One of the things that I have done on holiday is to listen to Jan Morris, aged 91, talking about her attitude to the British Empire, which she has written about in her great trilogy of books on the subject and describes as equivocal in her role as a journalist and historian, but is actually deeply romantic and suffused with the experience of Empire, now increasingly remote and nearly impossible to recover, except through her voice and choice of accompanying music.

I strongly recommend it:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7fps6

The weather is not so good in Anglesey, so I thought that I would walk to the local village to buy some bread and see what had changed since we were last here.

I stopped at the Marram Grass, the restaurant in the local caravan park, which is now listed in the Good Food Guide.   It’s acquired its own pop-up potting shed with a home distillery and bar:-

On the other side of the road is their farm project, where you can see what you eat:-

Then, I walked up the road past the Wesleyan Chapel, which says 1785 on the front, but was rebuilt in 1861:-

The cemetery at the back has good slate tombs:-

But the house next door is now unoccupied:-

The great Prichard Jones Institute, too, is closed:-

And the little post office is now a café:-

We went down to the beach at the end of the day.   Llanddwyn Island was apparently a place of pilgrimage in the fifth century, when young lovers came to pay their respects to St. Dwynwen, the patron saint of lovers (the Welsh apparently now celebrate St. Dwynwen’s Day on 25th. January instead of St. Valentine’s Day in February):-

We walked down to the Stepping Stones, said to be Roman in origin, but renewed for the coastal path a few years ago, to watch the birds on the river – peewits and flocks of geese, two egrets and in the distance the hills of the Lleyn Peninsula:-

I stopped on the way back from the Centre for Alternative Technology to take a photograph of the green fields of the Dovey Valley, looking across the valley towards Penegoes, where Richard Wilson was born in 1714, son of the rector and taken off to London when he was fifteen by his uncle, Sir George Wynne:-

I’ve always planned to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology and finally succeeded, driving over a steeply wooded mountain road from Aberangell to Corris.

It’s a 1970s project, founded in November 1973 by Gerard Morgan-Grenville on a disused slate quarry, inspired by writings like Small is Beautiful and The Limits to Growth, full of hippy zeal to explore alternative technologies, including wind farms and solar power, which were once marginal and are now mainstream.

One approaches by a water-powered funicular:-

There is a faint whiff of Hobbit-land:-

Plus the remains of experiments in wind power:-

The most impressive part of the project is WISE, their graduate school and conference centre, which was designed by Pat Borer and David Lea, a student of Leslie Martin, an intelligent piece of ecological design, built out of rammed earth and timber on an ambitious scale:-

No sooner had I arrived in Anglesey than I set off for a weekend retreat in the hills north of Machynlleth:  still Snowdonia, but its southern reaches, across the pass south of Dolgellau and much afforested after the war.

This is the pass over the hills:-

The gate into the estate:-

A sign of some of the planting:-

Old outhouses:-

The woods:-

And the lake:-

I’ve just been tipped off by a contact in Hong Kong about the appearance of a very full and even-handed article about the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in this morning’s Financial Times by James Pickford, who has managed to interview all those involved.   Historic England, who have apparently acted as paid consultants to the new owners (this surely makes it difficult for them to maintain statutory impartiality), should now press them to retain the historic parts of the foundry, which is still in a good state of preservation, as a working foundry not an ersatz wine bar:-
https://www.ft.com/content/fb9d4f78-9579-11e8-b747-fb1e803ee64e

I’ve been asked about my holiday reading. I’m happy to record it, if only as a statement of intent:-

David Cannadine, Victorious Century

It’s been sitting by my bed since it appeared earlier in the year. I’ve always admired Cannadine’s gift for synthesis. Now I can digest his latest.

Jamie Camplin, Books do furnish a Painting

Not yet published: a treat in store.

Esther Kinsky, River

A post-Sebaldian, East London book by a German writer and translator, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Salvatore Settis, If Venice Dies

A paean or lament (or both) by Settis, an Italian archaeologist who directed the Getty Center in the 1990s.

Leif Bersweden, The Orchid Hunter

I missed her talk at the Garden Museum.

Stella Tillyard, The Great Level

I haven’t brought much fiction, but this will be deeply informed, historical fiction.

Alan Jenkins, Morning

Again, I heard him talk at the Garden Museum and like the idea of making good use of the early morning (and admire The Observer Food Monthly which he edits).

Rupert Christiansen, The City of Light: the Reinvention of Paris

Since this is a blog, I am allowed to recommend books by friends.

Moya Carey, Persian Art: Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A

A book about an era when the V&A under Caspar Purdon Clarke was able to acquire Iranian antiquities with scholarly intent and no compunction.

Lilia Schwartz and Heloise Starling, Brazil: A Biography

Catching up on the history of Brazil, a new enthusiasm.

Then, there are assorted books about Anglesey which I luckily didn’t leave here or they would have been destroyed by the damp.

What these books demonstrate is that I buy more books than I get round to reading. But I like the idea that I can catch up on a year of not reading enough.

There was a brief moment of sunshine before the mist descended, as we contemplated the fields which lead down to the River Afon and the view of the trees beyond:-