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 …

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 …