Aberystwyth
Town of broken hearts and broken cornets
After travelling all over the world—from South America to Asia and Polynesia—I can honestly say I have never been to any land where I didn’t meet at least one person who had heard of the town.
I first realised this when I was in Borneo. I was deep in the heart of the rainforest, on the mighty Rajang river, meeting with a tribal elder to discuss the possibility of dancing the Ngajat with his daughter.
He asked me where I was from and when I told him Aberystwyth his face lit up, he glanced up at the Heavens in disbelief.
‘So it really exists, then? We thought it was a make-believe place, told of old in our legends, like Troy, Nineveh and Timbuktu. A fabulous town’.
‘Well, it is pretty fabulous,’ I said. ‘It’s got a Cliff Railway.’
‘Please,’ he said. ‘Please dance the Ngajat with my daughter.’
And so I did.
Pryce’s fictional Aberystwyth is a sustained masterpiece of dark imagination
—Daily Telegraph
Sheer delight…already one of my favourite books of the year—GUARDIAN
Marvelously imaginative…You’ll weep and laugh on the same page. Wonderful—GUARDIAN
Inventive, funny and dark, Pryce packs more style into a sentence than most authors could hope for in volumes—BIG ISSUE
Pryce really is in a league of his own—TIME OUT
A uniquely surreal spin on the hoary conventions of noir writing…impossibly weird and, in parts, beautifully lyrical—GUARDIAN
Surreal, absurd and very funny—THE TIMES
An arresting mixture of Boy’s Own Adventure, Fifties gumshoe novel and oddly affecting love story, this is an absolute treat—Mail on Sunday
An arresting mixture of Boy’s Own Adventure, Fifties gumshoe novel and oddly affecting love story, this is an absolute treat—Mail on Sunday
Give your ears an orgasm
Or should that be eargasm? Aberystwyth Mon Amour – The Walking Tour takes about an hour, but the memory will last a lifetime. It takes you from the railway station to the harbour in the company of Louie Knight – Aberystwyth’s only private eye – and a host of favorite characters from the books.
The tour is packed with information, background anecdotes, and suggestions….and all beautifully intertwined with wry and bittersweet disquisitions on love, death, and crazy golf. Click on the image to take you to Audible, but don’t even think of taking the free trial – just stump up some moolah, it won’t kill you.