Penarth for young writers........

Budding Penarth writer reaches national competition final

4:20pm Tuesday 19th April 2011

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A BUDDING young writer from Penarth has been selected as a finalist in a national writing competition.

Anna Webster is in the running for the Royal Mail’s Young Welsh Letter Writer Competition 2011.

The theme for the competition was children’s favourite books - which the Royal Mail celebrated by releasing a stamp collection featuring A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.

Nine-year-old Evenlode pupil Anna impressed the judges with her creative letter, which focused on The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, by Michael Morpurgo, told from the perspective of the protagonist, Tips the cat.

The youngster said the book was an obvious choice.

"It’s my favourite book and Tips is my favourite character, so that’s why I chose it!" she said.

"It was a nice surprise to be selected for the final."

Judge Val Bodden, Royal Mail Media Relations Manager, said Anna had shown real flair and imagination.

"The competition recognises the nation’s best young letter writers and encourages children to be creative through writing," she said.

"All the letters were fun and imaginative, but Anna obviously thought about the subject and put her own stamp on her story - and that made her stand out."

The competition was held in partnersip with UK-wide charity Afasic, which seeks to help children with speech, language and communication needs.

Great player in a Great triumph as Wales take all the silver ware 2008

James Hook ~ one of the outstanding players in the Welst team as they take the Grand Slam 2008

Alun Hoddinott dies in Wales

Tributes paid to late composer Tributes have been paid to Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, who has died at the age of 78.

Mr Hoddinott, who was born in Bargoed, Caerphilly, had a partnership with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales spanning seven decades.

The classical composer, who lived in Gower, Swansea, died at the city's Morriston Hospital on Wednesday.
BBC Wales controller, Menna Richards, has said the new home of the orchestra in Cardiff Bay will be named after him.
She said: "All of Alun Hoddinott's friends at BBC Wales are very sad at the news of his death. He was one of Wales' most distinguished and influential composers with an international reputation.
"Alun Hoddinott's partnership with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales spanned seven decades. His work has been so significant and prolific that, in 2004, the orchestra undertook a year-long season of Alun's work to celebrate his 75th birthday.

"Later this year the BBC National Orchestra of Wales will move into its new home Hoddinott Hall [in the Wales Millennium Centre], named in honour of such a fine composer and distinguished Welshman."


'Distinguished career
It is understood Mr Hoddinott had been in hospital since he had major heart surgery last year.
David Murray, director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, said the composer was "inspired" by his long relationship with the orchestra, which he likened to "a long relationship of good friends".
Of the new Hoddinott Hall, which will allow a live audience of up to 350 to watch the orchestra perform, Mr Murray said: "It is very sad he won't see the building, but we will make sure his spirit and his music lives on in that building."
Huw Tregelles Williams, who became the first director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 1992, said Mr Hoddinott created an "entirely new musical language".
"He had great early success, of course," he said.
"He had a highly original, colourful style. Many of his scores, very colourful scores, filled with exciting percussion sounds, new brass sounds and so on - an entirely new musical language in the history of musical Wales."

Mr Hoddinott, a former Cardiff University music professor, had a distinguished career.
After graduating from Cardiff University, he studied for some years with the Australian composer and pianist Arthur Benjamin.

He was awarded the Walford Davies prize for composition when he was 24, and achieved his first national success a year later, when his Clarinet Concerto was given its first public performance at the Cheltenham Festival.

He went on to become a renowned composer, with commissions for his compositions coming from leading orchestras and soloists, including Dame Margaret Price and more recently Jeremy Huw Williams.

In 1951, he was appointed lecturer in music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.
He later became a lecturer at Cardiff University and was made professor and head of department there in 1967.

Royal wedding
Among his many awards were the John Edwards Memorial Award, the Arnold Bax Medal for composers, the Hopkins Medal of the New York St David's Society and the CBE.
He was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, and a fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music.
In 1997, Mr Hoddinott received the Glyndwr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the Machynlleth Festival.
He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arts Council of Wales in 1999, Fellowship of the Welsh Music Guild and the Queen presented a medal to him as she officially opened the Wales Millennium Centre.
In 2005, he produced a fanfare to be performed at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles.
He had previously composed music to mark the prince's 16th birthday.
As artistic director of the Cardiff Festival, which he co-founded with his friend, the pianist John Ogdon, Mr Hoddinott has had considerable influence in awakening interest in contemporary music in south Wales.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7292217.stm

Rob Brydon pokes more fun at the Welsh

What is Wales, and what does it mean to be Welsh? Welsh comedian Rob Brydon is about to learn some home truths and assess his own take on his home country as he examines the national psyche, and questions his long held belief that the Welsh have a natural leaning toward pessimism and gloom in Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis.


Swansea-born Brydon's questioning was sparked in 1999 when he made a 10-minute appearance on the BBC's Clarkson show with material based on his experience of being Welsh.
Though his performance went down well with the studio audience, Rob's oldest friend David was less than impressed, turning off his television in disgust and claiming that the tone of the act was offensive and insulting. To this day he has a problem with his friend poking fun at the Welsh.
But why did his comedy cause offence, and what makes his notoriously patriotic countrymen so defensive? Why is it that Wales is so often the butt of the joke?


