John Davies

Advantages: Fascinating reading
Disadvantages: -

...to the recent past. Wales was never so fortunate. Indeed, it is a miracle that the Welsh survive. The Scots lost land, language and independence, but retained administrative and legal systems separations that preserved many aspects of nationhood. The Irish never completely lost independence. The Welsh, however, lost practically everything of nationhood, and barely sustained an independent culture. Thus, when the 'nations' of the British Isles began to re-exert their independent interpretations of history, the Welsh were among the last. However, sometimes the last shall be first. In terms of quality of writing and interpretation, the volume by John Davies, 'A History of Wales', is indeed in a class of its own in terms of Welsh history. Dafydd Elis Thomas read into the 'Hansard' (the British Parliamentary equivalent of the United States... Read review

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Advantages: Interesting development of a lesser known gospel work
Disadvantages: -

.... The Gospel of Thomas, like many of the other, is more a collection of sayings, more on the order of the book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes than Mark or John. According to Stevan Davies, `The format of the Gospel of Thomas is little more than a disorganised list.... The Gospel of Thomas is about as primitive a form of text as there can be: a simple list with one thing following another in a manner that is much more reminiscent of oral tradition than of literary construction.' The Gospel of Thomas is perhaps best understood as a Gnostic text (though there are some who would dispute that). Andrew Harvey, series editor of the Skylight Illuminations set in which this book falls, writes: `The Gospel of Thomas is more than the most exciting archaeological find of the last century, even more than another gospel to add to the four canonical ones... Read review

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Advantages: Real insights into the workings of the World Cup and the England team
Disadvantages: No matter how many times you read it, we still don't beat the Germans!

...and Waddle, it becomes clear that the players would prefer that as well. Davies also chooses to repeat the players comments verbatim, leaving in all the awkward pauses, ums and ers to give a truer representation of their responses to his questions. Indeed, the John Barnes interview is easily the most revealing of the lot, especially when you consider his career after 1990 and his abortive steps into management with Celtic in 1999. Barnes says he does not plan to go into management or coaching (although he would consider involvement at non-league level to get some experience), and he freely admits to being so lazy that he will sit in his flat all afternoon rather than cross the road to buy a paper – it is easy to you can see how that attitude transmitted into the apparently listless performances he so often gave in an England shirt. Terry... Read review

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