Books
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After becoming the first man to climb Mount Everest Sir Edmund Hillary returned to North Wales where he had trained for the historic event. Planning to meet up with Lord Hunt and the rest of the expedition for their first-ever reunion, Hillary arrived late at the Pen y Gwryd hotel and was told that everyone…
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Via Y Lolfa On the 21st of October 1966, the village of Aberfan in south Wales was shattered by one of the worst disasters in Welsh and British history. Following days of bad weather, water from a spring had destabilized a huge coal slag tip – one of the black man-made mountains which surrounded the…
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A Life On The Edge, reviewed by Lyn Ebenezer, author of Operation Julie and Fron-goch Camp 1916 I have never met Eric Jones, yet I feel as if I know him well. Two contributions on the back cover of his autobiography sum up my impression of his character. One is a long-range photo that…
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‘Beware,’ a fellow adventurer once told Eric Jones. ‘The reaper lurks.’ But perhaps he truly has nine lives. He was the first British man to solo the Eiger North Face – one of the greatest challenges in the climbing world. On the Matterhorn, he was swept within 10 feet of a sheer precipice. As he…
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A Pembrokeshire airman, who was shot down over Belgium during World War 2, has enjoyed an emotional reunion with a former member of his crew. Pilot John Evans, who was born in Goodwick, was visited by his former bomb aimer, Bill Robertson, who travelled from Canada for the meeting. The two men are the last…
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Just found a wonderful memory of Cardiff’s historic win at the Twickenham Sevens in the spring of 1939 in an article from Wales Online. The team featured Les Spence and Wilf Wooller who three years later would be captured by the Japanese in Java. Les kept a secret diary (of which a lot more here:…
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Described as “explosive” by the Irish Post and an “important” book by the Guardian ‘The Death of Justice’ continues to get five-star reviews on Amazon. This is the inside story of a brutal murder as revealed by Michael O’Brien, one of the men wrongly jailed for more than a decade. The miscarriage of justice which…
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Irishman Tom Sharkey was the never-say-die fighter who bridged the gap between old and new. Sharkey arrived in the United States in the 1890s as the fight game was changing. The prize-fighters and bare-knuckle brawlers were disappearing as the new “scientific” boxers emerged to fight under the Marquis of Queensberry rules. After quickly making his name…
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In early 1942 a courageous band of Welshmen found themselves fighting side by side against the all-conquering Japanese army. The men, who had joined up to provide air defences for Cardiff, Newport and Barry, had been sent to the Far East as the Japanese bore down on Britain’s “impregnable fortress” at Singapore. But the battle-hardened…
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A few years ago while working on a book called ‘Airman Missing’, a short biography of RAF evader John Evans (no longer in print!), I became intrigued with those who had helped him evade capture in occupied Belgium. John, who was originally from Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, evaded the Germans for 114 days after his Halifax was…
Greg Lewis 