A 52-week tour of Welsh literature

Alex Johnson's year of reading Welsh literature resulted in a companion for others wanting to broaden their experience, as he told Jenny White

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FROM Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood to Manon Steffan Ros' The Blue Book of Nebo, Alex Johnson's Year of Reading Welshly aims to introduce readers to some of Wales' best writing, covering one book for each week of the year.

The book began after Alex, a writer and journalist who previously worked for The Independent and is now online editor of Fine Books & Collections Magazine, set about exploring Welsh literature in earnest. Born in Shrewsbury and raised in Shropshire, he has spent a lot of time holidaying across the border as he was growing up, and was keen to dive deeper into Wales' culture and history.

"I felt that as I'm a writer, there would be more interesting ways about finding out about people and cultures than reading history, so decided I would do a book a week for a year, reading about Wales, mainly by Welsh authors, covering the last 100 years of Welsh history," he says.

He decided to ask around for help creating his reading list.

"I asked Welsh friends of mine to recommend books, and I asked randomly on social media, and people were very good about coming back to me with ideas," he says.

"The final list was quite random, and I was lucky that I really enjoyed most of the 52 books - which is a good hit rate in a year's worth of reading."