An end of week fortnight recap

“The ancient history of Wales is a calendar of usurpations, depredations and murders.”
– Henry Penruddocke Wyndham
A Gentleman’s Tour Through Monmouthshire and Wales (1797)

❤️ 💚 🤍 ❤️ 🤍 💚 ❤️ 🤍 💚 ❤️

Since today brings the month to a close – and with no leap year to stretch it further – tomorrow will be St David’s Day and the start of Karen and Kathryn’s Reading Wales ’26 challenge.

Today, readers and writers around the world celebrate National Essay Day, honouring the essay as a form of thoughtful, expressive writing, and the History of Jewish Book Week begins, running until 8^th March. Then on Sunday, both Read an E‑Book Week and Will Eisner Week kick off – the latter held in honour of the godfather of the graphic novel. It is also National March into Literacy Month in the USA, and National Reading Month, which likewise began in the United States but has grown into a global celebration in recent years.

This weekend’s bookish birthdays include French novelist, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (1895), Welsh writer and literary historian Glyn Jones (1905), English poet Stephen Spender (1909), Indonesian poet Amir Hamzah (1911), British author Tessa Hadley (1956) and Irish writer of literary fiction, Colum McCann (1965). Then we have leap year baby: British biographer, literary critic and academic Hermione Lee (1948), followed on Sunday by American novelist and editor of The Yellow Book Henry Harland (1861), English writer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880), American writer and critic Ralph Ellison (1913), American poet Robert Lowell (1917), Indian Marathi writer Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (1923) and English writer Jim Crace (1946).

As ever, this is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on the TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming publications, see what folk have on their nightstands and keep readers abreast of various book-related opinions and happenings.

CHATTERBOOKS >>

If you are planning a reading event, challenge, competition, or anything else likely to be of interest to the book blogging community and its followers, please let me know. I will happily share your news here with the fabulous array of bibliowonks who read this weekly wind up.

* Blogs from the Basement *

In celebration of Reading Wales Month and St David’s Day, we look at dwy stori o Gymru: (1) Having only recently been filed away in the bowels of the book‑blogging archive after being posted in January by Helen of She Reads Novels, The Hill in the Dark Grove – “a beautifully written debut novel set in rural [North] Wales” – is, we are told, “an unsettling book rather than a scary one”, despite being billed as ‘folk horror’. Sheep farmers Carwyn and Rhian, “a married couple in their sixties”, live a tough life in a remote area, where “winters [are] cold and harsh”. Nevertheless, they are “for the most part” contented with their lot – until, one day, “Carwyn discovers an ancient head carved from granite [along with other ‘ancient relics’] buried in one of [his] fields.” He decides to keep this to himself but becomes increasingly obsessed with his finds, neglecting his work to continue digging. Helen describes Liam Higginson’s story as having a “sense of foreboding that builds [as it] progresses”. Read her impressions of this sometimes “overly descriptive” novel in her thoughtful review at The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson and discover why she will be watching out “for more from this author in the future.” (2) In a “quietly beautiful […] book”, reviewed by Laura Marriott for Bookmunch last June, we learn of “a sun kissed young farmer” who is the “object of lustful stares and thoughts” from the women of his village – all of whom would be “happy to be his betrothed.” His mother has her heart set on him marrying her best friend’s daughter, a match that would allow both families to “combine their farms”, but before that can happen, he is “drawn to the Lake”, where he meets a “faerie person” and falls deeply in love. Salka, Francesca Simon’s retelling of an ancient Welsh myth, is described here as “beautifully poetic.” With a “different narrator” for each chapter, the tale is “complex and rich [but] easy to devour”, and you need no prior “knowledge of Welsh legends or faerie lore to enjoy each page of this remarkable book.” Please read Laura’s delightful post, “Prose on the cusp of poetry” – SALKA: Lady of the Lake by Francesca Simon and allow her to introduce you to a “story of love and belonging”.

