Happy New Year!
Friday Poem – Christmas Holiday
This week’s poem is from Alun Lewis’ Collected Poems. Merry Christmas!
Alun Lewis (1915-1944), the remarkable poet and story writer, died, aged 28, in Burma during the Second World War. Some critics see him as the last of the great Romantic poets, a twentieth century Keats. Others view him as the bridge between pre-war poets like Auden and Yeats to post-war poets such as Hughes and Gunn. He was born and raised in Depression-struck south Wales and, following degrees in history at Aberystwyth and Manchester, became a teacher there. Early in 1940, despite his pacifist inclinations he enlisted and, after long periods of training, joined the war in India.
Becoming a soldier galvanised Lewis’s writing. By 1944 he had written two collections of poems and one of short stories, all published to considerable acclaim. Firmly established with Keith Douglas as the leading writer of the Second World War, Lewis’s death in an accident while on active service was huge loss to English literature. This Collected Poems comprises a body of work which has endured and which transcends the label ‘war poetry’; it is complete in itself and full of promise of greater things.
Christmas Holiday
Big-uddered piebald cattle low
The shivering chestnut stallion dozes
The fat wife sighs in her chair
Her lap is filled with paper roses
The poacher sleeps in the goose-girl’s arms
Incurious after so much eating
All human beings are replete.
But the cock upon the dunghill feels
God’s needle quiver in his brain
And thrice he crows: and at the sound
The sober and the tipsy men
Jump out of the bed with one accord
And start the war again.
The fat wife comfortably sleeping
Sighs and licks her lips and smiles
But the goose-girl is weeping.
The Roots of Rock, from Cardiff to Mississippi and Back: Listen Online
Peter Finch’s latest book The Roots of Rock, from Cardiff to Mississippi and Back charts the evolution of rock and popular music, from a 1950s valve radio playing in a suburban Cardiff terrace to the reality of the music among the bars of Ireland, the skyscrapers of New York, the plains of Tennessee, the flatlands of Mississippi and the mountains of North Carolina. For each chapter there is a playlist of suggested records to listen to whilst reading, to bring alive Peter’s many sharp-witted stories. To give you a taste of Peter’s world of music, we’ll be creating playlists for each chapter which you can listen to on our Youtube Channel. The first of these is now available, so take a listen below…
Chapter 1: Howlin’ Wolf in City Road
This entertaining book is part musical autobiography, part travel literature and also an exploration of how music can create a world for the listener that is simultaneously of and beyond the place in which is is heard.
Finch gives us sharp-eyed accounts of gigs from Champion Jack Dupree to the Garth Mountain Boys, muses on the importance of the Dansette record player, ponders why Elvis never came to Wales (except multiply in Porthcawl’s legendary Elvis Festival), visits musical shrines and theme parks – Dollywood, Grand Ole Opry, Graceland, Stax, rides along with singing cowboys and recalls his attempt to form a band, The Blueswailers. Add in music in Ireland and Wales (and in Welsh), the Bible Belt, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Etta James, Ray Charles, Bert Jansch, Taylor Swift, Alan Stivell, Chet Atkins, the Appalachian Mountains and Pigeon Forge and Finch’s world of music is as broad as the last six decades allows.
We hope you enjoyed the playlist above. You can buy the book on our website.
Friday Poem – Snow
This week’s poem is by the National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, and is taken from the Seren anthology, Christmas in Wales. If you order two books from our website you’ll get a copy of Christmas in Wales for free! Offer ends Midnight, 24th December.
Celebrate Christmas the Welsh way in the company of some of the country’s leading writers, past and present. Christmas mass, the nativity play, turkey and plum pudding, the Mari Lwyd, presents, the weather, the shopping and post-festive blues are among the many subjects drawn from stories, poems, diaries and letters. Wartime Christmases in Swansea and the Rhondda – and home thoughts from India and Italy – pantomime characters, Christmas cards and New Year Resolutions; R.S. Thomas, Dylan Thomas, Dannie Abse, Gillian Clarke, Catherine Fisher, Bruce Chatwin, Sian James, Kate Roberts and Leslie Norris, Christmas in Wales has all the ingredients for the complete experience of the season of celebration.
