Blog posts by year and monthNovember 2011
Posts (103)
'My Failings and Imperfections' - the diary of a promiscuous Welsh Victorian landowner
A confessional diary detailing the promiscuous life of a Victorian gentleman living in rural Wales 150 years ago has been published. Journalist Steve Dubé, the former farming editor of the Western Mail, came across the diary of by chance in the Pembrokeshire Record Office in Haverfordwest several years ago. The raucous life of Rees Thomas of Dol-llan, Llandysul chronicled in this diary details his life full of addiction, promiscuity and loneliness. Now the diary, published as 'My Failings and Imperfections' is to be launched tonight in Llandysul. It is the first joint publication by Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society and Ceredigion Historical Society. Speaking about Rees' life, Dubé, who edited the book, said: "After the death of his two elder brothers, Rees becomes head of a family that includes five orphaned children, three spendthrift younger brothers with drink problems and a sister unhappily married to a drunken vicar. "They are all on his back, and his unsympathetic mother, who lives next door, makes matters worse. "It's a situation that forces him into the clutches of the demon drink and the arms of his not always willing servants, who react rebelliously. And Rees Thomas writes it all down, plainly and honestly, over a period of two years and eight months from 1860." You can read more about My Failings And Imperfections by Rees Thomas on the Wales Online website. The book is being launched at the Porth Hotel, Llandysul tonight at 7pm.
December exhibitions at Mostyn, Llandudno
Mostyn in Llandudno will open three new exhibitions on Saturday, in addition to the two current exhibitions already running at the gallery. The work of Anselm Kiefer, one of Germany's most significant post-war artists, will go on show at Mostyn from Saturday 3 December. The exhibition is part ...
Neil Kinnock on Coming Home: "I came from hard workers and fighters"
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock once famously declared he was the first in his family for "a thousand generations" to attend university and is proud of his modest beginnings. Neil Kinnock was born in 1942 in the coal mining town of Tredegar and later gained a degree in industrial relations and history at Cardiff. Lord Kinnock made the remarks about his background at a Welsh Labour party conference just before the 1987 general election, saying it was not the lack of talent or strength which held people back, but opportunity. But now, in a new series of the family history programme Coming Home that begins tonight on BBC One Wales, Lord Kinnock learned that a great-uncle of his had a very privileged start to life, as he attended an exclusive public school in Surrey. In the programme, Lord Kinnock defends his political statement, in light of the discovery, and said: "Going to this school doesn't naturally convey the fact he had a good education." Tracing a family history can reveal startling and occasionally uncomfortable long-forgotten facts about a family history. Lord Kinnock spoke to BBC Cymru Wales about his reasons for agreeing to take part in the programme. He said: ""Everyone is interested in their own background but very few have ever researched the details of who and where they came from. "I've always been intrigued by the bits of my family history that I knew so I was glad to accept the invitation from Coming Home. I knew that Mike Churchill-Jones and the rest of the BBC Wales team of experts would do some real digging. "The experience of Coming Home was fascinating. We tore around south and west Wales from Tredegar to Kidwelly and Brecon and then dashed over to Bristol before getting back to Cardiff. "Some of what I saw and heard was familiar because, obviously, I've always been close to the valleys and to my family. I knew, of course, that I came from hard workers and fighters who surmounted great adversity and poverty. But there were several revelations about my grandparents and their forebears that were completely new to me. "Since the story of the Howells and Griffiths and Herberts and Kinnocks that were my people is very similar to that of countless others of my generation and background I think that many might share my sense of discovery. "I'm grateful to Coming Home - not least because the family tree that they gave me has deeply intrigued my grandchildren. After all, it's their story too!" Read more about Neil Kinnock's experience on Coming Home on BBC Wales News. If Coming Home has inspired you to take start tracing your family history, take a look at Cat Whiteaway's tips on the BBC Wales History blog.
Bethlehem Village Band's traditional Christmas
In the run-up to Christmas many festive albums will be released, but one from Wales contains a more unusual set of songs than most. The Bethlehem Band The Bethlehem Village Band, based in the west Wales village that shares its name of with Jesus' birthplace, have released a new album entitled Bethlehem Christmas. Martin Leamon of the band told us: "The album is released independently and is available online and at selected shops in Llandeilo, Llandovery, Gower, Swansea, Ystradgynlais, Cowbridge and Hay on Wye. "Four of us are multi-instrumentalists and between us use (in no particular order) fiddle, harp, bagpipes, guitar, hurdy gurdy, trombone, flute, one-row melodeon, bouzouki and archaic bowed lyre. Four out of the five of us also sing on the record. "We are traditional musicians and all the tracks are traditional songs. Without having a conscious manifesto we play songs we like in our natural style. Christmas songs don't have to be sung by classically trained singers at dirge tempo or played by brass bands. "The fact that carol tunes were once danced to, or that certain well known tunes were almost certainly composed with (for example) a hurdy gurdy in mind adds fuel to the fire. Festive is the right word to use: there are specifically religious Christmas songs; some songs are of a seasonal nature and deal with the turning of the year. "There are songs in Welsh, English and Latin and some are performed as instrumentals. Songs of cider, beer and merriment sit beside reflective songs and hymns." Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other BBC blog, you will need to sign in to your BBC iD account. If you don't have a BBC iD account, you can register here - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of BBC sites and services using a single login. Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.
