Bryn Glas Blog
The Bryn Glas Blog – Soul, Spirit and Respect for the Natural World
Soul, seen in the quality of a person’s living, the choices we make, our aspirations, hopes and fears
Spirit, seen as an intentionality that runs through everything and underpins all – the ground of being
Respect for the Natural World begins with realising deeply that we are part of it.
Each Bryn Glas Blog post is an exploration of some aspect of these ideas. Posts are by Gillian Paschkes-Bell, editor of Pantolwen Press or A G Rivett, a Pantolwen Press author.
Fantasy Fiction and Reality
by A G Rivett
Fantasy, Sci Fi and Speculative Fiction
Some see a disconnect between Fantasy Fiction and Reality...
Ancient Sources in The Isle Fincara Trilogy
by A G Rivett
A G Rivett describes how he drew on ancient sources in The Isle Fincara Trilogy...
Kenneth Sinclair’s VU – an Ambitious Experimental Fiction
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Kenneth Sinclair’s VU is an ambitious experimental fiction...
Truth and Priorities: The Serpentine Cave
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Peeling away assumptions
Peeling away assumptions that blind us to our true priorities is a central motif for Jill Paton Walsh in her 1997 novel, The Serpentine Cave...
How I Became a Publisher – Nature and Spirit and Us
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Since January I’ve aimed to write a post a month on the Bryn Glas Blog and for ten twelfths of the year I succeeded...
Initiation Rites – The Womb of the Mountain
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Several readers of The Priest's Wife have commented on the passage in which Morag, the protagonist, descends to a cave deep in a mountain and there spends three days and nights in darkness...
An Unknown Woman: Alice Koller
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
I don't remember how, years ago, I first stumbled on An Unknown Woman by Alice Koller, but I read it again recently...
Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe’s 1958 Novel
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel, tells the story of how the combined impact of colonialism and mission-focused Christianity undermined traditional Igbo (Ee-bo) society in eastern Nigeria and replaced it with a hybrid culture...
Reading a Novel with the Four Elements
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
The Four Elements of Antiquity and Personality Trends
The four elements of antiquity identified by Aristotle are Earth, Air, Fire and Water...
The Seaborne by A G Rivett – the inside story
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
Listening to the BBC Radio 4 version of Haydn Middleton’s novella, The Ballad of Syd and Morgan (by Roger James Elsgood, broadcast on May 20th 2023)...
The Godmother – Can you be too honest?
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
With The Godmother, I begin a short series of occasional blog posts on novels about women who, against the odds, arrive at some form of emancipation...
RIP dear Eric
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
It was on the first anniversary of the start of the present Ukraine war, a day when Jupiter and Venus – Joy and Love – were conjunct, that a small gathering of family and friends laid the body of Eric Franklin in the earth...
“God's back!”
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
“God's back!” I quote Tim Freke, sharing the current cutting edge of his philosophy at a wonderful New Year retreat Andrew and I have just attended where he lives in Glastonbury...
Heading for the Light
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
I was once told that spiritual traditions tend to place too much emphasis on Light, since Darkness is just as important in getting any creative process going – as anyone who has ever planted a seed is well aware...
Losing the Ego – thoughts arising from Neil Ansell’s ‘Deep Country’
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
I'm part of a book club, and some weeks ago another member was offering around a few books she wanted to move on...
A Sense of Otherness
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
This January, the Bryn Glas Blog has a guest post from A G Rivett, who writes about the sense of Otherness that is an essential part of being human...
Operation Julie - How to Change Your Mind
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
We went to see Operation Julie, the new rock musical from Theatr Na nÓg that premiered in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, toured to Brecon, and then to the Lyric at Carmarthen, which is where we saw it on 31st August...
Nature and Us
by Gillian Paschkes-Bell
In this first post of the Bryn Glas Blog I want to begin with the big picture and describe how I feel about our present global situation...
