Non Fiction
ISBN: 9781854115539
Publication date: November 7, 2011
Price: £9.99
Out of stock
“Passionate, well informed and funny…” – Planet
The old kingdom of Powys covers some of the most remote and thinly populated parts of Britain. In Real Powys long-term resident Mike Parker explores what is it like to live in the towns and villages of the empty and dramatic landscape of mid Wales? In the course of the book Parker explores how life there differ from urban areas, and looks at some of the issues people there have faced over the last several centuries, and face now with the arrival of windfarms on the one hand and local government cuts on the other.
Observant, passionate, witty, offbeat, Mike Parker tours Powys from the border towns of Hay on Wye, Presteigne and Knighton, through the interior of Rhayader, Llanidloes and Caersws, to the furthest points of Newtown, Penybont, Ystradgynlais and Brecon. He takes the waters at the spa towns Builth, Llandrindod and Llanwrtyd, pauses at the court of Owain Glyndwr and the death scene of Llywellyn the Last, nods to Francis Kilvert and Eric Gill in the Black Mountains, explores ruined Abbey Cwmhir and bustling Newtown, and follows the Heart of Wales railway line, the Roman Sarn Helen road and the rivers Severn and Wye.
Could it be that Powys is a time capsule of British life fifty years ago?
Is it a stronghold for the Welsh language and culture?
What surprises does he stumble upon among the mountains, forests, streams and farms of this mysterious countryside?
Mike Parker
Mike Parker has written or co-written ten guidebooks, a novel and two non-fiction titles. He is the author of The Rough Guide to Wales, Map Addict (Collins, 2009; PB 2010) and The Wild Rover (Collins, April 2011) in a publishing career of almost twenty years. A former stand-up comedian, he presented the HTV series Coast to Coast, and Great Welsh Roads. He says: “The gap between Rough Guide Wales and the Wales that I see around me was growing wider by the day. I want to write about the real place, not the marketing version of it.”
