The television programme is available on S4C clic at the moment
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Really? Interesting. Thank you.
Watching this at the moment - and for those who, like me, only know Buddug Povey as middle-aged, permanently harassed and sharp-tongued Kay in Rownd a Rownd, it may be a bit disconcerting to recognise her as the rather glamorous man-eater Menna 
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Fi a Joe Allen - Manon Steffan Ros
“Dwi ddim yn dweud 'mod i’n bêl-droediwr anhygoel, ond roedd hon gôl y byddai Gareth Bale yn falch ohoni!”
Marc Hughes is a massive football fan and when he got the chance to go to France to see the Wales team play he was over the moon.
But in the middle of all the excitement of the games and spending some rare time with his dad (who was the spit of Joe Allen), things weren’t all that rosy.
This book is definitely aimed at the younger reader, maybe 8-11ish at a guess, so is written in really quite a straight forward style with easy to grasp language. Probably one of the best books for this age I’ve read for me as all of the excitement of the 2016 Euros came back to life. Very enjoyable.
Suitable for people just starting to read I would say. This is the 17th MSR book I’ve read so maybe that was why I found it easy … try it out for yourself.
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‘Merched Gwyllt Cymru’ (Wild Welsh Women) - I couldn’t resist when I came across this in the library. You may disagree with the author’s choice of women, or with her definitions of ‘Wild’, ‘Welsh’ and even (Rebecca and her daughters) ‘Women’, but it’s a rollicking good read. I was pleased that the fifteenth century feminist poet, Gwerfyl Mechain, was included, and your notion of Welsh womanhood will be further expanded by reading about harpist and wrestler Marged ferch Ifan.
The book starts with the legendary witch Ceridwen, and ends with Megan Lloyd George, who has one of the best put-downs ever to a hustings heckler.
The book is dual language English and Welsh, so although it’s aimed at fairly advanced readers, it’s possible for less advanced readers to enjoy it as well. The English is by no means a word-for-word translation, which would be annoying if you were using the book as a serious learning tool, but if you just want to read for pleasure without having to look stuff up in the dictionary, it’s ideal.
I’d recommend this book as a Christmas present for a friend who’s learning Welsh. It costs £7.95, but you can buy secondhand copies at AbeBooks for just over £2. (Other non-Amazon booksellers are available.)
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My goal is to work through the History of Wales by Davies. I have it in English & Welsn & is my reading Welsh goal. Surviving a week or two in Wales is my speaking goal. I have that and some pre grammar school books. Not much in between cardiau post is my read/write goal! I have 3 or 4 & starting to write. Caveat: having surgery Fri so may be delayed
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Thank you. I forgot to say that both English and Welch versions of Davies book are available on Kindle
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Hi, has anyone read Apostol by Dyfed Edwards? The June 2019 prize winning fiction book. I think it’s intended for first language speakers but I’m thinking of buying it - I had a sneak look at a page or two yesterday, and the vocabulary didn’t seem to be too frightening.
@clare-6 Dyma’r llyrf on i’n siarad amdani. Mae’n dda achos mae mynegai yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg, ac mae llunia yn dda iawn :)!!
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Iolo is great. Saw him speak this year
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Thank you Cetra. I shall get a copy shortly. Great to see you yesterday 
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My sister (who doesn’t speak Welsh) has kindly sent me a book that she found in a second-hand shop. The original price of 7/6 is written in the front and there are copious notes in an illegible handwriting. The book is:
“Blodeugerdd o’r Ddeunawfed Ganrif” by D. Gwenallt Jones.
She has to be joking. I don’t read collections of eighteenth century poems in English, let alone in Welsh. I realise that it is a classic collection put together by an eminent poet, but oh dear! Never mind, I shall put it at the very end of the books that I might aspire to one day but can’t tackle yet.
Sue
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SGŴP - Lois Arnold
This is a great book by Lois Arnold that is unmistakenly aimed at learners with a small geirfa at the back and a few words translated at the bottom of each page. The story is very good and keeps your interest all the way though. It’s about a young reporter, Lowri Glyn, who works at a small, local newspaper while dreaming of making her name and writing the big stories. Making tea and typing letters is her usual day to day chores until some clues to something bigger come her way.
I will say that I felt a lot of things in this book were written purely just to broaden your vocab while reading it, which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but it was a bit blatent on times.
On the back cover it says that this is aimed at “lefel sylfaen dau / canolradd”. Not too much for any SSiWers having got through level 1 then I guess.
Here’s a review I found from the SSiW eisteddfod back in 2017 that’s worth a read …
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Agree with you totally @gruntius. Lois Arnold’s books are great for early learners to improve vocabulary, sentence construction and pick up useful phrases to drop into conversation. I’ve recently finished Sgwp and would thoroughly recommend it.
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Seconded! I’ve just worked my way through the first chapter of Sgŵp!, on loan from @RichardBuck, and was surprised by how much I could construe (having recently finished SSiW Level 2). Looking forward to uncovering the Big Story!
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An interesting article in English about the best Welsh language novels from the past decade https://nation.cymru/culture/the-top-10-welsh-language-novels-of-the-2010s/ I don’t think my Welsh is up to reading most of these just yet but I hope to read a few of them in the coming decade.
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That was my review Thanks very much for thinking it was worth sharing! I really enjoyed Sgwp, still one of my favorite books I’ve read in Welsh (granted, the list isn’t very long - around 10, I think…) I’ve been really busy this past year with life/other projects, but am definitely going to get back to reading Welsh books soon. I’m grateful for all the contributions in this thread to help me choose the next one- thanks everyone!
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Mine too. I go back and read it again for pleasure when I find that other books are just too difficult or too much like hard work.
Sue
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More than likely it’s been mentioned before in this thread but, for those lucky people who live in Wales, you can get e-books and audio books in Welsh and English via the Welsh Library service across Wales using BorrowBox: https://libraries.wales/my-digital-library/borrowbox/
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