Snow
The dreamed Christmas,
flakes shaken out of silences so far
and starry we can’t sleep for listening
for papery rustles out there in the night
and wake to find our ceiling glimmering,
the day a psaltery of light.
So we’re out over the snow fields
before it’s all seen off with a salt-lick
of Atlantic air, then home at dusk, snow-blind
from following chains of fox and crow and hare,
to a fire, a roasting bird, a ringing phone,
and voices wondering where we are.
A day foretold by images
of glassy pond, peasant and snowy roof
over the holy child iconed in gold.
Or women shawled against the goosedown air
pleading with soldiers at a shifting frontier
in the snows of television,
while in the secret dark a fresh snow falls
filling our tracks with stars.
Santa Baby, Slip a Story Under the Tree
Christmas is on its way, and we have some recommendations for you whether you’re looking for a present for someone else, or you’re looking for something to ask Santa for this Christmas!
For Thriller Lovers:
If you or someone you know loves a good crime story, why not try Jo Mazelis’ Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning Significance, or Anne Lauppe-Dunbar’s debut Dark Mermaids?
For Historical Fiction Lovers:
Francesca Rhydderch’s debut, The Rice Paper Diaries, which won the 2014 Wales Book of the Year Award and Tiffany Murray’s chilling Sugar Hall are perfect for readers who like their stories old school. So old school they’re practically history.
For Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lovers:
If you’re after something weird and wonderful for you or a friend this festive season, then you can’t go wrong with one of our New Stories from The Mabinogion; The Meat Tree is a brilliantly bizarre sci-fi retelling of the Blodeuwedd myth, perfect for readers who love stories that are literally out of this world. But if you’re after something a little closer to home, why not pick up a copy of Mary-Ann Constantine’s fable-esque debut, Star-Shot? This novel is a real treat for readers who are familiar with Cardiff.
For Short Story Lovers:
For lovers of the oft forgotten art form that is the short story, why not pick up New Welsh Short Stories, an anthology featuring a wide range of Welsh authors from Carys Davies to Jo Mazelis, or Graham Mort’s latest collection, Terroir. These two look quite charming together, so if I were you I’d get both.
For Non-Fiction Lovers:
Jasmine Donahaye’s memoir, Losing Israel, has been stunning readers since its publication earlier this year; part memoir, part travel writing, part nature writing, it’s the perfect gift for any non-fiction connoisseur. Mike Rees’ Men Who Played the Game is the ideal book for any sports fan, and as we commemorate one hundred years since the First World War there’s no better time to read it than right now.
For Poetry Lovers:
Here at Seren we’d be nothing without our poetry, so why not pick up a copy of Kim Moore’s hugely popular debut collection, The Art of Falling, or Jonathan Edwards’ Costa Award-winning debut collection, My Family and Other Superheroes – we promise they won’t disappoint you! Or if someone you know likes to keep on top of the latest poetry, a subscription to Poetry Wales magazine would make for a fine Christmas present, if you ask me. And I suppose you must be asking me if you’re reading this…
You can find all these books and more on our website, so treat the readers you know to some well-chosen words this Christmas!
An Interview with Helen Blackhurst
We had a chat with Helen Blackhurst about her debut novel, Swimming on Dry Land.
Helen lives in rural Ireland and works as a drama therapist. Her first novel, Swimming on Dry Land, was born out of a period of residency in Australia. Helen’s passion for the Australian landscape has inspired her writing ever since. Her second novel, A Time of Rainfish, is set in a fictional town in Arnhemland, Northern Territory, where Helen has made several research trips, at one point working on a short project with a group of Aboriginal women. Helen has facilitated a range of writer-in-community projects, exploring writing from various perspectives, including sound, image, movement, and voice. Site to Sound (2009) and Forgetmenot (2008), both community arts projects, were supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Set in a small fictional mining town in south-west Australia, Monica Harvey, a twelve-year-old English girl, is looking for her younger sister, Georgie. The Harvey family has recently moved to Akarula, having been persuaded to set out in search of a new life by their rich Uncle Eddie, who owns the town. Monica discovers Georgie down one of the disused mine shafts but when she returns later that day with her father and Uncle Eddie, Georgie has disappeared.
