Wales

Inside the Welsh village where English speakers aren’t welcome

5 October 2024 9:00 am

On a Saturday morning, no life stirs. The village café is closed and the ancient church of St Beuno’s is…

The Senedd, like Holyrood, has failed its people

17 July 2024 2:51 am

There are disturbing parallels between the meltdown of the Labour administration in Wales and the recent chaos of the SNP…

Who decides which politicians are liars?

4 May 2024 9:00 am

This week the Welsh parliament has been debating a law that would ban politicians from lying. Assuming it ends up…

Wales is facing a US-style opioid crisis

4 May 2024 9:00 am

In Europe at the end of the Noughties, the problem drug was krokodil. The semi-synthetic, necrosis-causing alternative to heroin was…

She’s leaving home: Breakdown, by Cathy Sweeney, reviewed

13 January 2024 9:00 am

One ordinary November day in Dublin, without forethought or planning, a woman walks out on her husband and two teenage children and never comes back

Dark days in Wales: Of Talons and Teeth, by Niall Griffiths, reviewed

6 January 2024 9:00 am

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution a mountain is being hollowed out for mining, and everyone is covered in mud or worse in this memorable and highly original novel

Escape into the wild: Run to the Western Shore, by Tim Pears, reviewed

28 October 2023 9:00 am

A chieftain’s daughter flees an arranged marriage with the Roman governor of Britain, enlisting the help of slave and risking both their lives

Magic tricks

19 August 2023 9:00 am

Five short stories with male narrators – including a seahorse and a vampire – revolve around masculinity’s contradictory demands and the wish to belong

How Rishi Sunak should react to the Ely riot

27 May 2023 9:00 am

‘There’s a lot of societal issues in Ely,’ said an anonymous caller to BBC Radio Wales the morning after the…

Jan Morris’s ‘national treasure’ status is misleading

8 October 2022 9:00 am

Almost two years after the death of Jan Morris, the jaunty travel writer and pioneer of modern gender transition, her…

Seize the moment: Undercurrent, by Barney Norris, reviewed

20 August 2022 9:00 am

Barney Norris’s third novel opens with a wedding in April. The couple tying the knot don’t matter; it’s the occasion…

Muddled, tricksy and cheap: The Corn is Green at the Lyttelton Theatre reviewed

30 April 2022 9:00 am

The Corn is Green by Emlyn Williams is a sociology essay written in 1938 about a prickly tyrant, Miss Moffat,…

Covid is rising again. Should we worry?

11 March 2022 11:50 pm

For some time now, Covid has been rising in Scotland – there are now more Scots in hospital with Covid…

Letters: How the UK should respond to Russia

5 March 2022 9:00 am

Soft options Sir: In relation to strengthening the impact of the Russian sanctions package (‘Tsar Vladimir’, 26 February), please may…

I’m stuck in Surrey, get me outta here!

12 February 2022 9:00 am

After most of Islington moved to Wales, it was foolish of me to think about following. But the need to…

Parallel lives: Violets, by Alex Hyde, reviewed

5 February 2022 9:00 am

When Violet wakes up in Birmingham Women’s Hospital at the start of Alex Hyde’s debut novel her first thought is…

Jan Morris’s last book is a vade mecum to treasure

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Jan Morris, in all her incarnations, was always able to evoke a place and a moment like no other. As…

Interview: Rowan Williams on Wales, independence and the King Lear of Westminster

12 December 2021 7:00 pm

Rowan Williams is no stranger to politics. As Archbishop of Canterbury he was as comfortable criticising Tony Blair over Iraq…

The small Welsh village taking on the tree planting industry

31 October 2021 6:00 pm

The village of Cwrt y Cadno sits in a particularly pretty and unspoiled valley in Carmarthenshire, south west Wales. The…

You need to be a millionaire to move to Wales

4 September 2021 9:00 am

We began searching for the farm of our dreams in Wales as we planned our escape from Surrey. The problem…

Devolution doesn't work in a crisis

13 August 2021 11:35 pm

One of the worst features of devolution is the tendency of devocrats to insist on doing their own thing in…

The true cost of my week in Wales

31 July 2021 9:00 am

Rather miraculously, my daughter managed to leave the country last week to go on holiday with a group of friends.…

It’s time to upgrade the office of the Welsh first minister

28 July 2021 12:30 am

Some of the most revealing detail from newly released 1997 government files relate to Welsh constitutional affairs. The Home Office…

Welsh independence faces an existential crisis

11 July 2021 1:39 pm

Wales has never embraced the notion of independence and perhaps never will. So it was unsurprising that YesCymru, a grassroots…