Welsh Comedian Owen Money, New Biography 'Money Talks'

The long-awaited and much-anticipated autobiography of Welsh musician, comedian and radio and TV presenter Owen Money is here.

Owen has experienced success in many fields with a couple of Sony Gold awards for services to radio and an MBE to show for it. But the pavements weren’t always paved with gold and he speaks forthrightly about his climb up the slippery slope of success in the entertainment world.

Owen has candidly taken us on his life’s journey, recounting the highs and lows and revealing some long-held secrets. He speaks honestly about his health scare in 2006:

"I flew out to Thailand with a crowd of friends to stay at my villa, ready to relax and enjoy the sea and sunshine and other things I like that begin with ‘s’. I was thinking of salsa music. What were you thinking?

For the first week we were out there, I felt fine. Tired, but generally okay. Then one evening, it was St Patrick’s Day as it happens, although he didn’t personally turn up. After we’d enjoyed a great game of golf, we all went to a bar for a few drinks and although it usually didn’t worry me, I found myself finding the music playing in the background very loud. I also felt much hotter than usual. It gets very hot out there but I’m used to it, having holidayed in Thailand many times. That night, however, I really felt the heat draining my strength.

I had a drink or two, but then decided not to have any more alcohol, even though everyone else around me was knocking it back and having a great time. I explained to everyone that I didn’t feel too good and I was going back to my villa. I left the bar, made my way home alone and as soon as I arrived at the villa I went straight to bed, feeling really weird…"

Later, he speaks about infidelity and the effect it has had on his family. But despite the frank episodes of worry, hardship and disappointment, Money Talks is however a very good laugh, with stories and anecdotes given a comic twist in Owen’s indomitable style. Rob Brydon’s foreword sets the scene, praising the quality of Owen’s ‘joke’ and congratulating him on his “rise from rags to slightly bigger rags”.

Money Talks is the Welsh Book Council’s ‘Book of the Month’ for October 2010. The autobiography is published by Y Lolfa and is available from 1 October; the book was launched in Porthcawl on 15 October.

Owen is signing his autobiography at the following locations:

Saturday, 6 November - Waterstones Abergavenny 12.00-2.00pm

Friday, 12 November - Waterstones Carmarthen 1.00-2.00pm

Saturday, 13 November - WH Smith Cardiff 12.00-1.00pm

Friday, 19 November - WH Smith Neath 12.00-2.00pm

Saturday, 20 November - Waterstones Swansea 12.00-2.00pm

Friday, 26th November - Waterstones Aberystwyth 12.00-2.00pm

Saturday, 27th November - Browning Books, Blaenavon 12.00-2.00pm

Saturday, 4th December - WH Smith Newport 12.00-2.00pm

New Tom Jones Biography

A new warts-and-all biography tells the full story of Tom Jones' amazing career: his innumerable affairs, his friendship with Elvis, and his brush with Charles Manson. It decscribes how he hit the heights, outselling Frank SInatra at the Copacabana night club, New York and the 5,000 bedroom keys that got thrown at him at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

However there were many lows as Tom Jones continually reinvented himself from young rock-and-roller in Pontypridd to sixties hip-swiveller to seventies cabaret king, and then, under the strict direction of his own son Mark, to mature rocker and born again gospel singer with the recently released Praise and Blame.

Now 70 years of age, Tom Jones says, "I'll still be belting out tunes when they're trying to nail me down." The biography also highlights Tom's attachment to his Welsh roots and to his wife and childhood sweetheart, Linda Trenchard -- which is, according to the author, "the craziest thing of all in the rascal's ultra-crazy life."

Author Aubrey Malone, says: "Tom is a flawed icon but an irresistible one, going up the down staircase, refusing to stay down for long. His huge belief in himself as The Voice made this the thing people would always remember when the knicker-throwing stopped."

Aubrey Malone has also published biographies of Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski and Brendan Behan. This biography, Still Rockin', sells for £6.95 and is published by Y Lolfa at www.ylolfa.com.

