Geoff Brookes is the author of 'Stories In Welsh Stone', a remarkable book which brings together fifteen grisly tales of murder and betrayal as revealed on the gravestones of various Welsh country churches. As the author says:-" These gravestones are not just curiosities. They represent past lives and tell stories we should not forget. We owe it to those involved to remember what happened."

I dont normally read biographies because they always end the same way. But Lloyd Robson has solved this problem. His "biography" of Mitchum is as much about the author as it is about its subject. Fortunately for the reader both are fascinating characters.

Americymru: Are poets born or made? Peter: Well, John Clare, echoing Horace I believe, said 'A poet is born not made'. However, we have Edward Thomas, the First World War poet ( he's of Welsh descent and gave his three children Welsh names), who started writing poems around the age of 37 years at the suggestion of the American poet Robert Frost. Thomas had written quality prose for decades and Frost pointed out that some of the passages were ideal for turning into poems. I have taught potential poets for sixteen years at the Adult Education Department at Swansea University. I think the hardest thing is to develop an individual vision and poetic voice. Maybe one is born with those two vital things.

This is part 1 of an in depth interview with Rhys Hughes, the Welsh Wizard of the Absurd. Rhys was born in Porthcawl, South Wales in 1966 and plans to write exactly 1000 stories in his lifetime ( see his blog here:- The Spoons That Are My Ears ). So far he has completed 468. His latest collection "The PostModern Mariner" can be found here together with a sample story "Castor on Troubled Waters" which can be read in full online. Rhys can also be found on the web at:- The Rime of The Post Modern Mariner and on his MySpace page.