The Complete Dewithoner’s Reading List

The Bard, 1774, by Thomas Jones (1742–1803)

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)

• 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.

Categories: Reading Wales

Tags: Anglo-Welsh Writing, Books, Cymraeg, Cymru, Dewithon, Reading Wales, Wales, Wales Readathon, Welsh Authors, Welsh Literature, Welsh Novelists, Welsh Novels, Welsh Poets, Welsh Writers, Welsh Writing