In praise of Ponty

"[A] slow meandering walk without an obvious goal is sometimes much more enjoyable than going in a straight line from place to place", writes Geoff Nicholson in Walking On Thin Air. That's a philosophy to which I suspect Daryl Leeworthy also subscribes, if his new book is anything to go by. That said, Ponty Is It? Travels In A Valleys Town does have an overarching goal: painting a portrait of the town that is currently playing host to the Eisteddfod.

As for the rest of us, lockdown restricted Leeworthy to exploring only his immediate environs - but unlike most, he was prompted to write a book about it. "Walking was how I coped with my isolation", he confesses. "My constant companion during the pandemic was Ponty itself. We argued with each other, we revealed ourselves anew, and in the end, we learned to live together - like a couple, long married, who have threatened divorce but who realise, in moments of travail, that they were once in love and perhaps still are."

Buzz review here.