At eighteen, Byron Rogers left rural Carmarthen for Oxford, ‘to learn how to become an Englishman.’ But ironically, it is this move that set him on the road to discovering what it truly is to be a Welshman. 

In Three Journeys, he revisits the stories of his past, taking in his experiences of growing up in, and leaving Wales.

Through a series of memories, tales and anecdotes, Byron Rogers takes the reader on three journeys. The first is a journey into the Welsh-speaking countryside village of his early years, Bancyfelin. The second, is to Carmarthen, a town only a few miles away, but seemingly another planet to the young Byron, who suddenly found himself surrounded by English speakers. The third journey is that of his move to Oxford aged eighteen – a journey into exile, and of the increasing, even obsessive, interest into the past which exile from one’s homeland prompts.

Each journey unearths snippets, stories and histories that have long been hidden away, forgotten or ignored. Some are comical, some fantastical, and some are genuinely poignant, bringing to life characters that may otherwise have been lost forever. He completes his task with an archaeological zeal.

Byron Rogers is a historian of the quirky and forgotten. Raised in West Wales, he now lives in Northamptonshire. He studied at Oxford University before embarking, via Fleet Street, upon a colourful career as a journalist and author. He has written for the Sunday Telegraph, Saga Magazine and The Guardian and was once speech writer for the Prince of Wales. He was awarded the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2007 for his biography of R. S. Thomas, The Man who Went into the West.

Three Journeys is available from all good bookshops and online retailers.

Bibliographical Details:Three Journeys by Byron RogersISBN: 9781848512016 Price: £16.99 hb   Published by Gomer Press.

For more information, please visit www.gomer.co.uk