Cyril Jones – författare

Why did the Soviet Union hide the facts surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War? Australian documentary-producer Cyril Jones provides a fascinating insight into how one woman had the courage to take on the Soviet bureaucracy to get the truth to the West, and how his ground-breaking documentary on the Führer’s death enabled her to do it.Only slowly and reluctantly did the Soviets let the light in on the events which occurred in bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in 1945; it was Elena Rzhevskaya who prised open the archival vault. Rzhevskaya was a Russian military translator who was the first to speak with those still alive in the bunker within minutes of Soviet soldiers taking control of it.Her first words to them was: ‘Where is Hitler?’ Told that he was dead and his body set alight, she demanded to know where his body was. She then set about unravelling the mystery of the death of the Führer, but as soon as she discovered the whole story Soviet leader Josef Stalin instructed her to ‘keep her mouth shut’. He wanted to keep the secret to himself.Because of that the Western Allies were fed lies, it even being suggested that Hitler might still be alive. It took another twenty years of digging for the truth to come out. Rzhevskaya herself was responsible for that, having dedicated herself to lifting the veil of secrecy and ensuring the world knew of Stalin’s duplicity.In this book Cyril Jones reveals how he managed to get previously unseen film footage from the Soviet and Russian archives, material which helped reveal the facts. The author also details interviews with Elena Rzhevskaya which shows the paths she took to tell the real story.The Hunt for Hitler expands upon our understanding of those momentous days following the end of the Second World War and provides an absorbing insight into the background surrounding the fate of Hitler’s body as the chilling blast of the Cold War swept across Europe.

TROEON : TURNINGS is the fruit of a creative collaboration between English Language poet Philip Gross and Welsh language poet Cyril Jones. The work is further enlivened with cover and text designs by fine artist Valerie Coffin Price. The poems feature watery themes and are primarily inspired by a myriad of rivers ‘…on their separate ways to articulation: north south east/ west, toward opposite coasts…’. Cyril Jones also contributes some English translations of his own Welsh poems and Philip Gross writes directly in response to Cyril’s contributions.The creative conversation between the two has produced a wider range of poems than expected, with several themes begging to be pursued: the flowing of water, the different rivers central to each writer’s life, the life-stories associated with them, and the translation process itself. Both poets have been drawn into exploring the ‘space between’ the two languages, in which words and meanings can be ‘turned’ in several senses. The poets share both a love of precise and allusive description and a predilection for the ever-flowing wildness of the natural world: ‘The melody and counter-melody/a strange combination of Cerdd Dafod, Cerdd Dant/two halves awakening common memories.’There is a gorgeous dialogue-like section of concise ‘englynion’ aside translated versions in a central section devoted to birds. An image of the waters ‘flowing backwards’ brings us the storied history of the regions along the riverbanks, from ‘neolithic bones’ through medieval monks and printer-priests, onwards to the Industrial revolution, and then touches on the contemporary where occasionally bitterness still arises, although now the (Severn) ‘Bridge is Free’ there is always the pressure of the past and the jousting play of two languages: ‘ambivalent flick of meanings,/ tilting like feelings – always forked’.Valerie Price is a known for her fine-art installations inspired by the nature. Her Letterpress designs take their themes and forms from the poetry text of Gross and Jones. She uses large lettering, overlapping outlines, text in columns, inventive formatting, shading and spacing. Printed in an accessible standard format for poetry collections, TROEON : TURNINGS is an artful play of variations using visuals and voices, both beautifully lyrical and profoundly thoughtful.