Happy Birthday: Cerys Elizabeth Matthews MBE (born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the "Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s.

Matthews now hosts a weekly music show on BBC Radio 6 Music, a weekly blues show on BBC Radio 2, and from 2021-2024 co-hosted a weekly show on BBC Radio 4, Add To Playlist, which won the Prix Italia and Prix Europa 2022. She also makes documentaries for television and radio and was a roving reporter for The One Show. She founded "The Good Life Experience", a festival of culture and the great outdoors in Flintshire in 2014, and is author of Hook, Line and Singer, published by Penguin Books, and children's stories Tales from the Deep and Gelert, A Man's Best Friend, published by Gomer. Matthews' illustrated version of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood was published, in November 2022, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Catatonia were formed in 1992, after Matthews met Mark Roberts. She subsequently sang lead vocals on, and co-wrote the music and lyrics for, the band's hits. Songs she co-wrote included "You've Got a Lot to Answer For", "Mulder and Scully", "Dead from the Waist Down", and "Road Rage". Matthews also played guitar on the earlier material before second guitarist Owen Powell joined the band. She also performed a single with the band Space named "The Ballad of Tom Jones", which tells the story of two lovers who want to kill each other, but then hear a Tom Jones song that defuses their homicidal feelings. Matthews later collaborated with Jones to record a version of Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on Jones's 1999 album Reload. Matthews was voted the "Sexiest Female in Rock" in a 1999 readers' poll in the now-defunct magazine Melody Maker.

After Catatonia's rise to fame with their second album International Velvet, and subsequent success with Equally Cursed and Blessed, the band returned in 2001 with their fourth studio album, Paper Scissors Stone. In September 2001, the band officially split.

[I saw Cerys sing at Glastonbury in 2000 when she supported The Pet Shop Boys. My friend at the time (who is Welsh) was a HUGE fan of hers and he passed some of that on to me. They were a fun band while they lasted.]

Just Finished Reading: The Accomplice by Joseph Kanon (FP: 2019) [324pp] 

Hamburg, 1962. It was a request that Aaron Wiley could hardly refuse. After suffering a heart attack on the street his uncle was fighting for his life. His uncle, Holocaust survivor, dedicated Nazi Hunter, was convinced that he seen the infamous Dr Otto Schramm in Germany. A man who was supposed to have died in Argentina, a man who had picked his uncle, Max Weill, out of a line of camp inmates to help him with his ‘experiments. It was a face, a way of walking that Max could hardly forget. Aaron was harder to convince but a later incident changed his mind. But what could he do about it? Despite being a desk officer for the CIA, he had no field experience, couldn’t speak the language and had no contacts in Buenos Aires except for the CIA office there. Aaron knew they wouldn’t help him. Why would they? They hadn’t been in the Nazi hunting business since the war ended and they were trying to make nice with the new government now that Peron was out. So, he was on his own. Even Max’s contacts in MOSSAD where less than enthusiastic, especially with the global publicity surrounding the Eichmann kidnapping. But reluctantly, they would help as much as they could, which would be damned little. Aaaron was most definitely on his own... 

I’ve never been disappointed with this author, and he is an auto-buy for me every time I see another of his books in paperback. This was (as expected) no exception to his run of excellent historical/Cold War thrillers. From the first few pages I was hooked. The feel of the novel was somewhere between ‘Marathon Man’ and ‘The Odessa File’ - kind of Cold War, seedy, war criminals hiding (often in plain sight) with higher authorities either turning a blind eye or actively colluding with their disappearance (for a number of reasons – none of them good). One top of this wonderful ‘feel’ we have very good characterisation – you know how I like that – with Max, Aaron, the love interest Hanna (a wonderfully complex multi-layered character) and other less central players. The story itself took turns I wasn’t expecting and surprised me multiple times which I really liked. Nothing worked out quite the way I thought it would. But I think the best part of the novel for me was the completely outstanding dialogue. Not only did it feel REAL it was clever, complex, full of asides and meanings that wouldn’t have been apparent to those without the godlike view of the reader. More than once, I thought that any other character in earshot wouldn’t really know what they were *really* talking about – rather than what they SEEMED to be talking about. It was quite brilliant. 

As you might expect I really enjoyed this – I do seem to be doing very well with novels lately – and the author has confirmed, yet again, his auto-buy status. There is a warning however, being based around the subject matter it is there will be moments of nastiness (to say the least) which some sensitive readers might find rather objectionable. I did have a few nose wrinkling/frowning moments and I consider myself quite Stoic. So, be warned! Obviously recommended but with that caveat in mind. 

DEFINITELY looking for this one. I think we ALL need a copy! I'm already a BIG fan of Penguin Books.... [grin]

Happy Birthday to ME. 66 Today! Let the Book Shopping 'Begin'.... [lol]

Just Finished Reading: Alone on the Beach at Night by Walt Whitman [55pp]

Poetry AGAIN! I do think I'm open to this sort of thing - at least I feel that I am. There have been poems that I've liked (and, indeed, at least partially memorised) but mostly the whole genre passes me by. I'm not entirely sure why. But reading a poem is like reading a random selection of sentences (or even just words) that fail to make any coherent theme in my head. They leave me somewhere between perplexed and bored. It's almost as if I'm reading something in a language I'm aware of but one I'm only partially familiar with. Broadly speaking the meaning of these things - assuming they HAVE any - eludes me! But I'll keep trying as long as the Penguin Classic booklets keep giving examples to be confused by. Maybe I'll hit on one poet I like and that might open me up to liking some others. Stranger thing have indeed happened!

As to the booklet itself, it contained 19 poems - mostly quite short - which seemed to have a common theme of coastlines, beaches and ships at sea. I'm afraid that none of them really stood out. A few where nostalgic looking back at beach trips in the authors childhood and a few were based around storms either during or shortly after the event. Overall, I didn't skim too much but the temptation was definitely there. No doubt there will be more Classic poetry to come... [sighs]