The Complete Dewithoner’s Reading List
The following list comprises titles reviewed and discussed by those taking part in Dewithon, a yearly celebration of Welsh writers and their works for the pleasure and enlightenment of the international book-blogging community. It includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, in fact anything with a significant link to Wales.
It is hoped this index will act as a stepping-stone for those wishing to discover written works from (and about) our small but literary nation. Please feel free to drop me a line if you think anything is missing.
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Please explore the aisles!
Abse, Dannie
- Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve (2006)
Ace, Cathy
- The Case of the Dotty Dowager (2015)
Clare, Horatio
- New Tales from the Mabinogion #6 The Prince’s Pen (2012)
Aiken, Joan
- The Whispering Mountain (1968)
Alexander, Lloyd
- The Book of Three (1964)
Attlee, Helena
- The Gardens of Wales (2009)
Azzopardi, Trezza
- Remember Me (2003)
- The Hiding Place (2000)
- The Tip of My Tongue (2013)
Bailey, Anthony
- A Walk Through Wales (1992)
Bakker, Gerbrand
- The Detour (2010)
Bauer, Belinda
- Blacklands (2010)
Bawden, Nina
- Carrie’s War (1973)
Borrow, George
- Wild Wales (1862)
Breeze, Andrew
- The Origins of the ‘Four Branches of the Mabinogi’ (2009)
Breverton, Terry
- Welsh Pirates and Privateers (2018)
Brook, Rhidian
- The Aftermath (2013)
Broomfield, Stuart & Madoc-Jones, Euryn
- Turning Points in Welsh History: 1485-1914 (2004)
Broughton, Rhoda
- Belinda (1883)
Brown, Matt & Williams, Eloise
- The Mab: Eleven Epic Stories from the Mabinogi (2022)
Chatwin, Bruce
- On the Black Hill (1982)
Chetty, Darren
- Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (2022)
Clare, Horatio
- The Prince’s Pen (2012)
Clarke, Gillian
- At the Source: A Writer’s Year (1999)
Conran, Alys
- Pigeon (2016)
Cooper, Susan
- The Grey King (1975)
Cowper Powys, John
- A Glastonbury Romance (1932)
Cronin, A J
- The Citadel (1937)
Dafydd, Fflur
- The White Trail (2011)
Dahl, Roald
- James and the Giant Peach (1961)
Davies, Carys
- The Mission House (2020)
Davies, Rhys
- A Time to Laugh (1937)
- The Black Venus (1944)
Davies, Sionedd
- The Four Branches of the Mabinogi: Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi (1989)
Davies, W.H.
- The Autobiography of a Super-tramp (1908) – BOOK OF D19
- Songs of Joy and Others (1911)
Dillwyn, Amy
- The Rebecca Rioter (1880)
Donahaye, Jasmine
Birdsplaining: A Natural History (2023) – BOOK OF D23
Douglas, Claire
- Do Not Disturb (2020)
Dunthorne, Joe
- The Adulterants (2018)
Eames, Marion
- A Private Language? A Dip Into Welsh Literature (1997)
Edwards, Dorothy
- Winter Sonata (1928)
Erskine, Barbara
- Sleeper’s Castle (2016)
Evans, Margiad
- Country Dance (1932)
- The Wooden Doctor (1933)
Fisher, Catherine
- The Clockwork Crow (2018)
- Darkhenge (2005)
Fforde, Jasper
- The Last Dragonslayer (2010)
French, Dawn
- Because of You (2020)
Garner, Alan
- The Owl Service (1967)
Gethin, Sara
- Not Thomas (2017)
Goudge, Elizabeth
- The Child from the Sea (1970)
Graves, Robert
- Goodbye to All That (1929)
Gray, Ann
- Gronw’s Stone, Voices from the Mabinogion (1997)
Greenwood, Juliet
- The White Camellia (2016)
Gruffydd, W.J.
- Folklore and Myth in the Mabinogion – A Lecture Delivered at the National Museum of Wales on 27 October 1950 (1958)
Hall, M.R.
- The Coroner (2009)
Halliday, Peter
- Mor Llwyd Oedd Fy Nghwm / How Grey Was My Valley (2021)
Hancocks, David
- Cunval’s Mission (2004)
Hawkins, Alis
- None So Blind (2017)
Hickson, Joanna
- First of the Tudors (2016)
János, Arany
- The Bards of Wales (1857)
Jenkins, Eifion
- If You Fall I Will Catch You (2008)
Johnes, Martin
- Wales: England’s Colony? (2019)
Johnston, Dafydd R.
