Ten Million Stars Are Burning - Wales 1979 and 1997, Volume I

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Mae'r nofel ddogfennol hon, y gyntaf o ddwy gyfrol, yn adrodd hanes y digwyddiadau gwleidyddol a diwylliannol a ddatblygodd rhwng 1973 a'r refferendwm cyntaf a thrychinebus ar ddatganoli ym 1979.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

This documentary novel, the first of two Volumes, tells the story of the political and cultural events that unfolded between 1973 and the first, disastrous devolution referendum in 1979.

Archebu o flaen llaw

Os nad yw’r teitl hwn wedi’i gyhoeddi eto, gallwch ei archebu o flaen llaw. Byddwn yn dosbarthu eich eitem cyn gynted ag y bydd ar gael gan y cyflenwr ac wedi cyrraedd atom. Gall dyddiadau cyhoeddi newid.

Pre-orders

If this title has not yet been published, you can order it in advance. We’ll dispatch it as soon as it is available from the supplier and has reached us. Publication dates may change.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

John Osmond is a writer and journalist, having worked for newspapers and broadcasters in Wales over the past five decades. He was a political correspondent with the Western Mail during the 1970s, the period covered in Ten Million Stars are Burning. In 1996 he was made the inaugural Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, a position he held for 17 years. Between 2018 and 2022 he was Special Adviser to Adam Price MS during the time he was leader of Plaid Cymru. He is a Fellow of the Cardiff Metropolitan University, and has been awarded an Honorary MA by the University of Wales. Born and brought up in Abergavenny near the Welsh border, John graduated from the University of Bristol and began his career in journalism with Yorkshire Post newspapers in the late 1960s. Since then he has published widely on Welsh culture and politics. John lives in Penarth and has three children. Ten Million Stars are Burning is his first novel.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

The second Volume Soul on Fire, to be published in October 2026, takes the story to the knife edge referendum in 1997. Though the narrative is carried by the two fictional characters, the other people they encounter are real and the events described are historically accurate. The questions they all struggle to answer are as relevant now as they have ever been. October 1973 Owen James, a journalist, is a man with many questions. And he’s not alone. It seems everyone is talking about Wales’s place in Europe and the looming prospect of a Welsh Assembly. It all ties in with notions of Welshness, something no two people define in the same way. Owen has his own opinions, though they present him with dilemmas in his commitment to journalistic integrity. Meanwhile Rhiannon Jones Davies, an international politics student at Aberystwyth University, has a growing involvement with Cymdeithas yr Iaith. This brings her close to other activists but drives a wedge between her and her father, a Presbyterian Minister who has little faith in the language society’s policy of “non-violent direct action”. From protests at a television studio to participation in the direct-action campaign that leads to a series of prison sentences, Rhiannon’s choices take her to places she had not foreseen and support from unexpected quarters. "Ten Million Stars Are Burning captures the zeitgeist of the times we’ve lived through. I found it gripping, fascinating and convincing. Nothing like it has been done before." Cynog Dafis, former MS and MP for Ceredigion "What an inspiring way to tell the tale of devolution." Ron Davies, Secretary of State for Wales, 1997-1998