Category Archives: Uncategorized

My work in 2018/19

Media, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, PortfolioRadio, PortfolioTelevision, Uncategorized

Television: BBC 4 The Story of Wales Repeat Screening Tuesdays from 6th November, 8pm, 6 x 60 mins. 2 BAFTA Cymru Awards – Best Presenter: Huw Edwards. Gwyn A Williams Award: Outstanding Contribution to History Programming

My blog is selected by National Library of Wales to join the UK Web Archive “a cross section of UK Web logs containing a wealth of material which will be of value to researchers now and in the future”

A City Burning, a collection of 24 short stories, set in Wales, Northern Ireland and Italy. Seeking publication. Completed with the support of a Writer’s Bursary, 2017 from Literature Wales and The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales.

Thorn House, a novel in progress, set in rural Northern Ireland supported by a S.I.A.P.  award 2017/18 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Writing Psychology from Place, Cardiff Book Festival, 10th September

Short stories: The Road, The New Welsh Reader #117; Runner, The Honest Ulsterman; The Sea Hospital & Face To Face, Horla Horror; Above It All, The Lonely Crowd; Safety First, Coasteering & All Through The Night shortlisted for the Write By The Sea Award.

All Through The Night, (Crannóg); nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2019 ‘the most honoured literary project in America’).

Poetry: 2018 Easter (Apr), View-finder (Feb),  Shoot (Dec)The Bangor Literary Journal; Aftermath 2 & An Irish Merchant Seaman, The Open Ear (Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry); This, & This Too, The Honest Ulsterman; Admission, Infinite Rust. 2019 : A Northern Irish Wife, The North (Irish issue); When The Saint Wavered & The Saint Sets Out, Bangor Literary Journal (Jan); imminent Two Autumns, The Ogham Stone 2019.

Analysis: Raising the Profile of Women Writers, Wales and N. Ireland, Wales Arts Review.

Journalism: Content with a Good Enough Peace;  Helyntion Y Cymry/The Welsh and The Troubles, Northern Slant

Criticism: Gwyneth Lewis – Henaint / Old Age, a Double Pleasure in Welsh and English, Eborakon

Copy Editor: Reading the Book of Life, R. Obbard, New City Books

Review: The Woman in White – the Accessible and the Bland, Wales Arts Review
Reporting The Troubles: journalists tell their stories of the N Ireland conflict, Northern Slant. Poetry in Documentary: ‘Troubles – The Life After’, BBC 2, Wales Arts Review

Research Project: Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations

Writing in Wales and N. Ireland

Big Ambitions in “The Big Picture”

Blog, Industry, Media, Uncategorized

Any report whose first word is ‘Although’ is usually heading for a ‘Nevertheless’. ‘Although’ signals an intention to strike out beyond, or push ahead despite, some obstacle, towards a goal that requires a creative sense of the possibilities in a situation and not just the limits.

Hence the significance of the opening sentence of the report from the National Assembly’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee: The Big Picture: The Committee’s Initial Views on Broadcasting in Wales.

“Although most aspects of broadcasting and media policy are not devolved to Wales, the role of broadcasters and the media in Wales is of enormous cultural and political importance.”

This simple statement is evidence of an important stage in the maturation of the devolutionary process. Here are AMs, demonstrating, once again, a determination to inhabit as fully as possible the available terrain. Notably, this does not address the issue of the devolution of media policy. It works with present capacity, with what is possible now. Continue reading Big Ambitions in “The Big Picture” →

Fear and Faith – Radio Wales

Portfolio, PortfolioRadio, Radio, Uncategorized

I was a guest on ‘All Things Considered’, going out on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 13th March at 9am here. The topic was Fear.  Also in the discussion were Dr Richard Hain, a specialist in Paediatric Palliative Care; Shereen Williams, Director of the Henna Foundation and the Jesuit, Fr Roger Donovan, Director of St Beuno’s Ignatian Spirituality Centre. Continue reading Fear and Faith – Radio Wales →

Pitch Your Ideas Workshop

Industry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, PortfolioTelevision, Uncategorized

I never fail to be impressed by how well participants in this workshop grasp the pitching principles I offer. I am convinced that most people are aware of what it takes to make a good sales pitch but perhaps have not had the opportunity to pull what they know together and also to reach for the sales person hidden inside each of us. And it’s fun – as you can see  in the photograph above – happy faces at the end of the workshop I delivered on 10th March! Continue reading Pitch Your Ideas Workshop →

IWA Media Audit – Dialogue and Debate

Blog, Industry, Media, Uncategorized

 

mediaonline

Throughout the past week the Media Policy Group of the Institute of Welsh Affairs has been publishing its draft analysis of the state of main media sectors in Wales. This approach has allowed us to receive valuable feedback on our chapters on the radio industry and the press that will be incorporated into the final report. This will be launched at the Cardiff Media Summit on November 11th. We have also had the benefit of expert comment pieces carried on the IWA site and look forward to more. It is proving to be a good experience of dialogue around these important issues and of the kind of debate about them that has long been called for in Wales.

The analysis we have laid out is sobering. Continue reading IWA Media Audit – Dialogue and Debate →