Welsh Journals

a room and thrashed it out. What moved them? What happened? What was in their minds then and what is there now ? The point I am making is that this isn't just sociology but is the kind of material that a professional shouldn't ignore, and more than that, indicative of an emotional climate that no serious and intelligent writer could help avoiding. But what do we get ? The Never-Never Land, as I said before. I made no mention incidentally, of poetry or biography and I took the anthology as a guide book because I didn't think it was untypical. Do you? Another point. The Anglo-Welsh School as far as I am concerned, is over. There are the Welsh, the Welshie-Welsh who in Lord Raglan's inimitable phrase, 'by their knowledge of Welsh obtain preference for posts for which they are otherwise ill-qualified'; and thirdly, those few serious contemporary writers in the Welsh language, translations of whose work forces me to conclude that they will leave most of you standing. Finally, your twice repeated command. I stopped concentrating on short stories before WALES was re-issued and the only other markets were in England. There, although I had one or two successes (two, actually!) I found that editors had had their palates whetted by Never- Never Land stuff, and look as I might, there's never been a pony and trap in the family. I've been writing instead, T v plays. What they're about, you'll have to wait and see, but I don't mind telling you that I've just sold a few to the B B c (London of course, not the Kuomintang) and that I regard my Never Never Land piece as a point of departure, not as you quite rightly say, as academic criticism. INSTEAD OF A NEW YEAR CARD The world is distance in a shrunken shell, Spirit expands beyond heaven and hell; Size and mystery, dreams, ambition Are the simple sums of our condition. But dreams are good and living is strong When memory and friendship shape the song. Charles Hamblett 'I ought to explain that Plaid Cymru is not a Welsh football club sponsored by Lord Raglan'. (Wilfred Wooller replying to a toast to Lord Raglan, annual dinner Chartered Auctioneers' and Estate Agents Institute.)