* Lit Crit Blogflash * 

This is where I share my favourite pieces of writing from around the blogosphere. There are a great many talented people producing high-quality book features and reviews, which makes it difficult to pick only this one – posted in the last couple of weeks:

Book Review: Witsh by Mari Ellis Dunning – “There have been many fictional retellings of witch trials published in recent years,” often “based on true stories”, says Cardiff-based poet, nonfiction writer, and creative writing teacher Dr Rachel Carney. Yet Mari Ellis Dunning’s Witsh – a tale set during a time of relentless rain and crop failure in 16th-century Wales – “is more unsettling than most”. Told “from the perspective of ‘The Villagers’” of fictional Llyngwrach, on the border of England, “this communal voice evokes an unnerving atmosphere of fear and suspicion”. Rachel compares this eddy of local gossip to modern-day “fake news, where the reputation of any woman [could] be mercilessly twisted by rumour” – even the reader will never know the “true facts”. Dunning’s novel exposes a dark period in which women could be accused of witchcraft on mere hearsay and put to death for the same. It reveals “the immense power of the patriarchy in 1597, […] and the lack of agency that ordinary women had at that time.”

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (not to mention tooting and bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, here are a selection of interesting snippets: 

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Write Hear: ❤️🤍💚 Book Review – ‘Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape’ – Amy McGrath charts a “lyrical journey through the peaks and valleys of Wales, tracing the deep-rooted history that shaped a nation’s soul”. Of Carwyn Graves’ Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape she observes, it “[weaves] together ecology, linguistics, and local lore”, guiding readers along “a creative path, mixed with historical prose and characters, in the ‘rootedness’ of the Welsh landscape.” 

The Conversation:  An epic border: Finland’s poetic masterpiece, the Kalevala, has roots in 2 cultures and 2 countries – First published in 1835, The Kalevala is a poetic epic steeped in myth and shaped by the shared heritage of Finnish and Karelian cultures. Each year on 28^th February, the anniversary of the day Elias Lönnrot completed its first edition (now known as Kalevala Day or Finnish Culture Day), public buildings across Finland fly the national flag.

Jonathan Bate’s Literary Remains: Sylvia Plath in her journals – Jonathan Bate looks at The Journals of Sylvia Plath in his piece on her poems, her prose, the lost volumes and the involvement of Ted Hughes in her posthumous publications.

Full Stop: 🍁 The Harmattan Winds — Sylvain Trudel, Tr. from the French by Donald Winkler – “I think of myself as a good reader”, says Caitlin Kossmann, but “so much time inside such a limited subjectivity […] made me question my [abilities]. Was I right to read Hugues as pathological, even psychopathic?” she questions in her review of this classic Quebecois novel, The Harmattan Winds – newly translated by Donald Winkler.

The New York Review (via Archive Today): Chasing Ghosts – “With its brilliant prose and unrelenting darkness and pessimism, José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night towers over Chilean literature,” writes Larry Rohter. First published in Spanish in 1970, it now appears in a newly revised edition, freshly translated by Megan McDowell and others.

Literary Leanings: ☘️ The Irish novel I can’t stop thinking about – In a recent edition of the recurring ‘May I recommend’ series – in which Michelle Martin discusses a book she loves – we are encouraged to pick up Elaine Feeney’s Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way, which, we are told, is one for “readers who love Sally Rooney”.

Big Think: Why “read more” may be the most underrated thinking advice we have – “Reading isn’t just writing prep; together, reading and writing help writers think and generate original ideas through extended cognition”, argues Kevin Dickinson.

The Ink-Stained Desk: The Dragons of Literary History. – “Since reading Joe Hill’s King Sorrow last year, [C M Reid has become] preoccupied with dragons—specifically, their evolution in literature.” She “decided to do some digging” into the subject. “This essay is the result of that curiosity.”

The Saturday Paper (via Archive Today): 🦘 Kay Kerr Might Cry Later – The latest book from autistic author and journalist Kay Kerr delivers what Amy Gray describes as “what much contemporary fiction only gestures at: an authentic, complex presentation of neurodivergence.”

The Paris Review: Reading at Random with Virginia Woolf – Virginia Woolf wrote “many fragmentary drafts of her final book, a history of English literature whose working titles included ‘Reading at Random.’ It was to be nothing less than her own philosophy of reading. More than mere absorption of the written word, reading, for Woolf, was an active expression of the mind and a mode of ‘actual experience.’”

Pens & Poison: The Ultimate Guide to Russian Literature – “Want to love Russian literature but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place”, says native Russian speaker Liza Libes.

