A delight to read, RIVERS OF WALES takes the nation’s rivers into its stride

From the author of The Hills Of Wales comes this newest book taking the nation’s rivers into its stride. Beautifully bound in a thick, matt-textured hardback, Rivers Of Wales is a delightful book to hold as well as read, with extremely high production values. The text itself, then, matches up to this high level: finely written and deeply researched prose in which the author explores Welsh rivers in a pleasing, accessible, and always entertaining way, encompassing myth and history alongside geography and the natural world.

Although it’s clear that Perrin has read widely on the subject of Welsh rivers, and there are numerous extracts from those tomes throughout this book, it’s the fact that he walks the banks of the Teifi, Afon Gwy (River Wye), and the ‘folklore rivers’ of Cynfal, Dwyryd and Glaslyn himself that brings those descriptions and passages to rich, redolent life. There’s a sense, when reading, of being immersed not just in the moment, as Perrin walks, but in a rich history of walkers and Welsh people all, in the past, doing the same. Perrin’s personal, singular point of observation thus expands out into a spectrum of views and voices. It’s marvellous stuff.