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This brief book is the latest product from the prolific pen of the impassioned and indefatigable Dr Gwynfor Evans. The pen-portrait on the dust-jacket informs us that Dr Evans 'is the foremost Welsh politician of the twentieth century'. The patriotic reviewer of this book should therefore approach the task with due reverence and deference. To offer criticism might be deemed to be like a Catholic insulting the Pope. Readers of Dr Evans's earlier work, especially The Land of My Fathers, will be familiar with the view of Wales presented here. In a land of precious few heroes, Dr Evans has laboured hard to build the nation's pantheon. Unsurprisingly, the Llywelyns (Great and Last) and the Owains (Gwynedd, Red Hand and Glyndwr) are admitted into the pantheon. Others are luckier to gain admittance. Lloyd George is one such example; his early posturing with Cymru Fydd is deemed to be more important than his role in the British government, which refused E. T. John's Home Rule bill of 1914. Others, like Neil Kinnock, are cast out probably deservedly. This, perhaps, is no surprise, for where there are heroes there are, inevitably, villains. But, sadly and somewhat old fashionedly, there is only one heroine Gwenllian, who 'like a queen of the Amazons and a second Pentesilea', led her army in the typical, unsuccessful, Welsh fashion. If there is a second edition it is hoped that some of the minor errors will be corrected the Blue Books of I852? while some die-hards will raise their eyebrows at the impression, given here, that the founding fathers of Plaid Cymru, in the 1920s, were already calling it 'The Party of Wales'. The book offers an useful outline of the process of the awakening of Welsh national consciousness, by the man who has done more than all of these heroes to awaken Welsh consciousness. -- Dr D. Russell Davies @ www.gwales.com

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