Nation Cymru: ❤️🤍💚 Book review: New Perspectives on Gillian Clarke: Community, Cosmology, Climate and Conflict by Linden Peach – “Now in her sixth decade of publishing, this critical volume [New Perspectives on Gillian Clarke] is overdue and welcome. It’s interesting to learn about the different phases of her life and be invited to reflect on her work in that light”, says Desmond Clifford.

Wuthering thrice: 👻👻👻
Vogue (via Archive Today): The Best Wuthering Heights Adaptations Are All About Creative Ways to Haunt Your Ex – “Since its publication in 1847, the great, canonical novel Wuthering Heights has inspired more than 35 film and television productions,” says Cazzie David. Having watched all of them for this article and “in the interest of shifting the female fantasy away from toxicity,” she has “ranked the most popular […] adaptations based on the fantasy [she prefers] to focus on: how effectively Cathy goes about haunting her ex.”
A Narrative Of Their Own: Wuthering Heights – “Challenging the Victorian ideal of home” leads Kate Jones to discover “an element of [Emily Brontë’s] book not always talked about.”
Wardrobe Door: C.S. Lewis on “Wuthering Heights” – It “may come as a surprise to some” that C.S. Lewis not only read but appreciated Emily Brontë’s novel, says Aaron Earls. In fact, “he frequently [mentioned] both Emily and her sister Charlotte’s work” in his letters. Read on to find out what he had to say.

Independent: Margaret Atwood and Khaled Hosseini demand release of ‘abused’ poet in notorious Iranian prison – “Asadollahi was one of around 50,000 people estimated to have been arrested by the Iranian regime in connection with [January’s] protests”, reports Alex Croft.

Cronista: fragmentology – “There’s a field of study called ‘fragmentology’”, says Juliana in this first installment of an “in-the-works series on personal essays.” She begins with a “not-so-fragmented piece of writing to celebrate fragments.”

The New York Times (via Archive Today): So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket – “The mass market paperback, light in the hand and on the wallet, once filled airport bookstores and supermarket media aisles. You may never buy a new one again”, laments Elizabeth A. Harris.

Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison: A Statewide Toni Morrison Celebration – From her birthday on 18^th February until 18^th February 2027, Ohio is celebrating “the life, literature, and legacy of Toni Morrison, Lorain, Ohio native and the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.”

Knowledge Lust: How to make yourself want to read hard books (not just want to want to read them) – Sam Rinko explains “how creative intellectual projects make [his] pragmatic brain choose books”.

The Chicago Review of Books: The Nature of a Novel: “Our Numbered Bones” by Katya Balen – In this adult debut from the British award‑winning children’s author Katya Balen, a grieving novelist retreats to rural England in search of quiet, only to make an extraordinary historical discovery – one that may hold the key to her own healing. In this review, Malavika Praseed tells us Our Outnumbered Bones “shines as a meditation on grief, the idea of recent loss and loss from thousands of years ago sharing a strong connection.”

Literary Review: The Kremlin’s Long Reach – “Ever since the Russian Revolution, with a brief hiatus during the Gorbachev era, the Kremlin has practised murder as a matter of state policy”, says Piers Brendon. He reviews Josh Ireland’s retelling of the assassination of Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky, The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy.

The Ink-Stained Desk: ☘️ Grace, by A. M Shine. – “Published on February 12^th this year, Grace by author A. M. Shine […] is an atmospheric, folk horror, set on the isolated Irish island of Croaghnakeela”, writes C M Reid. She describes it as a slow-burner from which she surfaced with “a desire to look into Irish mythology a little more”.

AP: Barbara Kingsolver returns with ‘Partita,’ her first novel since ‘Demon Copperhead’ – “For her first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver is taking on a subject she rarely discussed in public while growing up in a small Kentucky town: classical music. The title of the book is Partita, and it is about “a married woman and onetime pianist haunted by a passion for music that she never lived out.”

Africa is a Country: The roots of our storytelling – “What happens when we stop reading African fiction through European literary history and instead trace its worldmaking through indigenous cosmology?” asks Karen Chalamilla. She talks to Nigerian writer, critic and academic Ainehi Edoro about her debut book Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think – a groundbreaking book that explores the life of the forest in African fiction.

Tokyo Weekender: How To Visit Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Secret Tokyo Library – Ynes Sarah Filleul with “all you need to know about the reservation-only reading room preserving the books behind the composer’s world.”

