The Winters of Carnedd

These are the lyrics to a song/poem which features in a book I'm working on at the moment- Red Bird (which is a gay, 'gothic,' take on Hitchcock's The Birds... In Liverpool). Linking back to yesterday, I'll hopefully be serialisng an audio version of the book whenever we get SideTracked back on air. Come the...

Carneddau Cheesecake | The Morfasson Family Cookbook

Honestly, there are sooooo many cheesecake recipes online that we reconsidered putting this one up, several times, before deciding that one more won’t hurt. It can be really difficult to navigate them as well. Do you want biscuit base or not? New York or Chicago style? Do you want bake or no bake? Do you...

Carnedd Du | Story

It has been a while since I released an original story... March, in fact. So I felt it was time for something new.  Welcome, to the Most Gentlemanly Society of The Carneddau. Also,there's a Jackanory style video I've done for this, if you'd prefer that instead. (https://youtu.be/_yKXADqF8Io)   Carnedd Du by James Churchill   I...

Aunt Mable And The Sound Of Music: An Absurd Little Bird | Short Story

*THE ENTIRE AUNT MABLE COLLECTION IS OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK-YOU CAN FIND YOUR VERY OWN COPY OF 'THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEAD' ON AMAZON Well, it's now December and round here that means one thing... CHRISTMAS STORY TIME!!!! This year I had a double task- I had to A) Write something that harked back to the...

The Last Stand At Nanhysglain

A couple of things to note before I get to the article- Firstly, I'm publishing these latest travel pieces a bit out of order. I didn't intend to publish this till the end of November at the earliest, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to get it out quickly. As...

Aunt Mable & The Dogs of War | Short Story

*THE ENTIRE AUNT MABLE COLLECTION IS OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK-YOU CAN FIND YOUR VERY OWN COPY OF 'THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEAD' ON AMAZON It has been a while since the last Aunt Mable story so, for those who want a recap and for those who are new, I'll fill you in on what has been...

The Destruction of Braich-y-Dinas

Anyone who has driven the A55 will have likely come face to face with Penmaenmawr. Coming from the west you drive around the outside of it, the road balancing precariously between the sea and the shored up, granite cliff face. Come from the east and you’ll mostly drive underneath it but before you get there...

Living Wild in the Carneddau

Tired of the noises and the dirt and the slime of civilisation, for a long time now I’ve been seeking somewhere I can retreat to. The answer as to where I can retreat to is obvious, those mountains to the west of me, in the far north of Wales, between Ogwen and the sea… The...

Into The Misty Mountains

NOTE: This piece is also available in A Journal of Nearby Places (Available from Amazon) and as an audio recording on YouTube (Under the MORFAVERSE channel) I find myself dreaming of my favourite mountains again, those mountains which seem so near and yet so far away as to be almost unreachable- The Carneddau, the vast expanse of high...

The Carneddau Landscape: An Archaeological Overview

One quick look at an OS map of the Carneddau range, especially the Northern lowlands, around Tal y Fan and the area to the east of Abergwyngregyn (Aber), and something becomes immediately apparent. There are an awful lot of archaeological sites, especially prehistoric ones, in this relatively small area. What even a cursory glance can...