TALES from wilder periods of Welsh history have been uncovered for a new book which will be launched this month in Pembrokeshire.

David Lloyd Owen’s ‘A Wilder Wales’ is an edited collection of highlights from over 39 accounts published between 1610 and 1831, recalling travellers’ experiences and describing the land and people.

Few people visited Wales until the second half of the Eighteenth Century.

This changed after the Napoleonic Wars of 1799-1815 forced those seeking to go on a Grand Tour of Europe’s classical sights to find enlightenment closer to home.

Unlike most of Scotland or Ireland, language formed a border more immediate than Offa’s Dyke or any county boundary.

Outside the boroughs, churches, gentry houses and the plantations of the Gower and South Pembrokeshire, the people where overwhelmingly Welsh speakers and usually monoglots.

‘A Wilder Wales’ illustrates how the past can be another country.

Despite pleasure and adventure being the principle reason for travelling across Wales, these visitors could not escape from rural poverty and some of the most brutal crucibles of the early industrial revolution.

David Lloyd Owen will be launching the book at Rhosygilwen Mansion, Rhoshill, Cilgerran on Thursday, November 23 at 7pm.

Entry is free, and refreshments will be available.

The author will also be signing copies of the book at Awen Teifi Bookshop on Thursday, November 25 between 11am and 1pm.