Laura Wainwright writes:
If Duncan Bush is ‘his own archaeologist’, as Robert Minhinnick suggests in his fascinating and illuminating study, Minhinnick digs deeper and more determinedly than any have before to reveal the life and work of this complex, contrary and unjustly neglected Cardiff writer. Drawing on a wide range of previously unseen and unpublished material from the Bush family’s archive, Minhinnick’s expansive study is testament to Bush’s striking ambition, versatility and invention, encompassing poetry, translation, fiction, drama, film and television; as well as his own playfully subversive, hybridised literary forms. In the spirit of classic Writers of Wales volumes – such as Leslie Norris on Glyn Jones – the book is rich with the insights of a distinguished Welsh poet and writer, who corresponded with Bush as a friend and editor of Poetry Wales, and knew first-hand the socio-political and cultural contexts of his work. It is a precious contribution to our understanding of the history of Welsh writing in English, during Duncan Bush’s lifetime and beyond.
University of Wales Press, 2026. https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/duncan-bush-minhinnick/