OTHER NEWS

"A Broad Church", the print-on-demand title jointly published by Tregolwyn and Unlimited Publishing of Indiana, USA, can now be printed in the UK by UP's partners, Gardners, leading to a reduction in price. It has just appeared in the Welsh Books Council's on-line catalogue.

"A Gower Story" appears in the Welsh Books Council's latest free brochure, GOOD READING FROM WALES. The cover of "A Gower Story" was featured in a new exhibition by photographer Rhys Jones, at Swansea Central Library, in May/June 2002. In case you missed it, the same exhibition will be appearing at Cowbridge Library in March 2003.

Clare Woodward also has a new title out in e-book format. "What Women Do" will soon be available from virtualbookworm.com.
Deborah Fisher's new non-fiction book, "Princesses of Wales", will be published in the autumn by Wales Books.

Reviews
The latest review of "A Gower Story" appears in the forthcoming edition of the short story magazine, "Cambrensis".

In Wales' leading literary magazine, the quarterly "New Welsh Review", Kirsti Bohata commented favourably on the novel, noting that "vividly evoked in this novel is a sense of a small community and the loyalties and support as well as the rifts and feuds that this kind of society can foster." She compares the heroine, Olwen, to a "provincial, church-going Bridget Jones"! Kirsti found the romance at the centre of the book to be "engaging, warm and sensitively explored" - even though she admits to not being a reader of romances in general.

Almost all reader comments have been favourable, and spontaneously so. The Western Mail's senior reviewer, Dean Powell, called it "a bright, sparky and thoroughly enjoyable read".

The only discordant note so far was struck by Big Issue Cymru's Melanie Daley, whose vitriolic review included the attestation that "sitting in a tank of poisonous snakes for half an hour would be decidedly more fun". One has to wonder how anyone could get so worked up about a simple everyday story, but I suspect that is the problem. Big Issue readers apparently want to read about sex, drugs and rock'n'roll in large quantities, rather than about events that actually could happen to real people in real life.