Nothings? Some Comments on the Poetry of Daniel Huws

Daniel Huws was Keeper of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth and since his retirement in 1992 has been at work on a definitive account of mediaeval Welsh manuscripts, about which, as well as about Welsh traditional music, he has already published extensively. He is the leading authority in his field.

When I first met him, in the mid-1950s, he was an Exhibitioner, in Mathematics I believe, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He transferred to Archaeology B, which specialised in Celtic Languages, Old Norse, Icelandic. I had gone to Cambridge on a History Exhibition, but had read Economics for Part 1, transferring or returning to History for Part 2 of the tripos. Not that we ever discussed such matters. Daniel Huws, for his own reasons, did not remain at Cambridge after completing his BA; I was not asked to after completing mine. He and his wife Helga lived for a while in London, in Bloomsbury, before he accepted a position in the National Library of Wales, and as a Welsh speaker and, no doubt, because of his interest in old Welsh literature, moved to a village near Aberystwyth, where he has remained ever since and where they raised their family.

Our particular group of friends in Cambridge, which became better known than it might have been otherwise or perhaps than we would have wished it to be, on account of the association with Ted Hughes and the publication of a magazine, St Botolph's Review (editor ...