Böcker av Peter Finch

Poet and psychogeographer Peter Finch undertakes 20 walks around his native city, picking out features en route and providing interesting stories, historical and contemporary, about life in the city past and present. His sharp eye and compendious knowledge of Cardiff is illustrated by photographer John Briggs' images in a lively guide to the city.

Peter Finch and John Briggs build on the success of their book Walking Cardiff and venture outside the capital and into the very different world of the Valleys. Over the past two centuries the Valleys have gone from idyllic rural landscape to the engine room of the British Empire to post industrial decline. As centres of coal mining and iron and steel-making, the Valleys saw over a hundred thousand people crammed between their steep sides. Their industry produced not only fuel and products exported around the world, but also archetypal working class communities, with their chapels, union militancy, self-funded workersâEUR(TM) institutes, and seemingly unbreakable identities. Fuelled by massive immigration, they were also a social experiment in assimilation and radical politics. Now the pits and foundries have become heritage sites, the chapels are retail centres or housing, and Finch and Briggs explore how the Valleys have changed, and what they have become. Their forward-looking book is also one of record, as the towns and villages evolve into the twenty-first centuries. This is their take on Abercynon, Aberdare, Aberfan, Bargoed, Caerphilly, Gelli, Gelligaer, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd, Porth, Rhymney, Taffs Well, Tonypandy, Treherbert and Ystrad Mynach. The informative texts can be used as both a route finder and a literary entertainment in themselves. Armchair walkers will find the book as interesting and as useful as those actually pull on their boots. And natives and visitors alike will find a new discovery around every corner. Each walk is illustrated with a map and photographs by John Briggs.

Cardiff-lover Peter Finch spent the first lockdown walking the edge of the city in which he was confined by the restrictions. He thought he knew Cardiff, but it was a revelation. Here are new discoveries about the capital's places and history, drawn from Finch's walks, knowledge and his personal history, and an exploration of the nature of borders.

Resonant and deeply humane, this collection of poems covers a variety of topics with the immediacy and dramatic impact that are inherent in performance poetry. Loud, bewildered, satirical, sad, furious, and funny, these poems travel to Barcelona, Hungary, Ireland, and the United States, and examine themes ranging from the anxiety of aging and the oddness of Wales to the remarkable musicians of the 1960s and the murderous Phil Spector. Poems in this compilation include "Trying to Find Béla Bartók," "Hunting for the Man With Huge Ear Lobes," and "I Chew Gum and Think of Rifles."

This sequel offers another unorthodox travel guide to Cardiff, Wales. Part history, part topographical writing, and part traditional guidebook, this work explores Cardiff's best off-the-beaten-path destinations such as Ninian Park, Howell's Girls School, Cae'r Castell, and Steep Holm.

Peter Finch''s volume on 20th century popular music travels from 50s Cardiff to Ireland, New York, Tennessee, Mississippi and North Carolina. The Roots of Rock is a memoir and exploration of musical places and of music''s ability to create a world of and beyond the place in which it is heard. It also reflects on how music once defined society and is now just a mouse click away.