y Grais by Geoff Jones
  Jones looks at the work and ideology of T.E. Nicholas (Niclas y Glais) and explores how the overtly political works of Nicholas are still relevant in modern society when there is great risk of subversion of a strong culture.
  
  
• When was Welsh History? by Colin Thomas
  Thomas reminisces over his experience with Gwyn Alf Williams in producing Welsh history programmes for the BBC and the problems of conveying history to an un-receptive public.
  
  
• A letter from Her Majesty by Gareth Miles
  A light-hearted look at the relationship between the Wales and the Royal Family.
  
  
• Riot? What Riot? by James Thomas
  Thomas looks back at the “Battle of Ninian Park” that was the FA cup game between Leeds and Cardiff and explores how the English media turned it into a crusade against Wales.
  
  
• The Music of Madness by John Harrison
  Harrison examines how Edgar Allen Poe's stories can be interpreted through art cinema with focus on 'The Fall of the House of Usher' as a visual and musical event.
  
  
• Ceri Richards and the condition of music by Rian Evans
  Evans looks back at the life and work of the welsh artist Ceri Richards in the run-up to the centenary of the artist's birth.
  
  
• Private View by Tony Curtis
  Tony Curtis looks at a selection of art exhibitions in Wales at the beginning of 2002.
  
  
• Dic kicks against the pricks by David Adams
  Adams reviews the play 'Franco's Bastard' by Dic Edwards and discusses the playwrite and his stylistic relation to Caradoc Evans in terms of their plays' political impact.
  
  
• The Theatre of Human Obsessions by Hazel Walford Davies
  Walford Davies interviews playwright Mark Jenkins about his life and works.
  
  
• Chapter and Verse by Ivor Davies
  'The Laocoon' Davies explains the archetypical basis of his picture on the cover of issue 56.
  
  
• Books I Remember by Stevie Davies
  Davies looks back at some of the most memorable books she has read in her life.
  
  

Fiction

• About the size of a shoebox by Niall Griffiths
  
• As I was a boy fishing by Lewis Davies
  
• The Search Room by Robert Nisbet
  
• Bones by John Gower
  
• Plwcca Halog by Paul Persen
  
• The Enchanted by Patrick Gilmore
  
• Strange Tunnels Disappearing by Gary Ley
  Novel extract

Poems

Poems by :
Paul Baran
Martin Bennett
Allan Crosbie
Alexandra Lole Duce
Mark Farrell
Angela Fish
Anne Fitzgerald
Paul Groves
Joseph Kelly
Chris Kinsey
Stevie Krayer
Jack James
Christine McNeill
Cecelia Rossi
Ian Salkey
Steve Short

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.

• Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes From His Life by Katherine Duncan-Jones
  Published by The Arden Shakespeare
  ISBN   337pp. £20
  Reviewed by John Idris Jones
  
  
• tower Of Strength: the Story of Tyrone O'Sullivan and Tower Colliery by Tyrone O'Sullivan with John Eve & Ann Edworthy
  Published by Mainstream Publishing
  ISBN   £14.99
  Reviewed by Alec Thraves
  
  
• Cerddi Gwenallt: Y Casgliad Cyflawn by Christine James ed.
  Published by Gwasg Gomer
  ISBN   £25
  Reviewed by M. Wynn Thomas
  
  
• Distant Fields: Eighteenth-Century Fictions of Wales by Moira Dearnley
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   246pp. £25
  Reviewed by Katie Gramich
  
  
• Screen Christologies: Redemption and the Medium of Film by Christopher Deacy
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   pb/hb Viii + 212pp. £14.99(pb) £30 (hb)
  Reviewed by Rowan Williams
  
  
• Remembering Jerusalem by Rowan Williams
  Published by The Perpetua Press
  ISBN   52pp. £5
  Reviewed by Jeremy Hooker
  
  
• Getting A Life by Catherine Merriman
  Published by Honno
  ISBN   215pp. £6.99
  Reviewed by Kirsti Bohata
  
  
• A Short Book AboutLove by Nicholas Murray
  Published by Seren
  ISBN   153pp. £6.95
  Reviewed by Kirsti Bohata
  
  
• Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness by Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson and Rowan Williams, eds.
  Published by Oxford University Press
  ISBN   726pp. £40
  Reviewed by D Densil Morgan
  
  
• Conversations and Reflections by Emyr Humphreys. M. Wynn Thomas, ed.
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   229pp. £10.99
  Reviewed by Jeremy Hooker
  
  
• Hymns and Arias: Great Welsh Voices by Trevor Herbert and Peter Stead, eds.
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   254pp. £14.99
  Reviewed by Howard Williams
  
  
• Public Places: The Autobiography by Sian Phillips
  Published by Hodder and Stoughton
  ISBN   436pp. £20
  Reviewed by Peter Stead
  
  
• Welsh Reflections: Y Drych andAmerica 1851-2001 by Aled Jones and Bill Jones
  Published by Gwasg Gomer
  ISBN   189pp. £
  Reviewed by Gareth Alban Davies
  
  
• Gweld Ser: Cymru a Chanrif America by M. Wynn Thomas, golygwyd
  Published by Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru
  ISBN   253pp. £14.99
  Reviewed by Gareth Alban Davies
  
  
• River Map by Jim Perrin
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN   58pp. £9.95
  Reviewed by Mercer Simpson
  
  
• Dafydd ap Gwilym: his poems by Gwyn Thomas, trans.
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   £12.99
  Reviewed by Caryl Davies
  
  
• Rhys Davies: Decoding the Hare by Meic Stephens, ed.
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   £
  Reviewed by Francesca Rhydderch
  
  
• Out of the Shadows: A History of Women in Twentieth-Century Wales by Deirdre Beddoe
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN   £
  Reviewed by Mari A. Williams
  
  
• Hen Dy Ffarmk/The Old Farmhouse by D. J. Williams
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN   331pp. £12.95
  Reviewed by Linda Adams
  
  
• Stonelight by Sheenagh Pugh
  Published by Seren
  ISBN   £7.95
  Reviewed by Sarah Corbett
  
  
• The Zoo Father by Pascale Petit
  Published by Seren
  ISBN   £6.95
  Reviewed by Sarah Corbett
  
  
• Blodeuwedd: An Anthology of Women's Poetry by Edmund Cusik, ed.
  Published by Headland
  ISBN   £7.95
  Reviewed by Sarah Corbett
  
  

Letters

• ...and you're mag's not welcome in Smith's either - Nigel Crick
• Nations and Relations: a reply to Katie Gramich - James A. Davies