Welsh Journals

the south Walian experience. Gwyn Thomas's work testifies to the vigour and vitality of Zimmern's 'American Wales' where the 'Mississippi and Taff kiss with dark humming lubricity under an ashen hood of years' [p. 166], and we are also, to use Raymond Williams's terms, given evidence of the relevance of the 'residual' Welsh-language culture to the 'emergent' heterogeneous culture of urban-industrial south Wales. In Lewis Jones's Cwmardy, the singing of 'the old Welsh hymn' is an act of communal bonding giving strength to both individual and community faced with a major pit disas- ter, and the inclusion of the Welsh-language hymn in the English passage creates a linguistic disruption in the text which indicates the fundamentally dialogic nature of modern Welsh society. The inclusion of Joseph Clancy's translation of 'Y Dirwasgiad The Depression' rightfully installs Gwenallt Jones at the heart of the south Walian expe- rience. Indeed, several passages within the anthology testify to the sociological significance of the Welsh language as a feature of working-class life in south Wales. From Gwyn Thomas to Gwenallt Jones to Peter Finch's celebration of 'South East Wales as Characterized by its Phone Book', the strength of this attractively produced anthology lies in its educational portrayal of the diversity that has characterized twenti- eth-century Wales. DANIEL G. WILLIAMS Aberystwyth MARITIME WALES/CYMRU A'R Mor. Vol. 16. Gwynedd Archives Service, 1994. Pp. 159. £ 10.00. Just as certain recipes are constantly repeated because they prove a guaranteed success, so Maritime Wales has proved it has the right 'mix' of ingredients to create a consistently satisfying dish. One of the reasons must be the high quality of the ingredi- ents: a series of varied and original articles, often drawn from personal reminiscence or experience, spiced with extracts from local newspapers and excellent illustrations for which this journal is noted. This volume is no exception. Several photographs are from private sources, including the journal cover, which evokes the very smell and ordered muddle of a provincial boatyard. There are the usual knowledgeable reviews, notes, correspondence and news, the latter concerned with the commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic at Liverpool in May 1993. That battle claimed many Welsh seamen's lives and the rough weather rescue by the Moelfre lifeboat of one small ship during the commemoration provides a link with the only article in Welsh in the journal, on the importance of the sea to Moelfre community life, 1841-91. It is based on a careful analysis of census records and confirms the picture of an occasional matriarchal society in a community from which men were absent for long periods. But there are other links between the thirteen articles in this issue, all, except the first which describes the capture of a notable Welsh pirate in the sixteenth century, concerned with nineteenth- and twentieth-century topics. One on the numerous wrecks of Aberyst- wyth sailing ships complements another tracing the hesitant introduction of steam power