Lynette Roberts was born into a Welsh family in Buenos Aires. Following her marriage to the Welsh writer and editor Kiedrych Rhys she moved to a cottage in the village of Llanybri a few miles from Llansteffan. Her two volumes of poetry, Poems and Gods with Stainless Ears, were published by no less a poetic luminary than T.S. Eliot when he was at Faber.

Having established something of a cult following like many poets she faded from the scene until her Collected Poems published in 2006 restored her to the minds of the poetry reading public. What makes this book such a fascinating one is that it is a collection of her prose writings that gives an insight into what helped to form what in retrospect was major writing talent.


The prose taking up a large proportion of the book is called A Carmarthenshire Diary and records her experiencs and thoughts of a bygone age covering the time the family lived in Llanybri. Enlivening the diary are examples of Roberts' paintings together with family photographs.

In addition, there are short pieces titled 'An introduction to Village Dialect, together with pieces headed The Welsh Dragon and Coracles of Tawe, giving a fairly comprehensive picture of Welsh village life at the time. The entire collection of writings gives real insight into a serious literary figure and recalls through the pure prose of a talented writer a very different time while breathing life into characters long dead. It is a gem of a book.