ST. Clears To America – A Success Story - By Noel King

Reprinted from the 'Sancler Times' by kind permission of Alan Evans


The mid to late 19th Century saw a massive increase in emigration from Europe to the United States. Sometimes it was for religious reasons like the Mormons or to escape political persecution as in Russia and Eastern Europe. More often however it was simply a desire to seek your fortune and a new life in the exciting expanding economy of the new world. Often these dreams ended in disillusionment and sadness. For others by dint of ambition and hard work, they achieved their goals and ended up with great success and a life style they might have not achieved had they stayed in Europe. Wales provided its share of ambitious emigrants, and there are many stories of Welsh men and women who did extremely well in their new homeland. One such story that involved a family from Carmarthenshire is that of Jane Rees and her brothers, Thomas, Charles, and James. They came from a well-known Lower St Clears family, several of whom were burgesses and involved in the town’s affairs. Their grandfather John and father David were builders and cabinetmakers.


Jane was first to emigrate in 1869 leaving to marry a man called Jeremiah Reeves. Jeremiah was a native of Dorset whom she had met whilst he was studying the trade of boiler making and structural iron working in Wales. Jeremiah had emigrated to Pennsylvania two years earlier in 1867, and had already had found work there. On Jane’s arrival they were married and set up house together. Four years later in 1873, by dint of hard work, Jeremiah and his brother Jabez who had also emigrated managed to start their own boiler works at a town called Niles in the next door state of Ohio. Their success in this encouraged them nine years later to sell their business and take over the operations of the much bigger, but ailing Dover Rolling Mills in the same state in 1883. They renamed the company The Reeves Iron Company with Jeremiah as its head and Jabez as plant superintendent. Again by dint of hard work and business acumen, they had become by 1896 one of the largest employers in that part of Ohio, employing nearly a thousand workers.


By the turn of the century they were so prosperous that Jeremiah and his son Samuel sold the mills to a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Samuel formed a new company and called it the Reeves Manufacturing Company, which again produced steel and other metal products. Unfortunately Samuel died tragically soon afterwards, and Jeremiah had to come out of retirement to resume control of the company. The new company continued to prosper, building four new mills in 1912, and then branching out into banking, transport and the hotel industries. By now Jeremiah and Jane were extremely wealthy and besides their splendid Dover residence they had a winter home in Palm Springs Florida. Jeremiah died there in 1920 and Jane died there in 1926.


Undoubtedly the success of their sister and brother in law encouraged Jane’s brothers James, Charles and Thomas to make the same journey across the Atlantic. James and his wife Amelia arrived in Dover in 1892 time of the plant’s sale to U.S.Steel, its General Superintendent. James following the family tradition was a skilled builder and cabinetmaker having trained in Liverpool and London, and when the plant was sold he used this experience to remodel the beautiful and large mansion, which had been bought by his sister and brother in law.

This splendid house is now known as the “J.E.Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum” and was donated by Jane and Jeremiah’s last surviving daughter Agnes to the Dover Historical Society. The society was fortunate also to inherit the original furnishings and heirlooms belonging to the house. The society has been able to restore the house accurately and show visitors how the house looked in 1900, when the Reeves family were at the height of their prosperity. I am indebted to Mrs Patti Feller of Dover Ohio U.S.A. Mrs Feller is the Great Grand Daughter of Jane Rees’s brother Thomas. Mrs Feller is now a guide for visitors to the Reeves home and is able to explain its connections to Wales. It is now 140 years since Jane Rees left St. Clears. Mrs Feller’s visit in 2009 has maintained a link with St Clears that has now survived for four generations. Mrs Feller hopes that her grandson’s visit will ensure it is carried on for further generations.

Visual Image Competition - Semi finalists

I am pleased tonight (8.00pm here in dark wet Anglesey in North Wales, after returning from Ffair Borth Fair) to announce the 6 semi finalists of the LCE Visual Image Competition.

In NO PARTICULAR ORDER they are as follows:

So commiserations to those who got so near, but congratulations to our new semi finalists. All being well I will announce the three winners tomorrow evening at about the same time.

Dymuniadau Gorau i gyd

Glyn Davies

Glyns blog http://bit.ly/bQJAqB

An Interview With Paul Steffan Jones

Paul Steffan Jones

Americymru: Your first published collection of poems "Lull of The Bull" has been very well received and reviewed. Do you have any further works in preparation?

Paul: I am currently working on another collection of poems, provisionally entitled "My Enclave". I hope that this will appear in the summer of 2011. It will be a more claustrophobic, introspective, partisan and surgical work than my debut.

Americymru: Care to explain the significance of the title - "Lull of The Bull"?

