Making Welsh history less boring

Interview with Phil Carradice

In an interview with Alt: Cardiff, author and historian Phil Carradice discusses his most recent book, Snapshots of Welsh History: Without the Boring Bits.

What is special about this book?

“It’s the stories that actually catch people’s imagination. As it says on the back, it’s pieces of history that your teacher never taught you. It’s all absolutely factual, and the truth, but you just tell the most interesting facts. Things that are gonna interest people, as opposed to just be purely informative. All of the snapshots are very short, a couple of hundred words on each subject. They are the actual blogs I write for the BBC, all we’ve done is take 101 out and use them as the basis of this book. It’s an interesting, informative and enjoyable read.”

Why does Welsh history need to be made more interesting?

“For several reasons: one, so many Welsh people do not know the history of their own country. They may well know lots and lots of the history of Britain and the history of the world, but they don’t know about their own country and I think that’s a great failing, you gotta know what it’s like in your own country before you can justifiably move out and study the rest of the world. Because at the end of the day, there’s only one purpose behind studying history, and that’s to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again. And if you want to learn from history, start local, move out.”

Will this book appeal to those who are otherwise put off by history?

“Most definitely. Hopefully it will appeal to people who are put off by Welsh history, but also put off history full stop. The book doesn’t just talk about Wales; for example it talks about Welsh cowboys. So many American cowboys and outlaws were of Welsh origin. Six of the first seven presidents of the USA were of Welsh descent. It’s wider than just Wales, and I would hope the book would have a huge appeal for anybody who is interested in a good story.”

Snapshots of Welsh History can be purchased from Amazon, and Phil Carradice will be appearing at the Windsor Bookshop in Penarth on November 17 at 18:30 to read passages from the book.