Dachlan Cartwright

Powys Fadog Dachlan Cartwright

This collection of thirty-three verses is titled for a medieval name of an area of northeast Wales, the author's stomping-ground as a teenager, so the timepoint is mainly anchored in the 1950s and 1960s Using a range of poetic templates including sonnets, haiku, pantun and songlines, its subjects are topographical, cultural, historical and mystical. Besides celebrating such familiar themes as eisteddfodau, male voice choirs, and football, it also memorializes legendary characters like Toddy Slabcake and Crad the Garth. Fight the Battles of Chester and Wrexham with the Bangor monks and John Charles, warp through time with the Drovesse and the Dodleston tachyon cowboys, linger in the Dark Age mists of Wat's and Offa's Dyke, and get lost on the High Berwyns before the days of GPS and goggling earthcams.