"Finch's Real Cardiff was one of the most successful
and original books ever written about the Welsh capital - Here comes
part two, and it's even better than the first" - The Western
Mail, December 2004
Real Cardiff One
- Cardiffian Peter Finch discovers the real Cardiff - lost rivers,
Roman forts, holy wells, itinerant poets, the old race course, the
revitalised city centre, the redeveloped Cardiff Bay, as he travels
the city from east to west and north to south. All Cardiff is here
- not just the tourist destinations. The estates of Ely and Grangetown
sit next to elegant Radyr and Lisvane; the new bars jostle with the
old pubs; the terraces of Splott stand by the grandeur of the castle
and the civic centre.
What do visitors make of the place? Meet the Japanese tourist puzzling
over Castell Coch; get banned from the pubs of Llandaff with novelist
George MacBeth; listen to the Beat poets in town. Meet the locals
too, with their mix of diffidence and civic pride.
And see how Cardiff is changing, from Finch's youth in the sixties
to the chrome and glass of today; from capital city to seat of government;
from thriving docks and steelmaking to call centres and the new tourism.This
is offbeat topographical writing, peppered with Finch's poems, which
will enthral the native, the visitor and the armchair traveller alike.
It's celebratory, it's subversive. It's Real Cardiff.
Real Cardiff One Contents
East
Broadway - City Road - Claude Road - Deans Farm - Newport Road - Four
Elms - Lake - Lambies - Parks of Roath - Pengam - Ty Draw - The Lost
Wells of Penylan
West
Conifer Court - Ely - Grangetown - Hadfield Road - King's Castle
Central
Arcade - Bute Park - Taf - Charles Street - Gorsedd Gardens - Hayes
- High Street - Kardomah - The Park Hotel - The Pearl -
Stadium - The General - The Roman Fort - Womanby Street - The Lost
Rivers of Cardiff
North
Castell Coch - Garth - Llandaf - The Pineapple - The Twmpath - Not
As Visible As They Could Be - The Junction Terrace Cooking Mound -
Whitchurch Common
South
Bute Street - Lloyd George Avenue - Mount Stuart Square - Windsor
Esplanade - Port - Flat Holm - Grangemore Parc - A West Bute Dock
Walk
Back To The Bay
This is the ideal alternative guidebook, history and literary ramble.
In addition to the main text the work is illuminated by a set of poems,
a couple of maps and at least fifty photographs. paperback. Fully
revised. £9.95. ISBN 1854113852
full size cover for Real Cardiff #1
Real Cardiff Two - The Greater City
Real Cardiff Two
- Peter Finch crosses the larger city, Greater Cardiff, hunts
for the legendary periferique 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 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. Russell Goodway agrees
with him. But he's lost too, now.
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 Valley Railway still steams. There are other secrets
running inside the overbuilt city. Finch tells us what they are.
In Real Cardiff #2 Finch no longer has his nose pressed against
the glass. This time he's inside.
There's are slices from the books here at the Real Cardiff
web site but what else is in the book? Check the contents below:
Real Cardiff Two Contents
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.
Seren are also offering copies of the revised Real
Cardiff One and Real Cardiff Two at the bargain price of
£15.00 post free Send your cheque to Seren Books, 57 Nolton
Street, Bridgend CF31 3AE Wales, UK Tel: 01656 663018 Fax: 01656 649226
bk @seren-books.com
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