ABSENT ROWAN’S POETIC FAUX PAS

THERE are likely to be more than a few irate festival-goers in Eglwys Fach next month, as the birthplace of R.S. Thomas hosts a literary event honouring the great poet.

Organisers were thrilled to have lined up former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams both to preach in St Michael’s Church and speak about Thomas’s poetry.

But Williams, 72, has now realised that he will be some way from north Wales on the weekend in question — in Canada, in fact.

‘Rowan was absolutely appalled when he realised,’ churchwarden Alison Swanson tells me.

Williams says that ‘ habitual inefficiency’ — compounded by correspondence ‘that hasn’t shrunk that much since retirement’ — were to blame. A recording of his talk will be played in his absence. Its title? Keeping Faith In Poetry.