Rivers of Wales

Jim Perrin is a well-established and highly acclaimed author of natural history books, journal articles and newspaper columns. An outdoor pursuits instructor, rock climber, caver and naturalist, born, as he himself notes, in the slums of Manchester, he has lived in various remote parts of Wales, and fallen in love with the people, language and landscape of his adopted country. His mentor was the late William M. Condry (1918-1998), who, as Perrin states, was one of those rare people whose life’s work was to pass to others with unassuming eloquence his own astonishing breadth of knowledge about nature and the Welsh environment.Professor M. Wyn Thomas, in an assessment of Perrin’s work, reproduced on the back cover of this book, has heaped enormous praise on the author. Indeed, he has gone so far as to state that no one else in contemporary Wales is capable of writing prose of such exceptional quality, and that Perrin deserves to be recognised as the most singular and most outstanding prose writer of present-day Wales.His latest offering, Rivers of Wales, is certainly proof of that pudding and does not disappoint. The work is divided into five lengthy chapters: Gwy (Wye), Teifi, Cynfal Dwyryd & Glaslyn, Dyfi & Dysynni, and Dwyfor. We are taken on a natural-history and literary tour of these majestic rivers and their tributaries from source to estuary, and treated to Perrin’s writing at its very best. The book is brim full of anecdotes from those whom he met, many by chance, on his travels, and his knowledge of the terrain and his attention to detail in discussing place-names and the flora and fauna of natural habitats is truly encyclopaedic. But what sets his work apart from so many fine authors on natural history is his polymathic ability to draw on the writings of others, in both fact and fiction, to illustrate and enrich his own narrative. He quotes freely from the texts of authors such as Borrow, Hardy, Kilvert, Lhuyd, Peacock, Pennant and many others to supplement his observations, and he seems equally well versed in the texts of the Mabinogion and in Welsh folklore, biography and literature. Although these authors are familiar to most of us, even if we have not read all their books, the way Perrin can recall relevant passages to supplement his own writing is most impressive.Perrin writes sensitively. I particularly enjoyed his tale of a brief adoption of an injured tawny owl whilst living near the Dwyryd in 1987. The owl also befriended his neighbour and good friend, Jonah Jones, the eminent sculptor. It is a lovely tale of how the owl was eventually nursed back to full health and made its way back to the wild. His passage on the tragedy that befell Machynlleth in 2012 with the murder of April Jones is very moving, as is his account of the drowning of a young girl, Kiara Moore, in a tragic accident on the Teifi at Cardigan in 2018, to which he adds T. S. Eliot’s profound meditations in his poem ‘The Dry Salvages’.Perrin is a man with very strong opinions, and he does not mince his words. There is genuine anger and frustration in some passages. He makes it perfectly clear that the UK and Welsh governments do not pay enough attention to the lengthy despoliation of our rivers and natural habitats. Post Brexit we are also in danger of reduced monitoring of our water quality. He cites the growing problem of agrochemical pollution, which has already destroyed large swathes of our rivers, and has some very harsh words for the ‘barbaric’ wildfowling fraternity who seem to derive pleasure from shooting many of our endangered species, with the blessing of licences obtained from the Crown estate to operate on our foreshores. The damage inflicted to our ancient roads and tracks by off-roaders and scramblers, and the building of so many dams in the Welsh uplands are both seen as further examples of the erosion of our precious landscape.Although the author is rightly concerned about the health of our environment, he does also have some positive stories to record. One such example is the transformation of the Cooke’s Explosive Works on the Dwyryd at Penrhyndeudraeth into a successful nature reserve managed by North Wales Naturalists’ Trust. And again, largely due to the efforts of Bill Condry, the Ynys-hir estate was purchased by an RSPB-headed consortium in 1959 and represents, in Perrin’s words, ‘one of the most heartening conservation victories ever to have been achieved in Wales’.As far as I can ascertain, the work is free from typographical and factual errors. But I did spot one mistake which rather amused me. On page 272, Perrin states that the Black Lion in Derwen-las is the last remaining public house between Machynlleth and Tal-y-bont. I wonder if Jim deliberately excluded reference to The Wildfowler at Tre’r-ddôl!This is a real gem of a book, and a worthy addition to his earlier works. – Richard E. Huws @

Jim Perrin is a writer, broadcaster, and rock climber.

As a writer, he has made regular contributions to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines. As a climber, he has developed many new routes and made solo and free ascents of great difficulty.

Among his books are River Map (2001) and Snowdon: The Story of a Welsh Mountain (2012), both published by Gomer Press.

He has appeared at many festivals and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Boardman Tasker Prize, the Wales Tourist Board Wales in Print Award (2002), and VisitAmerica Travel Writer of the Year (2000).

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