Events

We’re delighted to welcome Dafydd Iwan to Gwisgo Bookworm at 2pm on Saturday 9 December to sign copies of his autobiography Still Singing ‘Yma O Hyd.’

Dafydd Iwan rose to fame with his 1960s protest songs and has been performing ever since. Welsh football’s recent adoption of his anthem ‘Yma o Hyd’ (Still Here) has twice taken it to No.1 in the iTunes charts. He is one of the biggest names in Welsh-language music and Welsh-language activism. This autobiography explains more about the man, his music and his political activism.

To help ensure we have sufficient stock you may wish to pre-order your book. If you are unable to get to the shop on the day please let us know and we can arrange for a copy of the book to be dedicated to you. Or, you can buy the book here and state who you would like the book to be dedicated to on the Checkout page.

Join us for an evening with Kathy Biggs and Sian Collins to discuss their latest novels Scrap and Tiding, both published by Honno.

As an independent co-operative press run by women, Honno is committed to bringing you the best in Welsh women’s writing. It was established in 1986 by a group of volunteers determined to increase the opportunities for Welsh women in publishing and bring Welsh women’s literature to a wider public.

Kathy Biggs is originally from Yorkshire. She took a summer job in Mid Wales in 1985 – and never left. She has two grown children and lives with her husband, Paul. After studying a number of Creative Writing courses linked to Aberystwyth University, she discovered a talent for writing.  The Luck was her first novel.

Scrap is a captivating human fable of friendship and second chances with touches of magical realism – a quirky contemporary story set in Swansea.

Life has become stale for best friends Mackie and Sharon, who never imagined they’d end up working in a scrapyard. Sharon has dreams of becoming a cruise ship star, while a browbeaten Mackie cares for his wayward daughter’s twins.

But fate takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious kid is discovered in the boot of a car. He has a remarkable gift—he can draw visions of the future, and this opens up new avenues that neither could have foreseen…

Siân Collins is an Edinburgh graduate, she taught Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature in South Africa, worked as an assistant editor on The Lancet, and ran English and Drama departments in several well-known London secondary schools. She returned to her native Carmarthenshire to teach, write, and relish life in the beautiful Tywi Valley. Her debut novel, Unleaving, was published in 2019.

Tiding – A coming of age murder mystery exploring death, the afterlife and memory. During the Great Freeze of 1963, Eleanor O’Dowd, a middle-aged piano teacher, is found bludgeoned to death. As the freeze takes hold, there is a brutal reckoning for the residents of Glanmorfa, who are caught in the grip of an ancient curse. Or so it appears to the vicar’s daughter, Daphne Morgan, who finds herself engulfed in the currents of the adult world and mysteries far deeper than she expected in this chilling story about the power of imagination.

Set in the fictional Carmarthenshire town of Glanmorfa, Collins draws inspiration from her own childhood to craft a masterful tale exploring how children can sometimes become victims of adult power.

We are delighted to welcome Ness Owen and Julia Bell to Gwisgo Bookworm on Saturday 13th May.

Ness and Julia will discuss and read from their new poetry collections, Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim and Hymnal.

Entry is free so do come along and say hello between 12pm and 2pm.