Welsh Journals

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presenting itself as superior but normal, disdainful of other countries, people, cultures, but increasingly uncertain in a world of which it is no longer the centre. The book ranges widely, across Scotland, Wales and Ireland, into drama and literature, James Bond films and the media. Here Osmond is particularly good and original. For example, he quotes the Controller of BBC Wales at the end of the 1970s saying of that time: Both I and my Scottish colleagues tried to persuade our English counterparts simply to set up Radio England. But this idea was received, frankly, with puzzlement. I don't think it was possible for them to think in those terms. What happened instead was that we established Radio 4 UK. This looks like an area which Osmond is particularly well qualified to investigate for evidence of British political cultures and the nature of the Union. The book is a skilful selection and synthesis of recent writing on the subject, attractively presented and written. It is enhanced by the requirements of the television programmes for travel, interviews and good visual material (no photographs here, which is a pity-all books about politics should be illustrated!). Some of the writing on which it draws is speculative, in some cases polemical, and seldom based on substantial research. Osmond challenges the reader with his material, but does not often challenge the material. He is the organizer and presenter, but not the originator. So in the end this enjoyable and useful book should serve as a stimulating prologue to a programme of historical, social and comparative research into the elusive nature of the divided kingdom. PETER MADGWICK Oxford Polytechnic WELSH HISTORY AND ITS SOURCES: Edited by Trevor Herbert and Gareth Elwyn Jones. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1988. EDWARD I AND WALES. Pp. xxxvi, 158. £ 7.95; THE REMAKING OF WALES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Pp. xxvi, 192. £ 7.95. These volumes, which are two of a series of six on 'Welsh History and its Sources', deserve a warm welcome in view of the stimulation and encouragement they will provide for all interested in the history of Wales. Well produced, liberally illustrated with black and white photographs, maps and diagrams, and modestly priced, they owe their appearance to a most praiseworthy cooperative enterprise on the part of the Open University in Wales, which generated and conducted the project, the outstanding team of eminent Welsh historians who contributed essays and commentaries, the Welsh Office which provided sponsorship through a research development grant, and the University of Wales Press, which was responsible for publication.