What do you think?
Rate this book
The Real Series
Real Swansea
Welcome to the breezily resurgent, 'ugly, lovely' city of Swansea. Once a dynamic port and the metallurgical capital of the world, it was later famous for a vibrant artistic life, which included poets Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins, artists Alfred Janes and Ceri Richards and composer Daniel Jones. What does it offer now, in post-industrial Wales?
Brought up in Gower and living in Mumbles, poet Nigel Jenkins takes the reader on a tour of the obvious and the oblique, the monumental and the downright quirky. Fusing civic and social history with auto-biographical reminiscence, Jenkins brings to life a place which mixes Dylan heritage with rugby and football passions and a rare fervour for music; the natural beauty of the Bay and Clyne Valley with the dereliction of the Lower Swansea Valley and the charm of Mumbles; the frenzy of Swansea's night-life with the tranquillity of its pioneering parks; the lofty Townhill estate, once in the vanguard of garden city housing, with the swanky postmodernism of the SA1 development at its eastern gateway.
Eclectic, gritty, whimsical, there is no better way to discover Wales' second city - which Swansea's citizens believe to be its first.
Brought up in Gower and living in Mumbles, poet Nigel Jenkins takes the reader on a tour of the obvious and the oblique, the monumental and the downright quirky. Fusing civic and social history with auto-biographical reminiscence, Jenkins brings to life a place which mixes Dylan heritage with rugby and football passions and a rare fervour for music; the natural beauty of the Bay and Clyne Valley with the dereliction of the Lower Swansea Valley and the charm of Mumbles; the frenzy of Swansea's night-life with the tranquillity of its pioneering parks; the lofty Townhill estate, once in the vanguard of garden city housing, with the swanky postmodernism of the SA1 development at its eastern gateway.
Eclectic, gritty, whimsical, there is no better way to discover Wales' second city - which Swansea's citizens believe to be its first.
220 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Nigel Jenkins
36 books4 followersNigel Jenkins (1949-2014) was an Anglo-Welsh poet from South Wales. He was also known as a playwright, writer of prose (especially of psychogeography), and an editor. He passed away in 2014 of cancer.
He was brought up in the Gower. During his life, Jenkins was a journalist in the English Midlands before then travelling extensively. He studied film and literature at Essex University and was a winner of the Arts Council’s Young Poets Prize in 1974.
He returned to Wales and was a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.
In 2002, Jenkins published the first ever haiku collection from a Welsh publisher.
In 2008, he co-edited (with historian John Davies), The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (published by the University of Wales Press).
Notable works:
-Gwalia in Khasia (1995)
-Blue: 101 Haiku, Senryu and Tanka (2002)
-The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (co-ed., 2008)
He was brought up in the Gower. During his life, Jenkins was a journalist in the English Midlands before then travelling extensively. He studied film and literature at Essex University and was a winner of the Arts Council’s Young Poets Prize in 1974.
He returned to Wales and was a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.
In 2002, Jenkins published the first ever haiku collection from a Welsh publisher.
In 2008, he co-edited (with historian John Davies), The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (published by the University of Wales Press).
Notable works:
-Gwalia in Khasia (1995)
-Blue: 101 Haiku, Senryu and Tanka (2002)
-The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales (co-ed., 2008)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 11, 2025
Jenkins gives Swansea an image of a graveyard that keeps reinventing itself. Can’t say I disagree. The book isn’t all tragedy though, lots of humour here. Very enjoyable, the best diagnosis of the city out there I reckon.
Displaying 1 of 1 review