In the sequel
to the hugely popular Real Cardiff, Peter Finch explores the
city further. In Real Cardiff Two: The Greater City he no longer
has his nose pressed against the glass. This time he's inside. Finch
hunts for the legendary peripherique and discovers rubbish dumps,
walled housing estates and dead-end lanes. He walks the coast around
Penarth Head and on to Lavernock to find the terminal beach at Sully.
With poet Grahame Davies he hunts for the mythical river Canna, ponders
why there are so many pubs in Pontcanna and uncovers what makes Cardiff
media-land tick. With Architect Jonathan Adams he trails where the
walls of Cardiff once ran, looking for time vaults and gaps in the
city's space-time continuum.
How did Penarth's Billy Banks get their name? Why are there so many
pubs in Pontcanna? Is it Victoria Park or Canton? Who knows? Not Finch's
mother, that's for sure. With John Briggs he walks the route of the
Glamorgan Canal, mourning the city's loss.
In Roath, the real capital of Wales, he finds the Goosler, lost tennis
courts and the old road to Cardiff Gate. In the Bay he looks at what
went before the new Wales Millennium Centre and what might have been.
Out at Creigiau he finds cromlechau and extant past in a city full
of trees and slopes. The Welsh Office is surrounded with salt to keep
the demons out. John Tripp has his wake at the Gower in Cathays. There's
a folk-club in the Locomotive along Broadway. Queen Street Station
has passages you can't get to where the Taff Vale Railway still steams.
There are other secrets running inside the overbuilt city. Finch tells
us what they are.
Real Cardiff Two - The Greater City
Peter Finch 1854113844 - £9.99
copies on sale in bookstores through the city
Real
Cardiff #1- Peter Finch
revised edition now available - £9.95
"…a marvellous book - one of the very best books about a
city I have ever read." - Jan Morris
The Real Cardiff Two Tour
Thursday 16th December, 2004
Caban, Pontcanna. 7.00 pm
Saturday 18th December, 2004
The Welsh Writer's Tent, The Hayes, Cardiff. 1.00 pm.
Ifor Thomas's literary Salon presents an open air launch for Real
Cardiff Two
What's
in Real Cardiff Two:
East - Roath -
Capital of Wales - Waterloo Hill and the Three Brewers - Lamby Way
- Rumney - Adamsdown - The Locomotive - The Road To Cardiff Gate -Gwennyth
Street - East Cardiff - Llanrumney Hall - Llanedeyrn Village
Central - St Mary
Street - Cardiff Queen Street Station - Surrounding The Welsh Office
With Salt - Womanby Street - Cardiff Medicine - The Town Walls - The
Royal - Cardiff Arts (Old) - Angel Street - Sorting Working Street
- Cardiff Haiku
West - The
Bridge Over The Canna - North Riverside - Six Pubs and a Chip
Shop - Songs To Sing In Cardiff When You're Drunk - Victoria Park
- Tinkinswood - Cosmeston - St Lythan
North - The Pool
at Maindy - Llys Tal Y Bont - Gabalfa - Heol
y Waun - Creigiau - The Green Wedge -Canal
North
South - Canal South
- Ely Fields - Barrage - Hamadryad Park -
County Hall - Wales Millennium Centre - Bute East and Atlantic Wharf
- Walking Out of Butetown - North From The Oval Basin
Penarth and the Coast
- The Towers of Penarth - Penarth Head - Penarth Fish Pier - The
Billy Banks - Washington - Lavernock - Sully's Terminal Beach
Beyond - Newport isn't Cardiff - Cardiff,
New York State - Cardiff Could Be
Paperback.
November, 2004. £9.99. ISBN 1854113844. Buy
Online.
Seren are
also offering copies of the revised Real Cardiff One and Real
Cardiff Two at the bargain price of £15.00 post free. Buy
online or send your cheque to Seren Books, 38 Nolton Street, Bridgend
CF31 3BN.
Caban in Pontcanna.
One of the launch bookshops.
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