Alexander Cordell – författare

"I'm Cardiff born and I'm Cardiff bred, And when I die I'll be Cardiff dead" - Frank Hennessy. Life in the Welsh capital means many things to many people. Frank Hennessy loves it, but others aren't so sure... Editor Meic Stephens was born at Treforest, near Pontypridd, in 1938. Educated at University College, Aberystwyth, he was a French teacher and journalist before becoming Literature Director of the Welsh Arts Council in 1967. He founded Poetry Wales in 1965 and edited the magazine for eight years. A poet and editor of numerous books, he has become a university lecturer and a literary agent since retiring from the Arts Council. He is the editor of the Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (1986) and A Rhondda Anthology (1993), and translator of Gwynfor Evans' autobiography (1996).

Mostyn Evan and his family, miners turned bargees, wage a glorious but hopeless struggle against rapacious coalmasters, Irish navvies, the ravages of cholera, and the bullying illegal Unions. As they ply their trade between the furnaces of Cyfarthfa and the lush beauty of the Neath Valley, they pray and fight, sing and love, and face each obstacle undaunted with all the stubbornness and exuberance of Wales itself. This is the third instalment in Alexander Cordell's magnificent saga of nineteenth century Wales that began with classic bestseller The Rape of the Fair Country.

Hywel Mortymer's story begins in 1800 when he is sixteen and a dramatic change in fortune leads him, innocent and inexperienced, to a brutal anddangerous life working in the coal mines. In the mines children can be horribly maimed in devastating gas explosions,or grow deformed with the burden of their labours and babies are born underground. Wales is in turmoil. A tragic divide between rich and poor, the workers powerless,penniless, starving and diseased sparks growing unrest as the newly founded Unions move inexorably towards the Chartist Rebellion. This Proud and Savage Land is a brilliantly detailed chronicle of early nineteenth-century Wales and a prelude to the bestselling Rape of the Fair Country.

A new anthology of writing about Cardiff, celebrating 100 years as a city, 50 as the Welsh capital.Peter Finch and Grahame Davies are ideally placed to select the writers and writing which reflect the modern Cardiff. Here are revealing and entertaining contributions from some of the finest writers in Britain, all of whom have something personal, original and incisive to say about the city – including Niall Griffiths, Dannie Abse, John Williams, James Hawes, Trezza Azzopardi, Sean Burke, Duncan Bush, Gillian Clarke, Anna Davis, Nia Williams, Lloyd Robson, Owen Martell, Bernice Rubens, Alexander Cordell, Glyn Jones, Emyr Humphreys, Leonora Brito and many, many others. The Big Book of Cardiff is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Wales' capital.Poet and literary trail-blazer Peter Finch has been at the centre of Cardiff's books scene for thirty years. He is the author of two best-selling books on his hometown, Real Cardiff, and Real Cardiff Two, and the editor of the Real Wales series. He is Chief Executive of Academi, the agency promoting Welsh Literature.Grahame Davies lives in Cardiff; he is a Welsh-language poet and novelist, and editor of the Seren anthology, Chosen People: Wales and the Jews.