Science: Imagining the rich lives of invertebrates – Barbara J. King finds Bermudian Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s essay collection, Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl, is the “writer’s evocative meditations [inviting] readers to consider the often-overlooked creatures on their own terms”.

Aeon: Subverting hell – “In their visions of the underworld Dante and Milton were truly subversive, incorporating predecessors into their own repudiation”, says Charlie Ericson.

The New York Times (via Archive Today): Nobel Novelist Orhan Pamuk Finally Gets the Netflix Series He Wanted – Ben Hubbard interviewed Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul. He learned that “after publishing more than 20 books and winning a Nobel Prize, the Turkish author fought to bring [The Museum of Innocence,] a celebrated novel to the screen — on his own terms.”

The Seaboard Review of Books: 🍁 Nightshade by Lynn Hutchinson Lee – “Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s Nightshade is billed as a ‘gorgeous, Gothic coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the 1980s Southern Ontario tobacco belt.’ The book includes magical realism, and is told in lyrical prose, using short chapters”, writes Lisa Timpf.

The Telegraph (via Archive Today): This alcoholic Oxford drop-out was ‘the best British novelist alive’. And you’ve probably never heard of him – “Feted by Auden and Woolf alike, Henry Green wrote nine extraordinary novels before retreating into obscurity”, writes Simon Heffer. He suggests the “perfect place to start” is Caught, a novel that draws “heavily on Green’s wartime work as a fireman in the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS).”

The Tearoom: The Love That Listens: Nature in the Lives of Literary Women – Mariella Hunt explores “the lives of Beatrix Potter and Emily Dickinson, and the fierce, quiet love for nature that shaped their stories.”

Compulsive Reader: A review of My Little Donkey and Other Essays by Martha Cooley – “In clean, unaffected and polished prose, Cooley invites us into her world, and many of her essays follow a braided structure that pull together threads on people, animals, age and aging, accidents, and flukes and family, as well as other moments worthy of reflection”, says Catherine Parnell of My Little Donkey: And Other Essays.

N+1: You’ve Done It Again, Michael – Jynne Dilling remembers fondly Michael Silverblatt, an American literary critic and broadcaster who, from 1989 to 2022, hosted Bookworm – a nationally syndicated radio programme focusing on books and literature. He passed away on 14^th February 2026.

A Country of the Mind: Reading Guide: The Epic of Gilgamesh – American historian Maggie Desbaillets delves into The Epic of Gilgamesh with a fascinating “literary analysis” and “historical journey into the world’s oldest story”.

The Atlantic: 🔓 The Poet Laureate of Madness – It is with “the haunted and chaotic pre-fame poet—the shaggy, craggy, germinal genius wandering in his cloud of tobacco smoke and melancholy, poring over his books about physics and chemistry” that Richard Holmes’ The Boundless Deep is “chiefly concerned”, writes James Parker in his piece about “why Alfred, Lord Tennyson feels so modern”.

Afrocritik: Chika Unigwe’s “Grace” Exposes the Line Between Wanted and Unwanted Pregnancy – Chika Unigwe’s Grace “is an immensely provocative story that asks questions about the rightness or wrongness of the ways in which human beings solve the problems of family and society”, writes Chimezie Chika.

BBC Cornwall: How Cornwall shaped the imagination of famous writers – “Cornwall’s cliffs, moors and sea views have sparked some of Britain’s most iconic literature. From Poldark to du Maurier’s Rebecca and Woolf, [Lisa Young] explore[s] how the county’s dramatic landscapes continue to inspire generations of writers.”

Impakter: How the Publishing Industry Addresses the Carbon Footprint of Books – “From paper to screen, the industry is working to reduce its carbon footprint by fighting deforestation and paper waste through new technology”, finds Anastasiia Barmotina.

4Columns: A Parish Chronicle – The “1970 novel by [Iceland’s Nobel laureate] Halldór Laxness [is] an essayistic tale of ordinary people and a small‑town church from the Viking Age to the twentieth century.” Icelandic author and poet Sjón examines the newly republished A Parish Chronicle, translated into English by Philip Roughton and introduced by Salvatore Scibona.

LARB: Making a Literary Future with Artificial Intelligence – “Five writers and AI researchers discuss the future of literature.”

Libraries Wales: ❤️🤍💚 The Books Council of Wales is launching a year of celebrations in 2026 as the Tir na n-Og Awards turn 50 – “The Tir na n-Og Awards are the oldest awards for children’s literature in Wales.” This year, there is “a jam-packed calendar of activities and events planned so that readers of all ages can join [in] to celebrate 50 years of the very best books for children and young people.”

