New Welsh Review 75, Spring 2007

Editorial:

Wales and Film (Francesca Rhydderch)

A low-lying camera pans over a former airfield, recently colonised by folding chairs and unruly tents. It is 2002, and the National Eisteddfod occupies a square of land just outside Wales’s medieval city, St Davids. A slightly sinister soundtrack, heavy on the electric guitar, accompanied by images of eisteddfotwyr (eisteddfod-goers), sets the tone for what follows: nothing is as innocently coincidental as it seems in Dal:Yma/Nawr [Still:Here/Now], an exuberant paean to the centuries-old tradition of Welsh poetry. Symbolic sequences featuring the number seven have been shot in a variety of locales, from the Eisteddfod itself to a beach in Santa Monica, lending a reassuring solidity to the presence of actors Rhys Ifans, Siân Phillips, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys, Daniel Evans and Nia Roberts. From the seventh-century poet Aneirin to Wales’s first National Poet, Gwyneth Lewis, the film offers an ‘odyssey’ through the long and variegated tradition of poetry in Welsh. Including quiet, intimate readings by contemporary poets such as Alan Llwyd and Gwyn Thomas, and a combination of straight and dramatised readings by the actors, the film also features musicians Cerys Matthews and John Cale.
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Features

• Masquerade by Michael Corris
  In the run-up to an exhibition at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Michael Corris explores the significance of Angus McBean's photography throughout his career and looks at the way in which an artist and their art are interlinked.
  
  
• Waking the Dead by Fflur Dafydd
  Fflur Dafydd talks to film-maker Marc Evans about the process of bringing Wales' bardic tradition to the big screen, and the impact of the film Dal:Yma/Nawr (Still:Here/Now) on the rest of his work.
  
  
• 'Eccentric Movement' by Jodie Allinson
  Jodie Allinson takes a look at the emergence of Welsh multimedia performers and how film and theatre overlap.
  
  
• Poetry in Motion by Gwyn Thomas
  The National Poet reflects on the creative process of composing 'screen poems' and the way they are interpreted.
  
  
• From the Archives by David Jones, with an introduction by Thomas Dilworth
  Thomas Dilworth intyroduces a previously unpublished review of David Jones on How Green Was My Valley.
  
  
• Victor Golightly - Obituary by Barbara Prys-Williams
  A tribute to the former editor of New Welsh Review, who sadly died in 2006.
  
  
• A Writer's Director by Rachel Trezise
  Rachel Trezise on Mike Leigh, Ken Loach...and Johnny Depp.
  
  
• Photo / Poem Collaboration by David Hurn and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch
  
  
  

Fiction

• Felled by Tyler Keelvil
  
• The Layover by Richard Redman
  

Poems

Poems by :
Maura Dooley
Carrie Etter
Ellie Evans
Chris McCully
John Powell Ward

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.

• Quicksand Beach by Kate Bingham
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114115  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Kelly Grovier
  
  
• The Man Who Went into the West by Byron Rogers
  Published by Aurum Press
  ISBN 1845131460  hb £16.99
  Reviewed by Gerard Woodward
  
  
• The Long Dry by Cynan Jones
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 190263893X  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Anna Scott
  
  
• Eleven by David Llewellyn
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114158  pb £6.99
  Reviewed by Anna Scott
  
  
• Megalith by Ed. Damian Walford Davies
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843236656  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Anne Stevenson
  
  
• Trace by Ed. Andre Stitt
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114085  pb £12.99
  Reviewed by Hugh Adams
  
  
• First Language by Mary Lloyd Jones et al.
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843235404  hb £24.99
  Reviewed by Hugh Adams
  
  
• A Social History of the Cinema in Wales by Peter Miskell
  Published by University of Wales Press
  ISBN 0708318789  pb £17.99
  Reviewed by Gwenno Ffrancon
  
  
• Walking to Greenham by Ann Pettitt
  Published by Honno
  ISBN 1870206762  pb £8.99
  Reviewed by Meg Elis
  
  
• New Selected Poems by Vernon Watkins
  Published by Fyfield Books
  ISBN 1857548477  pb £9.95
  Reviewed by Victor Golightly's
  
  
• Misappropriations by Jasmine Donahaye
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638956  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Kathryn Gray
  
  
• Misappropriations by Jasmine Donahaye
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 1902638956  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Kathryn Gray
  
  
• & the concept of zero by Christopher Brooke
  Published by Cinnamon
  ISBN 1905614059  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Kathryn Gray
  
  
• Return Ticket by Eigra Lewis Roberts
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843236788  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Sara Penrhyn Jones
  
  
• The Awakening by Kate Roberts, trans. Sian James
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 1854114050  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Sara Penrhyn Jones
  
  
• Si Hei Lwli/Twighlight Song by Angharad Tomos, trans. Elin ap Hywel
  Published by Gomer
  ISBN 1843233673  pb £8.99
  Reviewed by Sara Penrhyn Jones
  
  

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