It becomes clear that Georgie’s is not the first disappearance in the town. Eddie, a self-made money-man – a dreamer whose main concern is to save his beloved town – has thus far concealed the disappearances from his brother, Michael. But as the search for Georgie widens, the pressure intensifies and Eddie’s dream-like vision of his town gradually implodes. Mr M, the only aborigine left in Akarula, sees it all from his seat under the town’s single tree, giving rise to local superstition and fears.
As the history of the land unfolds new possibilities and answers to the mysterious disappearances slowly suggest themselves.
Both Swimming on Dry Land and your second novel, A Time of Rainfish, are heavily influenced by the time you spent living in Australia. What is it about Australia that so captivates you?
The landscape – the vast emptiness you get from driving through the middle, the beauty of the country as a whole, all those amazing creatures. And being on the food chain really puts you in your place. I love that; it gives you a sense of awe which is hard to come by in Europe. I’m also fascinated by Australian history.
The town Swimming on Dry Land is set in is fictional. Why did you decide to use a fictional setting rather than a real one?
Akarula is a patchwork of places I passed through or spent time in whilst in Australia. Fictionalising the setting gave me the freedom to create what I needed for the town without being constrained by the reality of a real one.
You get into the heads of several characters throughout Swimming on Dry Land. Which character did you find the most difficult to write? Which character was the easiest?
Monica came to me first. I considered writing the whole story from her perspective. In some ways, she was the easiest. I think Caroline probably took me the longest to get to know.
Are there any other countries you’d like to explore in your fiction? Have you ever considered writing a novel set in Ireland, for example?
There are many countries I’d like to explore, but for the moment I seem locked into Australia. I suspect that if I moved to Australia, I’d start writing about Ireland. There is something in the distance – time, space, culture – that allows for that outside eye, a sharpening of the senses, a feeling that anything is possible. Familiarity seems to flatten all that for me. Of course I am still a foreigner in Ireland, though it feels like home.
Finally, what’s the best book you’ve so far read this year?
I’ve read many great books this year. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which I’ve just finished, was really hard to put down – always a good sign.
Friday Poem – For Christmas
This week’s poem is from Christine Evans’ 2007 Wales Book of the Year shortlisted collection, Growth Rings, published in 2006.
This collection from Christine Evans follows well-received Selected Poems. Hers is a sensitive and persuasive voice, highly attuned to the vagries of the seasons, to the landscapes and inhabitants of the beautiful Llyn Peninsula in North Wales where the author has made her home.
As well as vibrant short lyrics on everything from ‘Bluebells in Nanhoron’ to jets flying over Wales, there are a series of tender elegiac pieces on relatives, meditations on the last moments of Shelley and the fates of the Brontes, and a number of poems featuring the mysterious Island of Bardsey.
For Christmas
Hubble shows us this:
the star factory in Sagittarius
where time’s a flying strand
looping from a furnace
where, out of the flux, out of the fire,
a boilover of hydrogen and sulphur,
cobalt and vermilion
from the radiant debris,
a scatter of new stars
streams out, seeds of light.
Pinpricks in our darkness:
guides as good as any for the journey.
Order Growth Rings from our website.
Paul Henry Receives Creative Wales Award
The Arts Council of Wales has announced the 15 recipients of the Creative Wales Award 2015-16, with poet Paul Henry being among those chosen.
The Creative Wales Awards, presented at an event held at The Depot, Cardiff on Thursday 10 December, recognise the very best talent and potential of individual Welsh artists applying annually for this development opportunity.
Paul Henry will use his Award to work with a sound recordist, a songwriter and a scriptwriter to develop the music idiom of his voice inspired by the wild-life and people who inhabit the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal.
