There was a brief respite in the gloom of the summer yesterday. The sun shone and so we took advantage and fled to the west. This time it was photographs for the volume 50 Gems of Mid Wales which will be published in 2018. We had a good day, beginning in the wild hills above…
Category: News
Bethsaida in St Dogmaels
We had a good trip away this week – despite the weather – researching for my next book 50 Gems of South West Wales. Took plenty of photos and also stayed at this excellent bed and breakfast accommodation in St Dogmaels – a converted chapel called Bethsaida. Very stylish indeed – and such a brilliant piece…
The Linthwaite Murder 1891
My piece in the May edition of Welsh Country Magazine examines the terrible story of Catherine Dennis, a sixteen year old girl from Flint who was in service at the Ivy Hotel in Linthwaite, just outside Huddersfield. In August 1891 Catherine was murdered by James Stockwell. It is a tragic story, of two families torn…
Taphophiles
There was an interesting article on the BBC website about cemetery tourism and the growing interest in historical graves. And in it I learnt a new word – the name for people who scramble around cemeteries looking at gravestones. It is ‘taphophile.’ I never realised that my affliction had a proper name Here is a link…
50 Gems Books – Progress Report
My next volumes will be released by Amberley Publications in early 2018. They are 50 Gems of South West Wales and 50 Gems of Mid Wales. The text for both of them is completed in first draft form and we are now going round taking all the photographs we need to illustrate them. In the past…
Welsh Country Magazine March 2017 Edition
My story in the March edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the brutal murder of an elderly couple in Bassaleg Newport in 1909. Charles Thomas was 82 and his wife Mary was 72 and they were beaten to death by William Butler with a hammer. Even though, as the headline tells us, he told…
Larceny at the Rose and Crown – 1906
Here is some news from The Cambrian Newspaper of 2 February 1906, 111 years ago today. At Swansea on Wednesday Catherine Williams, a charwoman and widow of Wychtree Street, Morriston was charged with stealing a large quantity of wearing apparel, value £3 15s. 6d, property of Ruby Fetters, the Rose and Crown Inn, Morriston. A remand…
Retired Blokes
I was interviewed this week by Spencer Feeney who used to be the editor of the South Wales Evening Post. He wanted to know what I thought about retirement, how I prepared for it, how I spend my days, how I feel about it now. So we talked for a while about my writing and…
Dic Aberdaron
The January 2017 edition of Welsh Country Magazine is now available in newsagents, supermarkets (and Marks and Spencer) across Wales, price £2.95. I write this time about the strange eccentric Richard Jones from the Llyn Peninsular who was born in 1780. He became better known as Dic Aberdaron, an itinerant with a peculiar gift for…
Stock Levels
We have sold a few books in the last couple of weeks and I have now indicated on the front page of the website the number of copies we have in stock. I will be unable to re-stock any of the titles before Christmas, since the distributers don’t have the titles I need. Swansea Murders…