Gower - Hardcover

Jenkins, Nigel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848510527 ISBN 13: 9781848510524

Publisher: Gomer Press, 2009

Synopsis

Hard to find

About this title

About the Author:

Nigel Jenkins was born in Gower in 1949 and is a well respected poet, editor, journalist, broadcaster and writer of creative non-fiction. He won the Arts Council of Wales 1996 Book of the Year prize with his travel book Gwalia in Khasia (1995), and has published many volumes of poetry and prose. He currently lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Wales, Swansea. He was also joint editor of The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales .

Review:

The beautifully produced large format volumes which Gomer have brought out over the last few years are, for me, works which I cherish. I have spent much time admiring the full page colour photographs and reading the beautifully written prose which compliments them. The regional publications in this genre have focused on Offas Dyke, the Tywi and Bardsey. The title under review maintains the high standard and Nigel Jenkins is better qualified than anyone to relate the story of the peninsula for he was brought up on a farm there. His affection for Gower is evident in all he writes here. David Pearls images compliment the text admirably. Gower was designated as Britains first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within the last hundred years greater changes have taken place there than in the previous five centuries. As late as the 1930s Gower was self-sufficient, with its own agricultural interdependency and its own distinctive dialect of English. Traditional work and leisure included ploughing and hedging competitions and the Mari Lwyd. But much further back chronologically Nigel Jenkins reveals his firm grasp of history and, almost inevitably, devotes space to the famous Red Lady of Paviland who turned out to be a man. A further essay embraces the industrial legacy of the region: coal-mining and the extraction of copper included. The slag waste from the latter is in appearance rather as though a gorsedd circle has enjoyed an encounter with Salvador Dali. The book is enhanced with some poems by Jenkins which appear for the first time. This fine book is worth 20 of anyones money. Dewi Roberts It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council

About this edition

• Publisher: Gomer Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1848510527
• ISBN 13: 9781848510524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144