You can see the full list of award-winners here.
Described by the late U.A. Fanthorpe as ‘a poet’s poet’ who combines ‘a sense of the music of words with an endlessly inventive imagination’, Paul Henry came to poetry through songwriting. His new and selected poems, The Brittle Sea, appeared in 2010. This was followed in 2012 by its Indian version, The Black Guitar. A regular reader and performer at festivals, he has recently written and presented arts programmes for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. His latest collection, Boy Running, was published in February 2015.
A Poetry-Filled Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night
As a Christmas treat we’ve put together a free poetry pamphlet for you to download and enjoy.
The Seren poetry pamphlet contains a poem from each of our 2015 titles, as well as a previews of poetry titles arriving in 2016. Poets featured include Kim Moore whose critically aclaimed debut The Art of Falling was released earlier this year, and John Ormond’s Collected Poems, a summation of this extraordinary poet’s life’s work.
Download your free copy of the Seren poetry pamphlet here.
Featured poets:
Damian Walford-Davies
Paul Henry
Kim Moore
David Foster-Morgan
Anne-Marie Fyfe
Kate Bingham
Rosie Shepperd
Tamar Yoseloff
John Ormond
Philip Gross
Mara Bergman
Cath Drake
Plus a list of our upcoming 2016 poets.
To get you into the festive spirit, here is one of the poems featured in our free poetry pamphlet: ‘Christmas in London’ by Tamar Yoseloff, from A Formula for Night.
Christmas in London
The skaters glide across the ice like songs
like the skaters who sliced the frozen Thames.
A bus stutters across the bridge; red
lights of OXO, cranes dressed in lights,
the restless Eye lit blue, its tourists lifted
above the skyline, above tower blocks
above the wedding-spire of St Bride’s
above the fat dome of St Paul’s,
shivering allotments, ragged greens,
the greens where houses stood, where houses stand
no more. The alleys wet with condensation,
darkened streets, the rivers running
just below the ground, the Wandle, the Walbrook,
the Tyburn, the Fleet. The silent churchyards
with their crooked stones, each stone
a marker for a man.
Don’t forget to download your free copy of the Seren poetry pamphlet! Simply click this link and then download the PDF file direct to your device.
Losing Israel named in The Telegraph’s Best Travel Books of 2015
Michael Kerr has featured Jasmine Donahaye’s Losing Israel as one of his most highly rated travel books in the Telegraph article, Christmas books 2015: the best for the armchair traveller.
In Michael’s words:“Donahaye is an Israeli raised in Britain who discovered by chance that her family had colluded in the eviction of Palestinians in 1948. Losing Israel moves between the damp of rural Wales (where she lives now) and the desert; it weaves together travel, memoir, politics and birdwatching. It’s a brave book, unflinchingly honest, and a beautiful one.”
Losing Israel is a moving and honest account which spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir. Through the author’s personal situation it explores the powerful and competing attachments that people feel about their country and its history, by attempting to understand and reconcile her conflicted attachments, rooted in her family story – and in a love of Israel’s birds. A life-long bird watcher, Donahaye uses birds in Israel and her home in Wales to provide an unexpected and intriguing linking trope across the various themes of the book. Losing Israel stands apart from other titles about the Israel/Palestine situation with its focus on the British Mandate period, Palestine’s history in the 1930s, and the kibbutz movement. Her writing is frank and often immediate: the locations in Israel and Wales are sensually alive, and the author’s physical exertions felt by the reader. Her childhood memories of her mother’s kibbutz, and her own experiences in Israel and Wales as an adult also bring originality to her writing. Losing Israel works on many levels – family relationships, the nature of patriotism and nationalism, cultural dislocation, the story of the Jewish diaspora and Israel, how history changes from one generation to the next, the histories of the dispossessed and the oppressed. In combining history, birdwatching, and her personal story Donahaye has written an accessible and human book about an habitual controversial conflict.
You can buy Losing Israel here.
