New Welsh Review 82, Winter 2008

Editorial:

Life and Times (Kathryn Gray)

The most exciting first editorials shoot from the hip. They rebel against regime, convention, inertia. They delight and infuriate. Make their authors enemies and win them new, unexpected allies. They mark the end of the past, herald a new era, offer promises that, sadly, more often than not, are quickly forgotten by those that make them – though rarely those that believe them. As it is, if the temptation were there to deliver something along these lines, I am denied such an easy figure.
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Features

• First Hand by Justin Kerrigan
  BAFTA Cymru director Justin Kerrigan on the genesis of his screen play I Know You Know and how the film eventually came to be made.
  
  
• Performance and Identity by Terry Eagleton
  Terry Eagleton on the the life of Raymond Williams, ‘novelist, dramatist, literary critic, political theorist, sociologist of culture and ecologist before the word was even invented’, and reflects on the official biography Raymond Williams: a Warrior’s Tale by Dai Smith.
  
  
• Sounding the Depths by Katie Gramich
  Katie Gramich on recent works by Christine Evans (Bardsey) and Gillian Clarke (At the Source: A Writer’s Year). Both are ‘celebrations of the inexhaustible beauty of the natural world in their respective "square miles" of Wales’.
  
  
• We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live by Sarah Broughton
  Sarah Broughton on subjectivity and survival; she considers two autobiographical works, The Presence by Dannie Abse and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
  
  
• Mitchum, Me and the Big-Nosed Muppet by Lloyd Robson
  The writer and broadcaster on gonzo, and the influence of Robert Mitchum on his life.
  
  
• Photo essay by John Briggs
  John Briggs introduces his photo essay on John Berryman, The Poet and the Photographer (2), travelling from Cardiff to Laugharne in memory of the poet.
  
  
• The Last Word by Anthony Brockway
  Why Welsh science fiction, fantasy and horror should no longer be neglected.
  
  

Fiction

• The Beautiful Game by Niall Griffiths
  
• Forgiven by Alix Nathan
  

Poems

Poems by :
Joe Dunthorne
Meirion Jordan
Anna Lewis
Sinead Morrissey
Damian Walford Davies.

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.

• Oh Dad! A Search for Robert Mitchum by Lloyd Robson
  Published by Parthian
  ISBN 9781905762132  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by John Harrison
  
  
• Real Swansea by Nigel Jenkins
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854114846  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Peter Stead
  
  
• If You Fall I Will Catch You by Eifion Jenkins
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854114563  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Philip Gross
  
  
• Revenant by Tristan Hughes
  Published by Picador
  ISBN 9780330451963  pb £7.99
  Reviewed by Anna Scott
  
  
• Mandeville by Matthew Francis
  Published by Faber
  ISBN 9780571239276  pb £9.99
  Reviewed by Ian Gregson
  
  
• The Man Who Made Penguins: The Life of Sir William Emrys Williams by Sander Meredeen
  Published by Darien Jones Publishing
  ISBN 9781902487038  hb £29.50
  Reviewed by Meic Stephens
  
  
• The Good Plain Cook by Bethan Roberts
  Published by Serpent's Tail
  ISBN 9781846686658  pb £10.99
  Reviewed by John Wrighton
  
  
• A Lens in the Palm by Kelly Grovier
  Published by Oxford Poets/Carcanet
  ISBN 9781903039885  pb £9.95
  Reviewed by Claire Crowther
  
  
• MUDe by John Redmond
  Published by Carcanet
  ISBN 9781857549270  pb £9.95
  Reviewed by Claire Crowther
  
  
• Ernest Zobole: A Life in Art by Ceri Thomas
  Published by Seren
  ISBN 9781854113726  pb £15.00
  Reviewed by Frances Williams
  
  

Letters