To find out he talks to a host of Welsh celebrities, including Griff Rhys Jones, Nicky Wire of The Manic Street Preachers, Max Boyce, Goldie Lookin' Chain and Rob's Gavin And Stacey colleague Ruth Jones.

The programme also sees Rob constructing a stand up routine of Welsh-based material which he tries out in a series of surprise appearances at comedy clubs around Wales, culminating in a sell out performance at the Aberdare Coliseum in the heart of the south Wales valleys. Will his routine impress Dave this time around?


AND IT WAS VERY FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!

1st March 2008

Happy St David's Day..........Greetings from the Limousin.

Hope everyone has a good day celebrating Welshness ~ whatever that means?

Gwyn Thomas....in the footsteps of Gwyneth Lewis

Wales' new national poet is named A professor of Welsh from Bangor University has been named as the man to follow in the footsteps of Wales's first national poet.
Gwyn Thomas will take over from Gwyneth Lewis, who wrote the inscription on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
The poet, writer and academic said he would use the role to draw attention to the work of Welsh poets.
He said: "It's an enormous privilege, but it will also mean a lot of work."
The national poet holds the role for one year, with their works in English or Welsh read at ceremonial and official occasions.
Gwyneth Lewis became the first national poet in 2005.
Her successor, Prof Thomas, was born in 1936 at Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, and is now the Emeritus Professor of Welsh at the University of Wales, Bangor.
The first term under Gwyneth Lewis was extremely successful and it helped to raise the status of poetry in Wales Peter Finch, Academi chief executive
Prof Thomas has published 16 volumes of poetry, several volumes of work as a literary and cultural critic and has also translated the Mabinogion into English.
Prof Thomas is also involved with the film industry in Wales, and has helped pioneer techniques to combine poetry and film.
He said: "I would like to see the media give only five minutes a week on the radio, or television for poets to read their work.

"Listening to the one who has written the words reading them is more worthwhile than an actor or recitor saying them," he added.

Prof Thomas said he hopes to "draw attention to the poets of Wales and their work, and try to show that poetry is a unique medium to respond to the world in which we live".
The national poet role is administered by Academi, the Welsh writing body.
Peter Finch, Academi's Chief Executive, said: "The first term under Gwyneth Lewis was extremely successful and it helped to raise the status of poetry in Wales.


"I would like to congratulate Gwyn Thomas for the appointment and we look forward another successful year."
As national poet, Prof Thomas will be reading and discussing his work in public, as well as writing poems for significant national events and occasions.
He will be "in conversation" with his predecessor Gwyneth Lewis at the Lloyd George Museum in Llanystumdwy on 27 July.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/5161364.stmPublished: 2006/07/08 15:43:27 GMT© BBC MMVII

National Poet for Wales

Sorry I'm a little late in catching up with this. I heard on Radio 4 today a poem from the National poet of Wales. Didn't know there was one!!

She was so good I thought I'd find some information out . Please see the following:


Wales Appoints Its First National Poet Press Release Academi, 30 April, 2005


The United Kingdom has a Poet Laureate. Scotland has its Maker. Most states in the US have state poets. Canada has a Poet Laureate. In the USA there’s a Poet Laureate Consultant.

Now, after a six year campaign, Wales appoints its first National Poet.


Gwyneth Lewis, author of the world’s biggest poem (the Wales Millennium Centre bi-lingual inscription), NESTA fellow (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), author of six books of poems in two languages, a Book of the Year winner, librettist, sailor, and probably Wales’ best known poet since R S Thomas will be inaugurated as our first National Poet at a special 2.30 pm event at the Hay Literature Festival on May 30th this year.


The appointment of the first National Poet of Wales is made possible by direct funding from the Arts Council of Wales. The appointment is for one year with an option to renew for a second and will be administered by Academi, the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers.
Gwyneth Lewis was the unanimous choice for National Poet made by a group advising the Academi at a meeting in Cardiff recently. Members of this group include the National Eisteddfod, the National Library, the Welsh Assembly Government’s Culture committee, the Arts Council of Wales, Yr Gymdeithas Gerdd Dafod, Ty Newydd, the Dylan Thomas Centre, the University of Glamorgan and the Association for the Study of Welsh Writing in English.
Wales has a long tradition of valuing highly its poets with the creation of a Bardd Plant Cymru (a Welsh Children’s Poet) each year and the chairing and crowning of poets at the annual National Eisteddfod. The National Poet, however, will be the first post which will serve Wales on a national basis and do this through both languages.
The National Poet will act as a cultural ambassador for Wales - marking and celebrating our lives through verse. She will take poetry into places it may not normally go in both the public and private area. Unlike England’s Poet Laureate Wales’s national Poet will not be required to write verse for specific formal occasions but will, instead, follow her inspiration. Gwyneth Lewis has already written a poem on Wales’ Grand Slam Victory and an elegy for Gwynfor Evans.
Gwyneth Lewis said: "It's a huge privilege to be representing poetry in Wales, where we have a poetic tradition stretching back to the sixth century and fully present in the twenty-first." Academi Chief Executive Peter Finch, who has long campaigned for the creation of a National Poet said: "I am delighted that poetry in Wales at last has a national champion. Gwyneth Lewis is the perfect choice." Gwyneth Lewis’s inauguration at the Hay festival will be followed by a series of high profile appearances at public events throughout Wales.

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