'Not long after, the UK government gave Palantir a defence contract worth £141m. There was no procurement process.' gwallter.com/politics/who...

'2026 isn’t a bad year to think about utopian worlds, at a time when we’re faced with so many dystopian ones, factual and fictional.' gwallter.com/history/utop...

'One of the pieces, entitled ‘Ganymede’, cup-bearer of the gods, concerns Bernard’s insistence on being prescribed Ambrosia custard on the ward.' Embroidered pictures and stories on identity and mortality by Nigel Hurlstone at the Mission Gallery. gwallter.com/art/gwynt-tr...

'Where this exhibition scores is in its inclusion of many sketches and other preparatory works by both artists ... these and other works bring us as close as we can get to the act of making art.' Turner & Constable @tate.bsky.social gwallter.com/art/turner-a...

Dryw (llun gan Carys Evans): rhif 1 mewn cyfres o 'Cyfarfodydd ag adar rhyfeddol': gwallter.com/cymraeg/tri-...

What have the Donro Doctrine and the 1895 Venezuela crisis have in common? gwallter.com/history/a-zo...

Eugénie-Paméla Larivière: a good stand-in for Fanny Price? gwallter.com/books/imagin...

What's political about fonts? gwallter.com/politics/the...

Newyddion da o Abertawe! gwallter.com/libraries/ag...

Cardiff blues, anarchic poets and bookshop 'shrinkage' gwallter.com/books/peter-...

A hymn to the power of imagination: Philip Pullman's 'The rose field' gwallter.com/books/dust-a...

'You could easily miss the farmer in this painting, so camouflaged are his clothes and face against the dark tones of the mountain slope.' 'Kyffin in Bangor talk': gwallter.com/art/kyffin-i...

Craig Cau, 19 November: one the finest days I've ever had on Cader Idris in 50 years.

'The Llanboidy Molecatcher', a star of a new book, 'Carmarthenhire in 100 Objects' gwallter.com/art/things-f...

"‘Ignoring the fans’ I find admirable. He’s come all this way to play and sing for us, what more do we want?" Bob Dylan in Swansea. gwallter.com/music/bob-dy...

Want to know what's really going on in the BBC? Come & hear Prof. Elan Closs Stephens, late of the BBC Board, in an RISW talk & discussion in Swansea Museum, Thursday 13 November, 6:30pm. All welcome.

Aberystwyth: prifddinas llên - a mwy? gwallter.com/books/aber-p...

Well done, Aberystwyth, new UNESCO city of literature. More poets per hectare than in any other town.

'As Walter Bagehot well understood, monarchy continues to exist in order to infantalise the majority of the population.' Thoughts on the Irish presidential election and Andrew Windsor. gwallter.com/politics/mon...

Come join us at @nhm-london.bsky.social on November 7th for a day conference on the connections between natural history collections and enlightenment travel writing. For more information, programme and registration details, follow the link! curioustravellers.ac.uk/curious-coll...

Drawn into Landscape – Symposium 🌿 The School of Art invites you to Drawn into Landscape, a symposium in conjunction with Robert Newell’s exhibition Echoes Among the Rocks. 🕑 Wednesday 29 October, 14:00 - 17:00 📍 School of Art, Aberystwyth University, Buarth Mawr More: tinyurl.com/h5x5tr9y

Has Jesus College Cambridge improved since Coleridge went there in 1791? 'Jesus was an unwelcoming home, ‘the very palace of winds’. His rooms near the Porter’s Lodge were cold and clammy. He caught ’flu, which he treated with opium, and suffered from his bad teeth.' gwallter.com/literature/t...

"Though, Jan Morris adds later, she may be mistaken in her interpretation: 'those professors are probably company accountants really; the novelist is preparing a computer program and the sages are not contemplating Time, but waiting for the football on TV.’" gwallter.com/travel/heave...

'Someone counted the number of dashes in Tristram Shandy and reckoned there were 9,560 of them, an average of one dash every three lines.' gwallter.com/literature/i...

Pan oedd y gymdeithas ar-lein yn freuddwyd o hyd yn ein llyfrgelloedd … gwallter.com/libraries/ha...

'Swollen by the rains, Afon Glaslyn is brown, fast and angry. At Nantgwynant the mountains are streaked with broad silver torrents of water, Afon Nant Peris has burst its banks, and the road down Llanberis Pass is awash.' gwallter.com/travel/snowd...

