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On and Offa Bus by Gareth Wheatley
This cleverly titled (as in getting onna a bus in Montgomery and offa a bus in…) book is touted as an entertaining, humorous and informative account of ten bus journeys across the Welsh/English border from Prestatyn in the north to Chepstow in the south in order to find out about the attitudes and perceptions of those living on either side of Offa’s Dyke.
The author realized “that you don’t have to go as far as Bleached Bones, Arizona to meet eccentrics!” while on his quest to discover that, if there are ‘border carrots’, are there ‘border people’?
With stops at Chester, Wrexham, Whitchurch, Oswestry, Llanfyllin, Shrewsbury, Montgomery, Kington, Knighton, Bishops Castle, Newtown, Leominster, Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Abergavenny, Monmouth, and Chepstow, the book explores the questions:
--Does a marcher or border person truly exist with no particular allegiance to either Wales or England?
--Do those who dwell on either side of Offa’s Dyke have a passionate patriotism for their own country and countrymen?
--Does the duality of the region create an area that is particularly attractive to eccentrics?
Wheatley was born in Swansea and lived in Gower before immigrating to Australia as a small boy with his family. He returned to Swansea to finish his education and now lives in Wrexham.
The author’s website is at www.garethwheatleybooks.co.uk.
You can view a video at http://www.marchestv.co.uk/BlogsResults.aspx?ID=28 and listen to the author (with his wonderful Welsh lilt) do short readings from the book and talk about some of his adventures – scroll down below the image of the book cover.
I didn’t expect to find the book available at local libraries (and did not) but it is available from: www.bridgebooks.co.uk, www.waterstones.co.uk, www.blackwells.co.uk, www.amazon.co.uk, www.whsmiths.co.uk, www.gwales.com.
Editor’s Note: I would like to hear about books you’ve read by Welsh authors or with Welsh themes. Send a short review to dragontalesnews(at)sbcglobal(dot)net or to Dragon Tales, WSCO, P.O. Box 12023, Columbus, OH, 43212. Please include your name and contact information in case I have questions.
From Kilvert’s Diaries, written by (Robert) Francis Kilvert
Curate to the Welsh Marches between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye; Curate of Clyro, Radnorshire; Vicar of Bredwardine, Herefordshire
V2 p127-129; 1872, Saturday, 27 January
...on the bank of a little rushing brook the wild snowdrops, the ‘Fair Maids of February’, grew in myriads, with closed eyes and hanging heads. How white and pure and stainless they looked in the deepening twilight. They grew among the thorns and ragged bushes, peeping through the dead leaves and dry tussocks of bleached and withered grass, here and there bowing over and round a soak and contrasting their pure white blossoms with the moist black earth.
...the grey river hurried past with tumultuous rushing current washing heavily and lapping against its mud shores, and higher up the stream the water swirled fiercely round the sharp corner and boiled in the deep Pwlldwrgwy, the Pool of the water dog or water beast, the Otter’s Pool. The road was very still. No one seemed to be passing, and the birds sang late and joyfully in the calm mild evening as if they thought it must be spring. A white mist gathered in the valley and hung low along the winding course of the river. Mingled with the rushing of the brooks the distant voices and laughter of children at play came floating at intervals across the river and near at hand a pheasant screeched now and then and clapped his wings or changed his roost from tree to tree like a man turning in his bed before he falls asleep.
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And down under the poplars out of sight in their lowly hidden place, courting no one’s notice, the lovely snowdrops hung their pure white heads and closed their eyes in sleep as the night fell. So simple, so humble, yet so brave. It comes before the crocus dares. I love the snowdrop, the first of all the flowers, the harbinger of Spring. God’s New Year’s gift to the earth, the Fair Maid of February, the daughter of the earth and the snow. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galanthus |
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