Cardiff West MP urges local people to rediscover mine of Welsh Classics

Local MP Kevin Brennan will be addressing Years 10 and 11 of Glyn Derw high school this Friday and encouraging GCSE pupils to read the Welsh classics.

Said Kevin Brennan MP: ‘ When I was in school there were few opportunities to read books by Welsh writers.  I want to praise Rhodri Morgan’s Labour Assembly Government for financing the reprint of classic Welsh books.

‘Where Ireland has Joyce, Heaney and Yeats, Wales has Williams, Thomas and Jones.  We should be proud of our achievements and have confidence in ourselves as drivers of both economic and cultural innovation’.

Launched at the Wales Millennium Centre earlier this week, the five books in the initial reprint are from a list of twenty compiled by historian and culture writer, Professor Dai Smith.  Four other titles are due in September 2006.

They have been distributed to secondary schools, colleges, universities and bookshops across Wales.  In addition the titles will be released in America and on the web so that world audiences can rediscover classic authors such as Raymond Williams, Lewis Jones and Gwyn Thomas.

Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan said: ‘Wales has produced some of the best literature in the world and this initiative will help people to rediscover these great Welsh writers.  I’m looking forward to re-reading some of the authors myself and tackling others for the first time!’.