I wondered that as well because I was going to suggest Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill as a title for Wales, then I realised that Chatwin was English. However he has managed to tune into the Welsh psyche so well in the book (no mean feat for an Englishman, let me tell you!) that he could be regarded as an Honorary Welshman.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bustrofedon
I looked at the list of Welsh authors suggested by mal4mac and found not only had I heard of some of them (and had read some as well) but had actually met one or two! If you are daunted by choosing an unknown author you might like to refer to the list of publications by the Library of Wales. This is '...a Welsh Assembly Government projest designed to ensure that all the rich and extensive literature of Wales that has been written in English will now be available to readers in and beyond Wales....texts until now unavailable, out of print or merely forgotten... to showcase what has been unjustly neglected... to bring back into play the voices and actions of the human experience that has made us, in all our complexity, a Welsh people.'
I find this a refreshing and comforting attitude - the Welsh language activists fought so long and so hard for the reinstatement and recognition of Welsh as a living language - a not unworthy cause - that they tended not only to ignore but to deride and denigrate works written in English in Wales by Welsh authors. I am glad to see this area of creativity receiving its due recognition at last.
