Obscured By Clouds - Paperback

by Phil Howells (Author)

Words and music play a big part in my life. My influences are novelists Charles Dickens and Iris Murdoch, singer/songwriters Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Harry Chapin, Don McLean, and Ron Sexsmith, among others. Song lyrics can often be seen as poems. Both inspire me as they portray the experiences of life. The Wales poetry scene is flourishing and with a wide diversity. My offerings include thoughts on Merthyr Tydfil, a look at life today, a little humour, the world of yesterday and some of my own reflective moments.

Author Biography

I was born in Troedyrhiw, Merthyr Tydfil, and still live there.I left Quakers Yard Grammar School in 1963 after A-levels and joined the Merthyr Express newspaper as a reporter. The whole range of news was touched by my pen and notebook- councils and courts, human interest stories, triumphs and tragedies, golden weddings, public meetings, obituaries., and sport. You had to know a lot about a little and a little about a lot. I did some freelance work for the national daily newspapers, regional weekly, morning, evening and Sunday papers, items for Welsh news on radio and TV, magazines etc. I reported on Merthyr Football Club and still do (voluntarily ). I sub-edited on the then Celtic Press newspaper titles, was a production editor at the Celtic Press base in Dowlais, news editor on the Merthyr Express, and later assistant editor at the Pontypridd Observer series before spending 12 years as news sub-editor on the South Wales Echo in Cardiff. I returned to Merthyr for a year as editor of the Merthyr Express before, after a three-year break, switching to the Civil Service - Department of Work and Pensions in Merthyr -for five years. I wrote some poems years ago, starting up again only when I joined the Open Mic nights at The Imperial Hotel, Merthyr Tydfil.