'Oh, go on.... just do The Hiss...'
The only known vampire in Wales - arguably the oldest recorded in Britain - came from the border area around the end of the 12th century. Little is known about this case, but it did appear to leave an entire community seriously anaemic before it ended with the full works, including the traditional exhumation and the removal of a head with a spade. And then it all went quiet for nearly a millennium, until a whole colony of the Undead was reported around Rhuddlan Castle in North Wales by the award-winning fantasy writer Sam Stone. Sam, who lives at Prestatyn, is one of two Wales-based writers of vampire novels on Sunday's Phil the Shelf, which asks: what, apart from a haemoglobin-rich diet, has kept the Undead alive and flourishing for so long? I'd kind of imagined that Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series and all the romantic chicklit vamps it spawned would put the final stake through the heart of the sanguinary genre. Not so, apparently. An internet list of the top 10 horror titles this week reveals that four of them are vampire stories. They've come back to life... as ebooks. And the top two are both Vampire Federation novels by Scott G Mariani, who lives in the countryside near Carmarthen, where he watches movies and does a bit of archery. Scott Mariani, without the G, is the bestselling author of the Ben Hope series about an ex-SAS officer who gets involved in Dan Brown style mystical mysteries. The Vampire Federation, his less-serious sideline, creates a whole EC-style bureaucracy through which Euro-vamps survive alongside the human race. Both Sam and Scott employ the device of having archaic monsters exposed to all the horrors of the 21st century, including texting and the net, although health and safety are played down. So... is it getting too silly? Hundreds of thousands of readers think not. Christopher Lee Putting this programme together reminded me of the time we talked to the greatest screen Dracula of them all, Christopher Lee, about his autobiography. It soon became clear that Lee, while not ashamed of such Hammer classics as Taste The Blood Of Dracula, preferred to be remembered for his other screen roles, such as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man - a movie recalled by the first book in our new Shelfstarters spot. Last week we talked to Sue Walton, a professional publisher's copy-editor from Penmaenmawr, who's set up a business to help would-be published writers make their manuscripts more presentable for submission to publishers and literary agents. Sue's been working with Karl Drinkwater from Aberystwyth on Turner, a novel about a mysterious island off the Welsh coast, ruled by a certain Lord John - so lots of echoes of The Wicker Man. In Sunday's programme we run a sample of the book past experienced fantasy publisher Jo Fletcher to see if the combination of Karl and Sue has produced a winner. Jo will also be giving us her opinion on whether vampire fiction is finally coming to the end of the bloodline. A question we decided not to attempt to ask Christopher Lee, remembering what happened at the end of my last interview with the great man. I'd been saving a particular question, thinking it would be a really memorable way to end the programme. It went something like: Me: Er... you remember that sinister noise you used to make when you opened your mouth to reveal the fangs... that hiss? Silence. Me: Do you think you could do one now? Lee: No. Me: Just one...? But he refused. He refused to do the hiss! Honestly, you'd've thought I was asking for blood. Listen to Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 4 December from 5pm.
Free tickets for Elis James' new BBC Radio Wales show
Rising Welsh comedian Elis James is currently recording a new comedy series for BBC Radio Wales, and there are free tickets on offer for those who'd like to be part of the audience. Elis James The new Radio Wales series is called Elis James' Pantheon Of Heroes. The rather bizarre premise...
Jeweller Anne Morgan to design 2012 Eisteddfod crown
Anne Morgan has been selected from a shortlist of Welsh artists to design one of the iconic prizes of the 2012 National Eisteddfod. The Penarth-based jeweller will design the crown for next year's National Eisteddfod, which will be held in Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan. The 2012 crown will ...
A history of Welsh protest
The strike by public sector workers planned for Wednesday 30 November 2011 threatens to be the largest organised withdrawal of labour for many years. Without going into the rights and wrongs of the matter, it demonstrates, if nothing else, the deep feelings of unease and unrest felt by most, if ...
Genealogist Cat Whiteaway's tips to kick start your family history research
The return of Coming Home this week reminds me of my first job in television. I could never have imagined that one day I would be meeting Donny Osmond in a posh London hotel with a film crew in tow to tell him about his Welsh ancestors. It was even stranger when you think that as a Mormon he has...
A Christmas Carol - as told by Jacob Marley (Deceased)
James Hyland's unique stage adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol sees the experiences of miser Ebenezer Scrooge told through the eyes of his former business partner Jacob Marley. The acclaimed one-man show is touring the UK and will be making pitstops at the Lyric ...