Paul: Firstly, I consider it to be internal poetry in a small way in itself, almost musical in a Middle Eastern by way of West Wales route. Secondly, I live in a rural area and am of farming ancestry but have no practical experience of this former family lifestyle like many of my contemporaries though we are surrounded by farms our families used to own. Thirdly, it could be a comment on artificial insemination, emasculation, enforced celibacy and the changing roles of both genders, more pertinently the male in this case. Essentially, I don't really know. I just write the stuff, waiting for shapes to appear in a log jam of words. I like the look and sound of it like a magpie might. I prefer the reader to reach his or her own conclusions.

Americymru: For my money one of the most interesting and powerful poems in the collection is:- "I Opened My Mouth and Set Free Twenty Thousand Demons Who Had Accompanied Me Thus Far" Can you tell us a little more about the poem?

Paul: This poem is the result of a planned one hour session of instant writing, all the baggage of that moment saved up for one Friday midnight. This partly explains its apparent randomness and disconnectedness and it is a precursor of much of my present favoured method of writing. The title refers to a cathartic process which is ongoing. I guess that some of what I write makes no linear sense which is how I and the Druids like it.

Americymru: I must ask you about 'Bombstar'. A great poem and a strong lyric. Was it written with musical adaptation in mind? Do you plan to adapt more of your work in the future?

Paul: "Bombstar" was not written with musical adaptation in mind. I would like to collaborate with more songwriters as I feel this is an exciting way of presenting my words.

Americymru: What significance does 'Y Gododdin' have for you personally and in your writing?

Paul: That epic poem speaks to me of a different, heroic age. It describes a glorious, doomed raid on the invader at a time when Wales could have been independent had it been united or even existed, a recurring theme. I don't dream of going back there that often but sometimes feel an outsider in my own land . The stylised depictions of weapons, armour and carnage have informed some of my own imagery as has my own personal collection of edged weapons, itself a response to that age, that poem.

Americymru: On your website there are a number of short stories. Is this a genre that you plan to explore further?

Paul: I am interested in exploring the short story genre more fully. Ultimately I'd like to publish a collection of short stories but that's some time off.

Americymru: What's next for Paul Steffan Jones?

Paul: I intend finishing "My Enclave" as soon as possible and ensure it doesn't turn into a sort of "Gangster Gododdin"! I am experimenting in poems culled from excerpts from magazines. I'm eager to resume writing in Welsh. I will be involved in industrial action against Government cutbacks soon, no doubt. I hope to pick up a long story called "Lovetown" I'm not writing and do more photography, using it differently. I have a number of poetry readings in Pembrokeshire in the coming months and have ambitions to take the poems overseas. Oh, and some romance and adventure would not go amiss, either.

 
Americymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Paul: Lull of the Bull is available at www.starbornbooks.co.uk . I'm glad to be on Americymru and am delighted at the interest shown in my country. I am a Welsh speaker and am happy to receive communications in that language.

'Close Encounters of The Welsh Kind'

AmeriCymru spoke to Darren Bowker Powis and Richard W. Finlan about their new book 'Waliens' and their publishing venture Daric Books. Based just outside Pontypool they plan to champion sci-fi, fantasy and horror fiction with Welsh themes and settings. We will be offering a copy of 'Waliens' in a forthcoming competition on the site. Meanwhile read on....

1. What is Daric Books mission statement? Why did you set up the company?

DBP: "Daric Books, has been set up to primarily champion sci-fi, fantasy and horror fiction with a Welsh themes and settings. In time we want to eventually offer opportunities for new writers and other creative people involved with book production, such as illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, editors, etc. We also have plans to offer book design and editorial services."

RWF: "Our aim is to make Daric Books a community project and get new local writers published. Initially we will concentrate on writers of sci-fi/fantasy/horror with a Welsh flavour, but hope to expand into other genres like crime thrillers, romance and comedy."

2. How long has Daric been publishing. Care to tell us a little about your history?

DBP: "Richard and myself are both former journalists. We first worked together on the Pontypool Free Press and have been friends ever since. Our first book together, Weird Tales from Weird Wales, was a collection of spoof newspaper stories from a paper in a fictional Welsh town. We later expanded on the idea by writing a novel set in the same fictional Welsh town.

