New Welsh Review 77, Autumn 2007
Editorial:
Compass Points (Francesca Rhydderch)
Among the celebrations marking the centenary of the National Museum of Wales this year is a major exhibition of work donated to the museum by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, daughters of the self-made industrialist David Davies. The sisters have previously suffered something of a bad press, since it was taken for granted until very recently that their money was spent on their behalf by their better informed, well-connected male advisors. The latest research on their art-collecting and other philanthropic pursuits, however, presented for the first time in ‘Things of Beauty’: What Two Sisters Did for Wales, a book published to accompany the exhibition, shows two welleducated, highly intelligent and strong-minded women who were far less dependent on their male advisors than was previously assumed. ‘Things of Beauty’ offers a compellingly revisionist yet accessible history of the various aspects of the Davies’s work, from their pioneering art-collecting to their fine-book press, Gwasg Gregynog, which is still in production today. The beautifully composed austerity of the book’s design itself mirrors the Arts and Crafts ideals which motivated much of the sisters’ work.
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Features
- Poverty, Piety and Newsprint by Martin Padget
Martin Padget explores the cultural politics of documentary photography in the Outer Hebrides, where there has traditionally been a ‘geographically peripheral and culturally marginalized population’.
- The Falkland Diaries by Des Barry (words) and Diego Vidart (images)
Welsh writer Des Barry and Uruguayan photographer Diego Vidart travelled from Cardiff to the Falkland Islands for a joint project ‘about everyday life, not the war’. This adapted extract of their diary inevitably stirs up associations with the 1982 conflict but ‘can any piece of artwork heal anything?’.
- Is There Anybody Out There? by Jasmine Donahaye
Jasmine Donahaye considers the Library of Wales classics series. From the choice of editor, publisher and selection of titles to expectations and sales: what, she asks, will make the series a resounding and cultural success?
- Conquering Convention by Claire Flay
Claire Flay unearths revealing new material on 1920s writer Dorothy Edwards as her work comes back into print as part of the Library of Wales classics series.
- Photo / Poem collaboration by David Hurn and Robert Minhinnick
- A Writer's Writer by Owen Martell on Dostoevsky and T.H. Parry-Williams
- Photo Essay by Joanna Hughes
Photo essay and prose on the closure of the Burberry factory in Treorchy, south Wales
Fiction
- The Loser by Fatos Kongoli, translated by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck
- Martha, Jack & Shanco by Caryl Lewis, translated by Gwen Davies
Poems
Poems by :
Matthew Francis, Ian Gregson, Richard Marggraf Turley and Cardiff International Poetry Competition winner Colette Bryce, with runners-up Jennifer Copley and Victor Tapner
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.
 Resistance by Owen Sheers
Published by Faber and Faber
ISBN 9780571229635 HB £14.99
Reviewed by John Barnie
- Symbols of Plenty: Selected Poems by Ruth Bidgood
Published by Canterbury Press
ISBN 1853117528 PB £9.99
Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
- A Moment in the Field by Margret Lloyd
Published by Plinth Books
ISBN 1887628088 PB £6.99
Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
- Missed Chances by Sam Adams
Published by Y Lolfa
ISBN 0862438640 PB £7.99
Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
- Early Departures, Late arrivals by Mercer Simpson
Published by Rockingham Press
ISBN 9781904851165 PB £7.99
Reviewed by Matthew Jarvis
- The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley
Published by Cape
ISBN 9780224078542 HB £16.99
Reviewed by Jem Poster
- Sunstroke and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Published by Cape
ISBN 9780224078214 PB £11.99
Reviewed by Jem Poster
- Trouble in Heaven by John Barnie
Published by Gomer
ISBN 9781843237815 PB £7.99
Reviewed by Philip Gross
- The Cut of the Light: Poems 1965 - 2005 by Jeremy Hooker
Published by Enitharmon Press
ISBN 9781904634270 HB £25.00
Reviewed by Philip Gross
- Runt by Niall Griffiths
Published by Cape
ISBN 0224071238 PB £11.99
Reviewed by Mary-Ann Constantine
- Winterton Blue by Trezza Azzopardi
Published by Picador
ISBN 9780330493505 HB £12.99
Reviewed by Mary-Ann Constantine
- Neighbours from Hell? by Mike Parker
Published by Y Lolfa
ISBN 0862436117 PB £7.95
Reviewed by Owain Wilkins
- Civil Society in Wales by Eds. Graham Day, David Dunkerley and Andrew Thompson
Published by University of Wales Press
ISBN 0708318509 PB £16.99
Reviewed by Owain Wilkins
- The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
Published by Sceptre
ISBN 9780340938256 HB £12.99
Reviewed by Anna Kiernan
- Call Centre Love Song by Ian Gregson
Published by Salt
ISBN 9781844712564 PB £9.99
Reviewed by Jason Rotstein
- As If Only by Ian Davidson
Published by Shearsman
ISBN 9781905700080 PB £8.95
Reviewed by Jason Rotstein
- A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosphy by Charlotte Greig
Published by Serpent's Tail
ISBN 9781852429515 PB £10.99
Reviewed by Anna Scott
- Luggage From Elsewhere by Aneurin Gareth Thomas
Published by Parthian
ISBN 9781902638942 PB £9.99
Reviewed by Anna Scott
- Pumping Up Napoleon by Maria Donovan
Published by Seren
ISBN 9781854114419 PB £6.99
Reviewed by Anna Scott
- The Shoe Queen by Anna Davis
Published by Doubleday
ISBN 9780385609913 HB £12.99
Reviewed by Anna Scott
Letters
- Kathryn Gray's review of Tony Conran's The Red Sap of Love in NWR 76 - Tony Conran
- Where and when - John Lucas
- Vanity publishing - Mary Lloyd Jones
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