This is the first study of the Anglo-Welsh border region in the period before the Norman arrival in England, from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Its conclusions significantly alter our current picture of Anglo/Welsh relations before the Norman Conquest by overturning the longstanding critical belief that relations between these two peoples during this period were predominately contentious. Writing the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates that the region which would later become the March of Wales was not a military frontier in Anglo-Saxon England, but a distinctively mixed Anglo-Welsh cultural zone which was depicted as a singular place in contemporary Welsh and Anglo-Saxon texts. This study reveals that the region of the Welsh borderlands was much more culturally coherent, and the impact of the Norman Conquest on it much greater, than has been previously realised.

A study of place, identity, music, politics and regionalism which calls for a radical restructuring of the British Isles. In the early twenty-first century, "Englishness" suddenly became a hot topic. A rash of art exhibitions, pop albums and coffee table books arrived on the scene, all desperate to recover England’s lost national soul. But when we sweep away the patriotic stereotypes, we begin to see that England is a country that does not — and perhaps should not — exist in any essential sense. In this provocative text combining polemic and memoir, Alex Niven argues that the map of the British Isles should be torn apart completely as we look towards a time of radical political reform. Rejecting outdated nationalisms, Niven argues for a renovated model of culture and governance for the islands — a fluid, dynamic version of regionalism preparing the way for a new "dream archipelago".

A novel exploring the tensions between the Welsh and the English. It's a passionate defence of cultural and political identity, and a plea for tolerance. It's also a sustained attack on the forces of small-town bigotry and corruption. But, above all, it's an acknowledgement of the subtleties and ambiguities that exist in even the most entrenched at

In The Living Wells of Wales author and photographer Phil Cope has made a lavishly illustrated guide to over a hundred sacred wells in Wales, pagan and Christian, for the specialist and occasional visitors alike. Packed with photographs, Cope describes their cultural relevance to contemporary Welsh identity through landscape, myth and architecture.

'Letters from Wales stands alone as an invaluable guide to Welsh writing.' – Sam Young, Wales Arts Review 'In these columns, as impressive for their depth as they are for their intellectual breadth, Adams analyses the work of acclaimed Welsh writers ... with scholarly panache' – Joshua Rees, Buzz Magazine 'illuminating and entertaining' – Jon Gower, Nation.Cymru Since 1996, Sam Adams's 'Letter from Wales' column has been appearing in PN Review, one of the most highly-regarded UK poetry magazines, offering insight and appreciation of Welsh writing, culture and history. This landmark volume collects these letters – a quarter century of work – and offers one of the most unique, independent and passionate critical voices on the writing and cultural output of Wales during this period. Here you will find erudite appreciations of the work of a wide range of recent and contemporary Welsh writers from Gillian Clarke to Roland Mathias, RS Thomas to Rhian Edwards. Alongside this, Adams offers us lyric essays to Welsh history, and clear-eyed examinations of the institutions of Welsh culture. Collected for the first time in this volume, the 'letters' are among the most significant and sustained attempts during this period to present Welsh writing to an audience throughout the UK and beyond.

Since the time of Freud, some of the most radical innovators within critical theory have stressed the importance of the body and its representation to the constitution of subjectivity. This book explores some of the theoretical debates surrounding the body, and assesses its value as a critical concept, through an analysis of the body’s representation both in Welsh literary texts in English, and discourse about Wales more generally. Combining psychoanalytic with more culturally orientated approaches to the body, the book offers an historically informed account of the body that analyses its role in the construction and contestation of identity at a cultural as well as individual level, contributing in a new and radical way to the rapidly expanding critical literature concerned with exploring the construction of identity in a Welsh cultural context.

This is the first book about Welsh periodicals in English to show how they have helped the development of Welsh writers and have provoked debate about key cultural and political issues in Wales.