Southwest Review: Sapphic Magic – “Lesbians, opera singers, and birch trees? Yes. Mulholland Drive, monsters, and Mozart’s Magic Flute? Absolutely. The [Austrian] writer and translator Sophie Strohmeier strikes all the right dissonant chords in All Girls Be Mine Alone” – a novella which, according to Amanda Maret Scharf, is as much a story “of passion and magic as it is an ode to the act of storytelling”.

The Asahi Shimbun: VOX POPULI: Tough topics in ‘Momo-chan’ books gave kids clarity, respite – A veteran Asahi Shimbun writer recalls: “Sneaking into my older brother’s room, I would pull a book from his shelf, sit down and start reading. That was my quiet joy when I was a child devouring the Momo-chan to Akane-chan series. The beloved six-volume set by Japanese children’s author Miyoko Matsutani (1926-2015) [which] follows two young sisters, Momo and Akane.” 

Slate (via Archive Today): The Correspondent Is an Epistolary Novel for the Social Media Age – “Virginia Evans’ debut book [The Correspondent] was a surprise hit.” Having read it, Rebecca Onion thinks she understands why. There is also a lovely post about this title at Cristina Sanders’ blog: The Correspondent – book review.

The AU Review: 🦘 Book Review: Rediscover the real stories of history’s most vilified women in Ainslie Harvey’s Sisters of Scandal – Australian author Ainslie Harvey, creator of the Hot History Club on TikTok, “turned her attention to compiling the stories of some of history’s more scandalous women into book form, and challenging the often male-authored versions of them that have become the status of legends”, says Emily Paull.

Jane Austen’s Niece: Caroline Jane Knight: Did Jane Austen Ever Speak Publicly? – “From Steventon theatricals to Chawton sitting rooms—Jane’s world of performance”. Caroline Jane Knight escorts us to the “withdrawing room”, where we gather with other ladies to hear her aunt read aloud her latest compositions.

The Miramichi Reader: 🍁 Looking for Anne of Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery and Her Timeless Heroine by Irene Gammel – Alison Manley reviews “a revised edition of a work that examines the creation of Anne Shirley, [Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s] most famous character”.

Vol.1 Brooklyn: A Preview of a New Edition of Lord Dunsany’s “The Gods of Pegana” – “First published in 1905, Lord Dunsany’s The Gods of Pegana is one of the most important and influential works of modern fantasy literature.”

AP: Publisher: Dutch novelist and journalist Cees Nooteboom dies at 92 – “Cees Nooteboom, a Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist who was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, [has] died”.

Reveries in the Warren: On the endearing allure of evil in literature – As part of Project Misery – a series of “updates, snippets, and contextual pieces revolving around a gothic novel in the works; swimming in plague, cosmicism, and 19^th century macabre” – Chloe explores “vanity and a desire for the picturesque in Marlowe’s Dr Faustus”.

The Arts Fuse: Book Review: “Sixties Surreal” — A Jingle-Jangle of an Alternative Take – While reviewer Trevor Fairbrother “heartily recommend[s] Sixties Surreal as a provocative revisionist compendium or almanac, [he] know[s] the volume will frustrate those who expect to find a conventional survey.”

NarniaWeb: Dead Tree Given New Life on Narnia Film Set – “Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew may just have found its most unlikely of big-screen stars yet… a dead tree.”

The Sydney Morning Herald (via Archive Today): 🦘 Why the backyard dunny is Australia’s most important literary setting – According to Richard Glover, “the Great Australian Novel was born in a corrugated iron shack where the flies are fast and the soul-searching is mandatory.”

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FINALLY >>

If there is something you would particularly like to see in Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.

NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this expression, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.

See my monthly digest at the Book Jotter Journal on Substack. >>

Categories: Reading Wales, Winding Up the Week

Tags: #Dewithon26, #ReadingWales26, Ainehi Edoro, Anglo-Welsh Writing, Carwyn Graves, Francesca Simon, Gillian Clarke, Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, Liam Higginson, Linden Peach, Maggie Desbaillets, Mari Ellis Dunning, Reading Wales Month 2026, St David's Day, Virginia Evans, Welsh Literature