Letters from Wales

Ranging over eight centuries of life in Wales, this fascinating anthology of private and public correspondence, journals and diary entries provides an enthralling commentary on the country''s development. The letters bring Welsh history to life through vivid vignettes of personal experience and all too human opinion.

While seemingly devoted to events in Wales the correspondents are also measuring Wales'' place in Britain, Europe and the world as geographical boundaries expanded out of the Old World. The selection shows how intimately Wales has been bound up with the rest of the British Isles, and the extraordinary contribution it has made to life here.

From Kings, Princes and Bishops to writers, artists and politicians, from the medieval machinations of Glyndwr and Hotspur to bitter industrial disputes, from Oliver Cromwell to Lloyd George, George Eliot to Dylan Thomas, Edward I to Evelyn Waugh, a richly textured, entertaining and informative book emerges.

Joan Abse (1926-2005) was an art historian whose books included a much acclaimed biography John Ruskin, the Passionate Moralist, and The Art Galleries of Britain and Ireland. She collaborated with Dannie Abse in editing Voices in the Gallery (Tate Gallery).