- A Pocket Guide: The Literature of Wales (1994)
Jones, Cynan
- Cove (2016)
- The Dig (2014)
- The Long Dry (2006)
Jones, David
- In Parenthesis (1937)
Jones, John Sam
- The Journey is Home (2021)
Jones, Tom
- Over the Top and Back: The Autobiography (2015)
Kean, Catrin
- Salt (2022)
Kemp, Laura
- The Year of Surprising Acts of Kindness (2018)
King, Richard
- Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales 1962–97 (2022)
- The Lark Ascending: The Music of the British Landscape (2019)
Lofmark, Carl
- A History of the Red Dragon (1995)
Lovekin, Carol
- Ghostbird (2016)
Lewis, Saunders
- Monica (1930)
Lewis, Rhiannon
- My Beautiful Imperial (2017)
Llewellyn, Richard
- How Green Was My Valley (1939)
Lloyd, Jo
- Something Wonderful: Stories (2021)
Machen, Arthur
- The Great God Pan (1890)
- The Hill of Dreams (1907)
Mackintosh, Clare
- The Last Party (2022)
Mechain, Gwerful
- The Works of Gwerful Mechain: A Broadview Anthology of British Literature Edition (15th Century CE)
Merriman, Catherine
- Barbecue (The New Welsh Review, 1992) *
Mohamed, Nadifa
- The Fortune Men (2021)
Moray, Ann
- The Rising of the Lark (1964)
Morden, Daniel
- Secret Tales from Wales (2017)
Morris, Jan
- A Writer’s House in Wales (2002)
- My Favourite Stories of Wales (1980) BOOK OF D21
- Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere (2001)
Mortimer, Penelope
- My Friend Says It’s Bullet-Proof (1967)
- The Pumpkin Eater (1962)
Newton, Jan
- Remember No More (2017)
Nimmo, Jenny
- The Snow Spider Trilogy (1986-89)
Parker, Mike
- On the Red Hill: Where Four Lives Fell into Place (2019)
Parry, Eve
- Aliens on the Great Orme (circa 1993)
Pearson Finnemore, John & Emily
- From a Welsh Hillside (1923)
Penman, Sharon Kay
- Here be Dragons (1985)
- Falls the Shadow (1988)
- The Reckoning (1991)
Peters, Ellis
- A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977)
Phillips, Graham & Keatman, Martin
- King Arthur: The True Story (1992)
Postgate, Daniel
- Cenhadaeth Nadolig Bluebell – An Ivor the Engine Story (2009)
Price, Angharad
- The Life of Rebecca Jones (2002)
Prichard, Caradog
- One Moonlit Night (1961) – BOOK OF D20
Pullman, Philip
- Northern Lights (1995)
Raine, Allen
- A Welsh Witch (1902)
Richards, Alun
- The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories (1976)
Riggs, Ransom
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2011)
Roberts, Kate
- Feet in Chains (1936)
Rolls, Anthony
- Scarweather (1934)
Ronson, Jon
- The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004)
- Them: Adventures with Extremists (2001)
Ross, Manon Steffan
- The Seasoning (2012)
Russell, Bertrand
- The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
Sheers, Owen
- The Gospel of Us (2012)
- The Green Hollow (2018)
- Resistance (2007)
Spooner, L.M.
- Gladys of Harlech (1858)
Spurrier, Frances
- The Winchester Codex (2024)
Strachan, Mari
- Blow on a Dead Man’s Embers (2011)
Szerb, Antal
- The Pendragon Legend (1934)
Thomas, Dylan
- A Child’s Christmas in Wales (1952)
- Collected Poems (1953)
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940)
- Under Milk Wood (1953)
Thomas, John
- Welsh Melodies, with Welsh and English Poetry (1862)
R.S. Thomas
- No Truce With the Furies (1996)
- Residues (2002)
- Selected Prose (1983)
- Song at Year’s Turning: Poems, 1942-54 (1955)
Unknown
- The Mabinogion (12th-13th Centuries CE)
Various
- Second Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories (1993)
Walton, Jo
- Among Others (2011)
Warr, Tracey
- Conquest: Daughter of the Last King (2016)
Waterson, Luke
- Song Castle (2018)
Williams, Charlotte
- Sugar and Slate (2002) – BOOK OF D22
Williams, Charlotte
- Black Valley (2014)
Williams, Raymond
- Border Country (1962)
Wix, Katy
- Delicacy: A Memoir about Cake and Death (2021)
Wynne, Ellis
- The Visions of the Sleeping Bard (1703)
Wynne Jones, Diana
- Dogsbody (1975)
- Eight Days of Luke (1975)
- The Homeward Bounders (1981)
- Howl’s Moving Castle (1986)
Wynne-Rhydderch, Samantha
- Not in These Shoes (2008)
* short story
An updated version of this list will appear following the event each year.
Many of the titles can be purchased direct from Blackwell’s.