The idea for Waliens has been buzzing around my head for over twenty years, but I struggled for a long while to get in down on paper. I talked about it with Richard and with the addition of his ideas and suggestions, everything just clicked into place. We decided to write it jointly and drew on well documented Welsh UFO cases such as The Dyfed Triangle and The Berwyn Mountains incident, along with some less well known ones closer to home, in Cwmbran, Varteg and Trevethin. The panic and paranoia depicted about alien invaders in the story is something of comment about the prejudices and fears some people have about immigration, but overall, Waliens is meant to be an entertaining read and not a soap-box lecture.

It’s a sort of Welsh X Files, but with a sense of humour. I love the fictional concept of strange things happening in everyday places like the ones I grew up in.

The story and characters in the book are 100% fiction, but the settings for the story were very much influenced by - and indeed are a homage to - Gwent valley towns like Pontypool, Cwmbran, Newbridge, Ebbw Vale, Llanhilleth and Abertillery.

I'm not actually a believer in UFOs and little green men, but find the subject interesting. There's no conclusive evidence for their existence, but if there was I’d be delighted and thrilled. Like Special Agent Fox Mulder, I want to believe..."

RWF: "It is basically a satire on current trends within the newspaper publishing industry and the running down of Welsh industry. There are a number of social issues which we address such as the paranoia of an alien race taking over. But it is intended to be a fun and light read."

Promotional video for Waliens produced by Rebelhed Productions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G946y2v5EIM

4. You recently published 'Return of The Kin'. Who are the Kin?

RWF: "The Kin is a collective of weapons and artifacts that are joined by a family tie. They are made manifest in human form by The Girl On The Green Horse and the Silver Knight. They were created 500 years ago to combat the evil of Corrus Agrippa. Their origins will be revealed in Vol. 5"



5. Would you say that Wales has a rich tradition of horror/fantasy or imaginative fiction? If so who would you recommend to our readers?

DBP: "Very much so. We have a story telling traditions going back to the bards, through myths and legends, and coming right up to date with best selling authors taking all three genres in new directions."

RWF: "There are many great writers in Welsh fantasy and we can recommend Arthur Machen, Kenneth Morris, Alistair Reynolds, and Tim Lebbon."

6. Are you currently looking for manuscripts or will you be in the near future?

DBP: "Not at the moment, as we have enough projects to keep us going until well into next year. We have to build up the company first in terms of it’s scale of operation and resources."

7. Who are you reading at the moment?

DBP: "Some non-fiction, Parallel Worlds by Fred Alan Wolf, which looks at quantum physics and discusses ideas such as time travel and alternative universes, etc. It’s an interesting subject for me and also ideal for research.

When I read fiction, I enjoy the work of Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and Robin Rankin. My favourite writer, however, is the late Douglas Adams, who’s wonderful, imaginative and inspirational work made we want to become a writer. I’d like to raise a glass and a towel in his memory."

RWF: "Terry Pratchett and H.P. Lovecraft"



8. Where can our readers go to get Daric titles?

RWF: "They can be obtained direct from our website. www.daricbooks.com."

9. Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

DBP: "It’s great to know there’s an active Welsh community in the US, and being married to a New Yorker, I know there’s no better combination than Welsh/American!"

RWF: "It’s very nice to link up with our American friends and I can say that on both my visits to your great country have been wonderful and I’m hoping to return soon. If you do buy our books we hope you’ll enjoy them and continue to patronize our site."

Darren Bowker Powis and Richard W Finlan of Welsh horror publishing house Daric Books

New Book Celebrating 50 Years of Pontarddulais Male Choir

Pontarddulais Male Choir’s first fifty years recalled in new book

2010 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Pontarddulais Male Choir. Brothers, Sing On! is an account of the first fifty years of the choir and has been written by Eric Jones, the choir’s President to commemorate the event.

The author recalls the choir’s development; its Eisteddfod triumphs, overseas tours and televisual and recording highlights.

Eric Jones explained, “Firstly I wanted to write the book to celebrate the half centennial of the choir in 2010. But more than that, because there is so little written about choral tradition in Wales generally. There are hardly any books published which discuss one particular choir specifically. The consensus amongst music experts is that Pontarddulais Male Choir have managed to maintain extremely high standards for a number of years and that the choir, since it was established has been amongst the best in the field.”

Brothers, Sing On! is published by Y Lolfa in September 2010 and launched at Pontarddulais Rugby Club on Wednesday evening, 6^th of October.