'We ponder whether one of us should write the definitive monograph on the pedestrian gates of Eryri, to be published in an extravagant, full-colour edition by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.' gwallter.com/travel/snowd...

'Further below, we pass a large quarried-out hole full of dark water, complete with signs warning passers-by not to approach it.' Llun: hen chwarel, Y Fron. gwallter.com/travel/snowd...

Wittgenstein in Swansea: come and listen to Dr Alan Sandry talk about the greatest 20th century philosopher and his connection to Swansea: RISW event on Thursday 11 September at 6:30pm in Swansea Museum. All welcome.

'Today the Revival is a distant dream, the quarrymen are asleep, and Sardis long closed.' Dinorwig, Gwynedd, yn y glaw. gwallter.com/travel/snowd...

‘My favourite among these is Thomas Patch’s self-portrait as an ox, with its Latin inscription, ‘the person who humbles himself will be exalted’.’ gwallter.com/art/the-arti...

'The franchising change, however successful it is, will barely scratch the surface of the problems that arise from the fact that transport is so badly skewed in favour of the private car and against other means of getting around.' gwallter.com/travel/on-th... ‪@ianwalker.bsky.social‬ #bus

An improbable Victorian murder: 'Black Hopkin', the gold watch and savage Eryri . gwallter.com/books/george...

Cofio Brinley. gwallter.com/libraries/by...

Trist iawn clywed am farwolaeth Dr R. Brinley Jones, cymwynaswr mawr y genedl, un o'r bobl garedicaf yng Nghymru, a chyfaill arbennig.

'Dawn dweud' a'r ddadl am 'oracy' gwallter.com/cymraeg/dawn...

@nataliehaynes.bsky.social on the Library of Alexandria: ‘cherish your libraries … they are places that scare people who don’t want us to think for ourselves’. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... In the week I discussed book bans on Dros Ginio: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

'How many Swansea people, when they stroll along the sea wall past the Observatory ... stop to look closely at the diminutive building that sits on its own on the other side of the path?' gwallter.com/art/the-towe...

Pont Dolauhirion (1773): the handsomest bridge in Wales? gwallter.com/travel/deep-...

'In Shahzia Sikander’s beautiful and witty animated video The last post (2010), a cartoon Clive figure, enthroned like a Mughal emperor in an elaborate architectural setting, is made to crack apart and explode into small fragments.' Tigers & dragons, at the Glynn Viv. gwallter.com/art/tigers-a...

'Neu ydy’r cyfan yn gerflun newydd sbon, o bosib, gwaith cysyniadol gan un o’n hartistiaid mwyaf?' Dychmygu Pentre Ifan. gwallter.com/archaeology/...

At Avebury: 'But there’s always that frustrating gulf between wonder and knowledge. An old archaeology book had the title 'The mute stones speak'. The trouble is that stones don’t speak. They really are silent about what they’re doing where they are.' gwallter.com/archaeology/...

'I suspect that ‘autobesity’ or car bloat is a specific Anglo-Saxon phenomenon.' Plenty of reasons why SUVs need serious kerbing. gwallter.com/travel/again...

'Anyone reading 'Priorities for culture' in a vacuum could be forgiven for thinking the culture and the arts in Wales are in blooming good health.' gwallter.com/politics/pri...

Two relentless walkers and - thankfully - inspired by it to write rich and absorbing books @gwallter.bsky.social talks about the history of walking with @mikeparker.bsky.social Everyone had to walk after all to get anywhere (except the wealthy) - and Wales is rich in pilgrimage tales.

Furious all over again about Carla Hayden's firing. Barbaric, cruel and one of the most powerful indicators yet that American democracy is deep peril from its internal enemies. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

THIS SUNDAY IS NATURE SUNDAY Sunday 8th June - a feast of writing about our coastline, hinterland and wildlife. How do we live in, not just love, the natural world - not least in Wales? @gwallter.bsky.social, Jon Gower @mateoy.bsky.social Roger Morgan-Grenville montylitfest.com

'She goes to her bedroom in the turret; He goes to his motorbike in the basement Where her brothers are waiting for him To present him with an ultimatum ...' Ekphrastic brilliance from Paul Durcan (1944-2025). gwallter.com/books/goodby...

NATURE SUNDAY - 8th June, Montgomery Town Hall Time to get those tickets: montylitfest.com @gwallter.bsky.social @mikeparker.bsky.social @mateoy.bsky.social Jon Gower, Adam Bedford, Roger Morgan-Grenville