In Search of Welshness: What exactly is it to be Welsh?

What is it to be Welsh? Is it speaking the language? Or is it something much more difficult to put your finger on - an attitude of mind, a secret place in the heart? In this book author Peter Daniels searches for answers through his own life in Llanelli and through the eyes of the London Welsh.

"This painfully honest book explores these issues from the perspectives of a number of first and even second-generation exiles, mainly settled in and around London. A couple are ‘Cymry newydd’, people from abroad or elsewhere in the UK who have found something in ‘the Welsh way’ they want to become part of. Many are engaged in learning or relearning Welsh and, despite drawing ever closer to ‘Iaith y Nefoedd’ – the language of Heaven – are acutely aware, as adult learners so often are, of their deficiencies and inadequacies. Peter Daniels’ account is a reminder to those of us lucky enough to be living in Wales of the love of country and the deep commitment to Welsh society and its way of life felt by those living apart. Sharpened by exile, their feeling for Wales can reflect cuttingly on our own areas of apathy. At the same time, he highlights the diffidence and insecurity exiles and non-Welsh speakers often feel in seeking closer involvement, and the rawness when such overtures – for whatever reason – seem to fail."
Meic Llewellyn, Gwales