Jeremy Moore is one of Wales's foremost photographers. His books include Wales: The Lie of the Land (with Nigel Jenkins), Heart of the Country (with William Condry), Blaenau Ffestiniog (with Gwyn Thomas) and Pembrokeshire: Journeys and Stories (with Trevor Fishlock). He also publishes his own 'Wild Wales/Cymru Wyllt' postcards and calendar, and has an extensive library of Welsh images. For more information, see his website, www.wild-wales.com As well as being one of Wales's brightest literary talents, Jon Gower shares with Jeremy Moore a passionate interest in, and concern for, the natural world and environment. A former BBC Wales arts and media correspondent, he is much in demand as a producer, presenter and public speaker, and indeed travels the world as an ambassador for the Hay Festival. A prolific author, his 2010 novel Uncharted received unstinting critical acclaim, whilst his An Island Called Smith won the John Morgan Travel award.
Both Jeremy Moore and Jon Gower are well known in their respective fields and have previously covered parts of this journey (Jeremy Moores Pembrokeshire with Trevor Fishlock and Jon Gowers TV series on the same area, for instance). However, both clearly felt that this project widened and deepened their experience of the well-known land and, in Moores case, led him to explore aspects of his craft in a new way. The result is a rich and individual response to the present realities of coastal Wales as well as a record of the history which has shaped it. The reader is made intensely aware of mutability, of the ebb and flow not only of the tidal margin itself but of human use and abandonment of the landscape. The sequence begins in the river Severn where, under the strung-steel ... Aeolian harp bridge, the last lave net fishermen fish for salmon but the fish are few and the fisherman is a Llanwern steel worker. This sets the tone for what is much more than a beautiful picture book with poetic commentary (though it is that too). In images such as the magnificent orange and black study of Milford Haven, the concrete sterility of Rhyls Fun Centre or the curiously timeless palimpsest of Stone graffiti on the Great Orme, Jeremy Moore comments eloquently on human interaction with nature. More unusually he also does so through his portraits of people who live by the coast, including a friendly shopkeeper on Penarth pier, a sailing coach at Plas Menai and an eminent climate-change scientist near Aberdyfi. Jon Gower smoothly knits together a web of stories from mythical heroes, imperialist kings, smugglers, wreckers, miners and saints with up-to- the-minute reports on vast new sea defences at Borth and the revival of Mostyn docks by shipping Airbus wings to Bordeaux. The broad sweep and idiosyncratic or telling details characterise the work of both photographer and writer. Sometimes Jeremy Moore can achieve both at once in his close, fractal studies of rock and sand (Mewslade Bay, Gower or Near Rhoscolyn) where one might be looking at a few square inches of shore or mountain valleys and desert details from the air or the distant past. This publication coincides with the opening of coastal paths which, like this book, follow the whole fascinating and varied profile of Wales. It is an excellent inspiration to its readers to go and explore for themselves. Caroline Clark It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council
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