Bred of Heaven: One man's quest to reclaim his Welsh roots by Jasper Rees
| Bred of Heaven: One man's quest to reclaim his Welsh roots by Jasper Rees | |
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| Category: Travel | |
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Reviewer: Robert James
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| Summary: Reasonably entertaining attempt by journalist Jasper Rees to pursue his Welsh roots. He dabbles in male voice choirs, rugby playing, coracling, and starts to learn the Welsh language, but it never really feels like anything more than an author looking for something to write about. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 256 | Date: August 2011 |
| Publisher: Profile Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1846682995 | |
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Jasper Rees is a Welshman in his dreams. Despite his surname, he was born in England, but wishes he was from Wales. Seeking to find his inner Welshman – he's sure he has one as he had Welsh grandparents – he journeys around the land of his fathers trying to work out what it means to be Welsh.
Male voice choir? Check. Rugby? Check. Farming? Check. Mountains? Check. Learning the language complaining about weird mutations? Check. Everything you'd expect to be in an account of Wales is here… and to be honest, that's the problem which stops this being more than reasonably entertaining.
It's all so, so, so predictable. It doesn't feel like a book about Wales; it feels like a book about an Englishman's view of Wales. If you asked a random person on the street in London to spout his own thoughts on what it meant to be Welsh, they'd come up with virtually everything included in this book. That's not necessarily a bad thing – Rees tackles all the old standbys pretty well, his thoughts on rugby, including his chosen position; Ideally, touch judge are particularly entertaining. It's just that I never got away from the feeling that his main concern, rather than becoming truly Welsh, was to get a book out of all of this stuff, and I'd have loved a couple of more surprising ideas of Welshness which would perhaps have been rather more thought-provoking than the somewhat lazy stereotypes we get much of the time here.
I'm probably sounding rather harsher than I meant to here; it's a good enough read in many ways and I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from seeking it out. It's just that as a proud Welshman myself I had high expectations for this one and didn't really feel it lived up to them. As a pleasant read with some funny lines, it's worth taking a look at. If you want something a bit deeper and more thought-provoking, perhaps you should pass.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
Further reading suggestion: For more about Wales, check out the fascinating Struggle or Starve by Carole White and Sian Williams.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Bred of Heaven: One man's quest to reclaim his Welsh roots by Jasper Rees at Amazon.com.
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