Sugar and Slate is a memoir that uses a mix of poetry and prose to explore the complexities of identity. Williams grew up in the coastal town of Llandudno in North Wales, the daughter of a white, Welsh-speaking mother and a Black Guyanese father. She returns again and again to the feeling that to be half-Welsh and half Afro-Caribbean was to be half of something but never quite anything whole.

A few years ago, I read and very much enjoyed Siblings, an edgy and evocative novella by Brigitte Reimann, one of East Germany’s foremost writers from the mid-20th century. Somewhat surprisingly, e…

Sugar and Slate is a memoir that uses a mix of poetry and prose to explore the complexities of identity. Williams grew up in the coastal town of Llandudno in North Wales, the daughter of a white, Wels...

Only a few days to go before the official end of Reading Wales Month ’26. I can’t believe I’m saying that — it feels such a short time since I posted the start of this event. Kath, my co-host at Nut P...

When I was gathering together piles of options for March’s reading events, I found I had surprisingly little trouble pulling Irish Lit options off the TBR. However, Wales initially seemed mor…

As well as Reading Ireland Month, it’s Reading Wales Month, hosted by Karen of BookerTalk and Kath of Nut Press. I read three relevant books by women – my ideal trio of a novel, a poetry collection…

For Reading Wales Month, hosted by Booker Talk, I finally read West by Carys Davies — one of those books that reminds you how much can be achieved with very little on the page. Davies writes with r…

Nature writer and poet Susan Richardson shares her enthusiasm for Atlantic grey seals, as she takes us on a fascinating journey around the coast of Britain, in search of those places Where the Seals S...

I must have been living under a rock because I only heard about Folding Rock a fortnight ago. It's a magazine showcasing new writing from Wales and beyond, has been going for a year and recently publi...

Anthony Shapland’s debut novel is a quietly powerful tale of two men trying to keep their love secret amid a growing AIDS crisis and an intolerant community whose relationship is whose existence The r...

Emma Kavanagh's Every Time We Burn is a thrilling family drama set in a coastal Californian town in the path of a wildfire.On the anniversary of her mother's death, Robyn's birth father is desperate t...

If you’re looking for ideas on what to read for Reading Wales Month, check out some of the latest books by Welsh authors. They’ve either been published since Reading Wales Month ’25 or are about to be...

On 14 July 1865, eight men set out to become the first to conquer The Matterhorn, one of the highest summits in Europe. Only three of them made it back alive. The expedition was put together in haste ...

It’s 1 March today — a cause for celebration in Wales as we mark St David’s Day, our patron saint’s day. Google has joined in the festivities with a dragon themed Google Doodle on their home page. If ...

There is no time limit on reading books from Wales or those written by Welsh authors in this house but St David's Day on 1 March kicks off a month of Reading Wales in the blogosphere. If you're intere...

1 March is St David's Day here in Wales and heralds the start of Dewithon or the Reading Wales Challenge, started by Paula at Book Jotter and now handed over to Karen at BookerTalk. Karen asked me to ...

I’m the closing ceremony, if you will, on the blog tour for Stephen Clarke’s Merde at the Paris Olympics. This seventh book in Clarke’s bestselling series finds Englishman Paul We…

A fierce standoff between a wall and a tree is rich with allegorical resonance

Disgraced Laurence Jago decamps to his Cornish hometown in Scarlet Town, the third book in the series by Leonora Nattrass. Arriving in the midst of a chaotic election week, he encounters some famil…