You've heard of 'Big Trouble in Little China'
I give you now 'Big bother yn Bermo bitw'
Ken Frane
Last of the Cardiff Docks' Detectives
"There is a fault line, a
disconnect in most villages and towns in Wales where the predominant language
used to be Welsh. I say used to be, because English, the language of the
incomer, the blow ins, the tourists, the hippies, tree huggers and second home owners has now taken the place of the native Cymraeg. Good People of
Barmouth, hear me this evening and take a leaf out of my book, go to Evening
Classes and learn Welsh!" Somebody from the back shouts “Bollocks”
The following morning Dai
Williams greets Ken a bit sheepishly but even though he’s got a hangover, Ken feels
human again, he was never meant for a life of sobriety.
Frane walked along the front at
Barmouth. What a ridiculous place it was, like a carbuncle. A mini Las Vegas in
the Snowdonia National Park. It was as if Carnival Folk had one day ridden into
town and decided to put down anchor. What had locals thought when the circus
had come to town? They couldn’t do anything. The impotence of the indigenous
population always amazed Frane. From Aborigines, to North American Indians, to
the Welsh here on the Reservation. It was as if they were in a state of
constant trauma following their first encounter with the White Settlers. The
fact that the Welsh here were also white couldn’t hide the fact that they were
so different culturally and linguistically from the West Bromwich Popular Front
who had settled here.
“Dai Williams wouldn’t even take
his vest off in the summer to mow the lawn let alone go to a swingers' party”
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