REVIEW

Book: The Story of Carmarthen
Authors: By Joyce and Victor Lodwick
Reviewer: Editor

V. G. Lodwick & Sons Ltd., Carmarthen. £2.40

It is a pleasure to give a new welcome to the familiar and colourful jacket adorning Lodwick's Story of Carmarthen, this time enclosing a revised and enlarged edition which comes out just as The Carmarthenshire Historian goes to press.

Eighteen years have gone since Malcolm and Edith Lodwick's book was received with great interest and the new edition is assured of an equally enthusiastic reception. Carmarthen's recorded history extends over eighteen centuries and seventeen of these passed before William Spurrell brought out the first printed work concerning the town's story in 1860. In the relatively short period since the Lodwick family brought out their first book there have been changes which made the production of a new edition desirable, and at the same time the opportunity has been taken to expand the work, which now has nearly seventy more pages and twice as many illustrations.

Most important of the revisions is, of course, the chapter on Roman Carmarthen, which has been very largely re-written in consequence of the excavations of 1968-9 that demonstrated for all to see the freshly revealed significance of the site as a civil town as well as a military garrison. But throughout the book there are additions and deletions that enhance its original value and interest, though the format and arrangement of the chapters — which facilitate pleasurable browsing — are retained, yet even in the latter respect one or two new ones have been inserted.

Joyce and Victor Lodwick have undertaken their task with diligence and the result is commendable. A few familiar illustrations have disappeared, but many new ones swell the assorted wealth liberally distributed throughout the book. Some of the late Malcolm Lodwick's drawings are retained; the rest for the most part are from the pen of his wife, Edith Lodwick, whose work regularly graces the pages of The Carmarthenshire Historian.

The Story of Carmarthen is very much a family effort, having been written, illustrated, printed and published by the Lodwicks, who now take their place among the town's historians. One sees a steady demand for their book and there comes easily to mind the prediction that by next Christmas The Story of Carmarthen, newly garmented, will have spread far and wide.