I was enthusiastic in welcoming the first volume (RR 99/217) of this three‐volume series, so am happy to give this one an equally enthusiastic approval. The whole undertaking is a most valuable exercise in art, social and cultural history with a purpose, and that purpose heightened by devolution and by the need and desire to define Welsh nationhood in all its aspects. This volume examines and illustrates the depiction of Welshness, through different means and through the various periods of history. The places, the landscape, the people (especially patrons and artists), are all discussed. All is fascinating, but especially revealing perhaps is the treatment of more modern images of all kinds and media.
Like the first volume this is primarily a work of ideas and interpretation. But beyond that it is also a wonderful resource: profusely illustrated with images selected after careful research and which are excellently reproduced, fully captioned and discussed. There is also an enormous amount of fact and detail here too, on which the discussions are based. So, at various levels this is, like its predecessor volume, a most important work deserving a wide audience both outside Wales and within.
It is a work certainly for art historical collections, but of wider importance in cultural studies and in any collection featuring materials on or from Wales.
