Come and celebrate the (belated) launch of our Wales magazine with Farmers’ Welsh Lavender and Silver Circle Distillery at Tredegar House in Hay-on-Wye. Editor Liz will be on hand to wax lyrical, and we’ll be exhibiting work from a fabulous collection of photographers.

“It is difficult to put into words just how much I adore Wales. On my first night back in the country, on a balmy August evening in Hay-on-Wye, I sensed the sort of contentment I’d long associated with travel but, over lockdown, had somehow forgotten was possible. I was sojourning solo, biding my time until a photographer joined me for a road trip, and felt utterly calm. At the same time though, everything seemed heightened and the day’s simple pleasures - a forage around bookshops, a dip in a sun-bathed river - were imbued with romance. For the first time in months I was able to breathe, look around and drink it in. A weight was lifted and what I saw was divine.

However, my infatuation goes back further. I remember driving to Pembrokeshire on a grey December afternoon and being overcome by reverence, dwarfed by the landscape and - although I didn’t realise it then - the marks of time. Here, the past is etched into the terrain, present in the remnants of mining communities, myth-shrouded ruins and peaks weather-worn and proud. You’re aware of all that has come before, of the dedication and pride rippling down through the generations; the seeds of such devotion sown by the Druids, nurtured by the Celts, bolstered by the warriors of old and made glorious in poetry and song.“

I wrote the above words in the Editor’s Letter of the 2020 Wales magazine, and to me they still ring true. My adoration for this country and her landscapeshas not waned, and it’s wonderful to finally celebrate the issue with Farmers’ Welsh Lavender and photographs from a collection of artists besotted by Wales.

Featured photographers: Daniel Alford, Marsha Arnold, Finn Beales, Billie Charity, Holly Farrier, Leon Foggitt, Orlando Gili, Hollie Harmsworth, David Rich, Beth Squire & Jonathan Stokes.