Glyndwr: To Arms by Moelwyn Jones (Y Lolfa £7.99)

THIS is the second in Moelwyn Jones’s trilogy of novels on the life of celebrated Welsh hero, military genius and guerilla warrior Owain Glyndwr, whose military techniques, it’s been claimed, were a model for Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

The narrative is seen through the eyes of Glyndwr’s court poet Gruffudd ap Caradog, protege of Iolo Goch, one of Wales’s finest bards in the late medieval period. While closely following the historical evidence, Jones gives an admirable portrayal of the importance of the poet in Welsh court society as entertainer, confidante and PR man, a role similar to that of poets in Ireland and Iceland and the troubadours of southern France.