Table of Contents

Cartofel 1 The Sea is Very Full 13 Ivan is no Turkey 19 Morris Wind and Ivor Rain 27 A Contribution to the Biography of the Right Reverend Brother Stotig Isgis 35 Reptiles Welcome 51 The Scratching at the Window 57 Rev and Hat 65 There Goes the Giant 77 Big Grey Water 87 Vatilan Dish Thief 93 In April and May the Cuckoo Will Sing 105

About the Author

Robin Llywelyn (1958-) lives in Minffordd, in north-west Wales, where he is Managing Director of the Italianate village of Portmeirion, designed by his architect grandfather Clough-Williams Ellis. He came to prominence as a writer when his first novel, Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn (White Star on a White Background, 1992) won the National Eisteddfod's Prose Medal in 1992. His subsequent works confirmed his reputation as one of Wales's most innovative contemporary prose writers. His second novel, O'r Harbwr Gwag i'r Cefnfor Gwyn (From Empty Harbour to White Ocean, 1994), a tender love story which can also be read as a political fable, moves through unspecified countries reminiscent of parts of Eastern Europe before ending in New York. It won him the Prose Medal for the second time and the BBC Writer of the Year award.