Mike Parker (born December 1966, in Birmingham) is a British travel writer, living near Machynlleth in mid Wales. He grew up in Kidderminster, Worcestershire and graduated in 1989 in English and Drama from Westfield College, University of London.
He was the co-author of the Rough Guide to Wales , and has also written books on four British cities, and on the gay scenes of Scotland, Ireland and Northern England. In addition, Parker has worked as a stand-up comedian.
After moving to Wales in spring 2000, he became involved in television, writing and presenting a one-off Saint David's Day special for HTV Wales in 2002. This led to him being commissioned to write and present two series of Coast to Coast, where Parker took twelve journeys in different boats around the Welsh coast. He made four series of Great Welsh Roads for HTV Wales, which saw Parker and his dog tour the country in a camper van.
Since 2007, he has concentrated on writing narrative non-fiction books that start from a profound sense of place. Author and Broadcaster Horatio Clare said of him, "A kind of mini-biography of the British psyche emerges from Parker's work, its learning lightly worn and its tales well told, full of interest and incident." His 2009 book Map Addict became a bestseller; reviewed in The Daily Telegraph as "this excellent book on the pleasures of maps and navigation, which is also a withering attack on the infantilisation of the satnav age."
His 2019 book On the Red Hill won the non-fiction Wales Book of the Year for 2020, and was Highly Commended ("An extraordinary memoir that stood out amongst our strongest shortlist to date") for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing. [1]
In June 2013, Parker was chosen by Plaid Cymru to be its candidate for the UK parliamentary constituency of Ceredigion, one of the party's target seats. [2] In the 2015 United Kingdom general election he came second to the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams. Parker published a diary of the notorious campaign in his book, The Greasy Poll.
Ceredigion is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Ceredigion is considered a centre of Welsh culture and just under half of the population can speak Welsh according to the 2011 Census. The county is mainly rural, with over 50 miles (80 km) of coastline and a mountainous hinterland. The numerous sandy beaches and the long-distance Ceredigion Coast Path provide views of Cardigan Bay.
Aberaeron, previously anglicised as Aberayron, is a town, community, and electoral ward between Aberystwyth and Cardigan, in Ceredigion, Wales. Ceredigion County Council offices are in Aberaeron. The name of the town is Welsh for mouth of the Aeron, derived from the Middle Welsh aer, "slaughter", which gave its name to Aeron, who is believed to have been a Welsh god of war.
Llangrannog is both a village and a community in Ceredigion, Wales, 6 miles (10 km) southwest of New Quay. It lies in the narrow valley of the River Hawen, which falls as a waterfall near the middle of the village. Llangrannog is on the Wales Coast Path.
Welsh nationalism emphasises and celebrates the distinctiveness of Welsh culture and Wales as a nation or country. Welsh nationalism may also include calls for further autonomy or self determination which includes Welsh devolution, meaning increased powers for the Senedd, or full Welsh independence.
The Wales Green Party is a semi-autonomous political party within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW). It covers Wales, and is the only regional party with semi-autonomous status within the GPEW. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats.
Cawl is a Welsh dish. In modern Welsh the word is used for any soup or broth; in English it refers to a traditional Welsh soup, usually called cawl Cymreig in Welsh. Historically, ingredients tended to vary, but the most common recipes are with lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes, swedes, carrots and other seasonal vegetables. Cawl is recognised as a national dish of Wales.
The River Aeron is a small river in Ceredigion, Wales, that flows into Cardigan Bay at Aberaeron. It is also referred to on some older maps as the River Ayron.
Robert Griffiths is a Welsh communist activist and the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain. He was elected by the party's Executive Committee in January 1998, in place of Mike Hicks.
Penparcau is a village and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, situated to the south of Aberystwyth. The village has the largest number of Welsh language speakers (1095) in the Aberystwyth town area, covering an area from the sea to the Rheidol.
Joseph Jenkins, was an educated tenant farmer from Tregaron, Ceredigion, mid-Wales who, when aged over 50, suddenly deserted his home and large family to seek his fortune in Australia. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that "Jenkins's noteworthiness stemmed from the rich documentation of his experiences and thoughts that has survived". He was a consistent diarist for 58 years of his life and a consistent if not outstanding poet, under the bardic name of Amnon II. He achieved fame posthumously from publication of some excerpts of his Australian writings. The compiler, his grandson Dr William Evans, a Harley Street cardiologist, coined the title Diary of a Welsh Swagman by which name he is familiar to generations of Victoria school students for whom the book became a prescribed history text in 1978.
Llandre, or Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn, is a village in Ceredigion, Wales. It lies 5 miles north of Aberystwyth in the north-west of the county, on the road from Rhydypennau to Borth. To the north of the community lies the village of Dôl-y-bont. The community is called Geneu'r Glyn.
Meic Stephens was a Welsh literary editor, journalist, translator, and poet.
The Welsh Socialist Republican Movement was a short-lived nationalist political movement which was born out of frustration with Plaid Cymru's failure to oppose the first referendum on Welsh Devolution in 1979 in order to map out a specific policy of arguing for Independence. It was also an attempt to develop a Welsh Socialist alternative to Plaid Cymru and it produced pamphlets and a newspaper called Y Faner Goch.
The Dylan Thomas Trail runs through places associated with the poet Dylan Thomas in Ceredigion, west Wales. It was officially opened by Aeronwy Thomas, Dylan's daughter, in July 2003. It also featured in the celebration in 2014 of the centenary of Dylan's birth.
These are the results of the 2005 United Kingdom general election in Wales. The election was held on 5 May 2005 and all 40 seats in Wales were contested.
Geoff Charles was a Welsh photojournalist. His collection of over 120,000 images is being conserved and digitised by the National Library of Wales.
Bobby Freeman was a writer, journalist, television presenter and cook who is known for her writing on Welsh cuisine.
Adrian Masters is a Welsh journalist, presenter, author and political moderator.
Margaret Jones was a 19th-century Welsh travel writer whose work was published under the pseudonym Y Gymraes o Ganaan.
Rhiannon Ifans is a Welsh academic specialising in English, Medieval and Welsh literature. She was an Anthony Dyson Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, in University of Wales Trinity St. David. She twice won a Tir na-n-Og prize for her work and won the literary medal competition at the Welsh Eisteddfod, for her 2019 debut novel, Ingrid, which was chosen for the Welsh Literature Exchange Bookshelf. In 2020, Ifans was elected as Fellow the Learned Society of Wales.