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Papaver palaver
Last summer a friend gave me some seeds from the clusters of Papaver cambricum, Welsh poppy/pabi Cymraeg, growing in her garden (formerly Meconopsis cambrica, the hardy perennial was renamed in …
Cardiff’s lost buildings 7
Bute West DockThe idea of constructing a dock at Cardiff established itself in the materialistic mind of the 2nd Marquis of Bute (1793-1848) during the 1820s when his advisers persuaded …
Off with their heads!
With apologies to Anon Sing a song for thick ponce,His pockets full of loot,Four and twenty billionsRobbed by the brute. When he throws a tantrumHis minions all do sing,Oh isn’t …
Colonial viceroy sunk
Unelected first generation Englishman Rishi Sunak has spoken: instead of calling the Welsh national park by its new official name Bannau Brycheiniog, the UK Prime Minister intends to “keep calling …
Emyr Humphreys (1919-2020)
In recent years I have found it increasingly difficult to write about Wales. The attacks on our very existence by the thuggish, destructive Tory government in London and their agents …
Visionary Wales
It has been quite a while since I wrote about some of the many important Welsh contributors to the visual arts. The years roll by and now the list could …
Is there life after Bale?
The struggle to qualify for Euro 2024 in Germany has kicked off, and in Group D Cymru have made as good a start as anyone could possibly have hoped for, …
Biased, Bad, Conservative
Last year, with its characteristic smug self-satisfaction, arrogant air of entitlement and oily unctuousness, the BBC loudly sang its own praises to mark the centenary of its founding in 1922. …
Heath hell
I am no stranger to physical pain. During an injury-plagued decade playing Sunday League football I broke an ankle and a wrist, cracked a rib, dislocated a shoulder and tore …
Clerihew time!
A clerihew is a biographical poem invented by English writer and humourist Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) in order to amuse his fellow pupils at St Paul’s School – a private …