Peter Lord's Relationship with Pictures has received an insightful and in-depth review by Andrew Green on his blog, Gwallter. Green discusses, in quite some detail, Peter's autobiography and his importance in the world of Welsh art. 

There can be very few people who have succeeded, as Peter has, in single-handedly rewriting the history of an entire subject – or rather, in truth, writing that history for the first time.

Green also discusses Peter's launch at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. 

It was a remarkable performance. As ever with Peter you couldn’t fail to be aware of the depth of feeling underlying his arguments and explanations.  Almost everything he’s written has been powered by a strong conviction – ‘belief’ is the word he uses throughout the book – of the rightness of his causes.

Read the rather glowing review of Relationships with Pictures, here.

Although the Wales Book of the Year Award Winners will be decided by a judging panel, readers are being given the opportunity to have their say, too. The People's Choice Award Winner will be announced at the Wales Book of the Year Ceremony on July 18, and will receive a specially commissioned trophy. 

So vote for John Harrison whose book, Forgotten Footprints, is on the non-fiction shortlist! 

Forgotten Footprints takes you on a journey into the heads and hearts of those who were driven to explore this unknown land of Antarctica, guided by a man with many years' experience of this mysterious continent. 

Vote here.

The Black Lion in Newquay was the venue for a poetry reading by Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch on Saturday night, as part of a series of events, happenings and festivals loosely gathered under the West Coast Writing banner, which has started this summer. In the audience were, from right to left, Niall Griffiths, Cynan Jones and Carly Holmes who were on the Wild West Literary tour organized by Literature Wales in association with Parthian.

The tour started at the Druid Inn in Goginan, with novelist Niall Griffiths reading a comical short story to a warmly appreciative audience. It then traveled to the Hive in Aberaeron to meet Cynan Jones, who talked about place and character in his fiction and engaged the audience in a lively debate about his writing. From there, the tour moved further down the coast to Newquay, to conclude with poetry from Welsh Book of the Year short-listed writer Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, who read from her collection, Banjo. This was followed by fish and chips and the chance to chat with the writers and fellow audience members over a few beers.

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke will feature in a double-bill at this year’s PENfro Book Festival.

The literature event, now in its third year, is held at Rhosygilwen, Cilgerran, and is being extended this year to run from September 12 to 15.

Also featured on the programme is top scriptwriter Lucy Gannon (Coronation Street, Eastenders, Soldier Soldier, Frankie) who will discuss her work in one of the ‘meet the writers’ sessions.

The evening with Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke, which will include readings from their work, headlines the programme on the Saturday, September 14, in the Oak Hall, Neuadd y Dderwen.

If you arrived at Cardigan library even a few minutes past seven o’clock on the evening of Wednesday 22^nd May, for the launch of Eric Morrissey’s poetry book, Tapestry of a Desert Nomad, the chances are that you were one of the people who had to stand at the back of the room. By five minutes to the hour every one of the sixty plus chairs had been taken, including an assortment of office chairs that were hurriedly wheeled into place at the last minute!