Category: Blog – Archive

On the A40 at halfway between Llandovery  and Brecon there is a memorial to a stage coach disaster. If your speed is as  unrestrained as that of the coach driver you could miss it. There is an obelisk  enclosed by iron railings, next to a busy road.   At the bottom of a steep slope on…

Once again I was searching about in Robert Chamber’s Book of the Days from 1869 when I came across this story. It has nothing to do with Wales at all but I liked the story and felt I wanted to bring it to wider attention. Perhaps it is a well-known story, but I have never…

Strata Florida is such a lovely name and I  was always keen to go there. It is 14 miles from Aberystwyth and has a  beautiful position just outside the village of Pontrhydfendigaid near Tregaron.  In Welsh it is Ystrad Fflur, which means the Vale of Flowers. It is neat, well -tended and atmospheric. The arch…

In Search of the Big  One To be  honest if you are a grave hunter they don’t come much bigger than this. We were  in the Corbieres and we had driven beyond the spectacular hilltop castle of Salvaterre,  deep into the abandoned garrigue. The castle lies  above the quiet and prosperous  village  of Opoul-Perillos  and…

It was as  remote as you can imagine. We were in the foothills of the Canigou, the most  important mountain in the Pyrenees if you are a Catalan. We were there for the  Romanesque architecture. Well ,it is the sort of thing you do on a Sunday when  you are on holiday. We had left …

Finally our summer holidays have arrived  and we are off to France on Sunday (26 July 2009). We are looking forward to it  immensely, for all the usual reasons. The beautiful peaceful countryside, the  dramatic scenery, the fantastic food and the lovely wine. We are particularly  looking forward to some sunshine! We had a good…

Why does it  take such a long time to get out of Wales on a train? It seems to take  forever. There are frequent stops as the train ambles across South Wales and  the M4, when it is on its best behaviour, can be just as quick. It makes  you realise how impenetrable Wales  must…

Actresses had a bit of a reputation in  Victorian times. I can’t imagine that it was entirely fair. There must have  been some very serious and talented women on the stage. But the rest were not  always taken seriously and seemed to provide professional males with hours of  endless amusement and innuendo. I found an…

  On Saturday I was out once again, meeting  my public. This time it was Border’s in Cardiff, a shop in the old David Morgan  building on The Hayes. It is a nice shop, large and busy and I was certainly  very well looked after by the staff, especially Vicki. However, promotion  remains hard work.…

  I was booked to do a book signing in  Aberystwyth and we didn’t fancy going up there and then back again in one day.  So we looked for somewhere to stay. The first couple of places we tried were  full and so we ended up in a lovely place we haven’t visited for a…