Welsh Journals

calm and restrained I feel.' He was, moreover, as Sian Nicholas notices, 'the first modern British politician whose persona was mediated through and by the media', presenting himself as a countryman, although he was in fact a third-generation industrialist whose wealth derived from the family iron business. He was not even strictly English, his father being part-Welsh and his mother half-Welsh and half-Scottish. The Conservatives and British Society contains an unusually coherent collection of essays, the arguments of each of the contributors dovetailing neatly with those of their colleagues. The conclusions reached by the contributors, however, might have been strengthened had there been chapters on Conservative attitudes to religion and education. It is unfortunate, moreover, that there is nothing in the book on Conservative attitudes to Empire or Europe. Still, this is a challenging collection of essays which will compel revision of many hitherto accepted conclusions on the history of the modern Conservative Party. The Conservatives and British Society deserves a place on the reading-list of every serious student of twentieth-century British history. VERNON BOGDANOR Brasenose College, Oxford. TIR NEB: RHYDDIAITH GYMRAEG A'R RHYFEL BYD CYNTAF. Gan Gerwyn Wiliams. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd, 1996.Tt.307 £ 14.95. Y tu hwnt i Gymru, meddai Dylan Thomas wrth hel atgofion am ei blentyndod, 'lay England which was London and the country called the Front, from which many of our neighbours never came back. It was a country to which only men travelled. At the beginning the only front I knew was the little lobby before our front door. I could not understand how so many people never returned from there.' Am hydoedd, fel y dengys Gerwyn Wiliams yn ei gyfrol feistraidd, ni fentrodd dychymyg awduron Cymru lawer ymhellach na stepen ddrws y cyfarwydd wrth ymwneud a'r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf. 'Later I grew to know more, though still without understanding', meddai Dylan Thomas ymhellach. Yr oedd yr un yn wir am lenorion Cymraeg. Dim ond yn boenus o araf y datblygwyd adnabyddiaeth, neu o leiaf gydnabyddiaeth, arswydus aeddfed yn ei gwaith o'r hyn a ddigwyddasai. Ac nid drwy gyfrwng darlun cywirach o ing a thrallod y 'ffrynt' y cafwyd y cip cyntaf ar y gwirionedd erch, chwaith, eithr ar ffurf fwy anuniongyrchol; sef