of Film & Video Maker as editor/writer/graphic artist/page-layout etc. Just this morning “put-to-bed”. That train-driver is actually standing in a 1:19 scale garden railway. All clever smoke and mirrors stuff. And probably green screens.
As beautiful to read as it is to hear this not-so-quiet dialect of a sunny corner of Benfro. Eisteddfod 2026 at Llantwd was full of it. Familiar yet somehow foreign to a gog as it might be to a non-Cymro. Yma o hyd as we might say.
The sign is written in a poetic form of the distinct local Pembrokeshire dialect (specifically from the north of the county, an area traditionally referred to as the home of the “Wes Wes” people due to how they say the word oes / “yes”).
The text is a welcoming rhyming couplet written by the famous Welsh poet Ceri Wyn Jones to celebrate the Eisteddfod being hosted in the hamlet of Llantwd. More or less translates*:
“Do you want to come to Llantwd,
To celebrate every festival?
Yes indeed, friend!”
Glei is a wonderfully hyper-local Pembrokeshire idiom that acts as strong affirmative confirmation (“indeed” or “certainly”).
Gwd is a local affectionate slang term for a friend, comparable to “lad,” or “mate,”
Interestingly, on the A487 somewhere near Cardigan was a handwritten sign which read “Wês Whant Peint?” with an arrow pointing to a pub up a lane. That and the sign above made my day.
*certainty of translation = 94%
The heat death of the universe
leads directly from this page.
Around 8 o’clock on a Tuesday
75 trillion years from now
entropy will be complete
Thermodynamic equilibrium.
Nothing interesting will ever happen again.
The last photon will give up its glow.
We must be ready.
Meanwhile keep an eye on this point
And await further instructions.
My 21st edition as editor, graphic designer and general putter-togetherer of this fine print magazine is now about to land on doormats across the UK and the world.
Congratulations to Peter F. from Wem, Shropshire for correctly identifying the deliberate error as the magazine rolled over from 2025 to 2026 but the year on the cover didn’t. As a test for our reader’s observation skills, we like to drop in at least one error, be it typo or factual with every issue. This is the first time we’ve taken this competition to the front cover.
Peter’s prize of a round of applause from the entire FVM editorial team will be issued this Thursday evening just after the Archers. Sorry, but entries for this issue are now closed
It’s a special kind of person that makes it into the pages of the Financial Times I always say loudly to myself. And to anyone else who will listen. Or who can’t get away from me quick enough.
Click images to enlarge each.
Just about to publish this book. I love the work of David Van Cauter. This is the second collection of his that we’ve published. This could move you to places you didn’t know you could go.
From the cover blurb by poet Emma Simon: In ‘Breathing’ we hear a voice trying to make sense of the world around him, whether it’s dealing with a declining difficult parent, wandering around follies of the past or today’s Brexit-battered high streets. And a sense of the end of the world haunts many of these poems: creeping closer to the flat-earther at his computer screen, or dealing with the emotional debris and physical detritus that accumulates from those who’ve left.
These are accessible poems that speak clearly to the reader, but deepen on each re-reading. The third part in particular, a sequence that is delicately and perfectly structured, is one of the most moving things I have read for a long time. I felt my own breath catch reading it, and needed the voice of the poet reminding both himself and the reader to focus on the ever-moving horizon, to keep breathing.
P.S. The cover is a piece of digital artwork also by me that I call “Anadlu” naturally.
Sadly I couldn’t make it to this wonderful international festival of non-commercial film. I had to be in Ireland to fit some windows and catch covid and get a chest infection – these things just can’t wait. But here’s the cover of the brochure I made for it. UNICA hasn’t visited the UK since about the last Halley’s comet. Won’t be back until the next one either probably.
If proof were needed that I can and do scrub up occasionally… Another great weekend of films – four sessions per day, non stop Friday until Sunday evening. Gala dinner on the Saturday night and all in vibrant Brum. Oh and a load of very worthy winners. See you next year.
This is me, right. Or rather it’s my film “The Pole Liner”. So if you’re in Peckham on 14th May… Specifically, SET Peckham SE15 4NP. And in case you missed it, here’s the fillum itself: https://youtu.be/0LumR2QMd8g
*** STOP PRESS *** The Pole Liner was described as one of the stand out films of the festival. Just sayin’
MO75? WTF is that all about? Seen it a few times on the lanes of Donegal. Some Masonic meaning perhaps? Or Fifth Columnists operating on Irish soil. Somebody should be told!
