Ask the residents of Swansea who Swansea Jack is and you are likely to hear several…
Graham Watkins
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell died this day in 1941 in Nyeri, Kenya.
Speaking with a reader at a recent book fair I was interested to learn he’d been…
Cilwendeg Shell House – Built with profits from a shining light.
When William Trench visited a group of islands off the coast of Anglesey known as The…
Thomas Telford’s sense of humour
On the 26th November 1805 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, designed by Thomas Telford, opened to great fanfare. It…
The White Hat
Ernest Neap shuffled forward in the queue. He didn’t feel conspicuous in his raincoat and white…
Crow’s Nest Farm – Is Your Home Really Your Castle?
In 1760, the Prime Minister, William Pitt, stated. ‘The poorest man may in his cottage bid…
Orielton Banqueting Tower – Doesn’t everyone need one?
Once a grand three storey building, Orielton Banqueting Tower, now stands alone and neglected in the…
Birth of a Salesman – And it’s not a play by Arthur Miller.
It was 1975 and my first visit to Soho Foundry, Birmingham, Head Office of W &…
Maelgwn Gwynedd and the Yellow Eye
“… you the last I write of but the first and greatest in evil, more than…
The Sleeping Prince of Carreg Cennen
Beneath a rocky outcrop, topped by Carreg Cennen Castle, there is a cave that reaches deep…
Tom Wellies takes a Bath
A short story from my forthcoming collection ‘Tall Tales From Wales’ Thomas Jones was a farmer…
The Kymin – A folly of voluptuary and gluttony
A painting of Philip Meakins Hardwick, in Monmouthshire Museum, portrays him as a portly gentleman who…
The Completion Meeting
Phillips, Tate and Shrive’s Cambridge law practice was a modern, glass fronted building on Station Road.…
The Red Bandits of Mawddwy
Hen ddwyediad lleol – ‘Tri pheth o Fawddwy a ddaw, Dyn cas, nod cas, a glaw’.…
Swansea – Incendiaries and High Explosives
The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany was viewed with concern by…
Thomas Picton – Welsh Hero or Monster
Thomas Picton was born in Pembrokshire in 1758 and began a military career in 1771 as…
Nantyglo Roundhouses – Riots, masters and men.
In the 19th Century, the South Wales valleys underwent dramatic industrial change. People arrived in their…
The Enemy Within – A Dystopian Crime Thriller
Yesterday I was asked where the ideas for my new dystopian crime novel The Enemy Within…
Prospect Tower – Bats and a copper bottomed story.
Robert Morris moved from Shropshire to Swansea, in 1724, to work as the manager of Llangyfelach…
The Rape of Wales
After conquering the Silure, the last resisting Welsh tribe, in AD 76, Governor Frontinus began the…
Jersey Marine Tower. Rocky Marciano’s Wartime home.
In 1886, the brewer Captain Evan Evans was looking to diversify his business. Brewing beer was…
The Spirit of Llandegla.
It was Sunday morning and Llandegla Parish Church was full. The congregation waited, patiently at first…