Our Speakers
Carwyn Graves
Carwyn Graves is an author, public speaker, gardener, and amateur ecologist from Wales. His books include Apples of Wales and Welsh Food Stories. His most recent book, Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, takes us on a journey through the natural landscapes of Wales.
Carwyn Graves is an author, public speaker, gardener, and amateur ecologist from Wales. His books include Apples of Wales and Welsh Food Stories. His most recent book, Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, takes us on a journey through the natural landscapes of Wales.
Carwyn examines the many ways humans interact with and understand the natural landscape around them and considers how this understanding can be used to combat climate change and improve wildlife populations and biodiversity.
Amber Wheeler
Amber lives on a small holding in Pembrokeshire and has over 20 years’ experience of food system change work, both on the ground and as a researcher. Her main area of expertise and interest is how to enable Wales and the UK to produce and consume more fruit and vegetables and the role small scale and short supply chains have to play. Ten years ago she did a piece of work on whether the St. Davids Peninsula could feed itself. At the moment she is working as action researcher and co-ordinator for Welsh Veg in Schools which is getting Welsh organic veg into schools across Wales.
Iolo Williams
Welsh Wildlife TV presenter, ornithologist and conservationist Iolo Williams has been part of the Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch presenting team since 2010. He’s presented series such as Wild Wales, Rugged Wales and Great Welsh Parks for BBC 2...
Welsh Wildlife TV presenter, ornithologist and conservationist Iolo Williams has been part of the Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch presenting team since 2010. He’s presented series such as Wild Wales, Rugged Wales and Great Welsh Parks for BBC 2.
Iolo Williams was born and bred in mid Wales. After studying Ecology at University he joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 1985, where he stayed for nearly 15 years. His work in the field and as a regional co-ordinator led to his making regular appearances in the media as a leading expert on Welsh bird life, working with some of the country’s rarest breeding birds.
Working for the RSPB in Wales led to him becoming a natural history presenter for the BBC and S4C. He presents in both Welsh, his first language, and English.
Alongside presenting, he has written several books on Welsh wildlife in both English and Welsh, including Wild Places: Wales' Top 40 Nature Sites and Wild Places UK; UK's Top 40 Nature Sites. He is also a regular contributor to several magazines, including ‘BBC Wildlife’.
Tom Clare
Tom Clare runs a 10-acre smallholding in Pembrokeshire. In addition to keeping poultry and Badger-face Torwen sheep, he has planted a nut orchard and a top-fruit orchard (both of which are grazed by the sheep) and several areas for tree hay / tree barns, as well as small scale coppice / timber production. Tom has extensive knowledge of native plants, fruit and nut trees, timber trees and novel tree crops that work well in the Welsh climate and has built up his own agroforestry consultancy on silviculture and tree-related topics...
Tom Clare runs a 10-acre smallholding in Pembrokeshire. In addition to keeping poultry and Badger-face Torwen sheep, he has planted a nut orchard and a top-fruit orchard (both of which are grazed by the sheep) and several areas for tree hay / tree barns, as well as small scale coppice / timber production. Tom has extensive knowledge of native plants, fruit and nut trees, timber trees and novel tree crops that work well in the Welsh climate and has built up his own agroforestry consultancy on silviculture and tree-related topics.
His understanding of how trees and other plants can be integrated into farm businesses and the Welsh landscape provides Tom with key insights in meeting the challenges of the Sustainable Farming Scheme legislation.
Tom is a mentor with Farm Connect, specialising in Agroforestry and Regenerative Farming.
Juliet Heslewood
Juliet’s degree in the History of Art was fine preparation for the 30 years when she lived in France, devising and leading Art and Architecture study tours in six different areas from Brittany to the Côte d’Azur. She has had many books published on art as well as world folklore and a novel about the Brontës. As a lecturer in Art, she gives talks at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and for the Arts Society.
Professor Mererid Hopwood
Mererid Hopwood came to the Chair of the Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University in January 2021. Before that she had been Professor of Languages and the Curriculum Cymreig in the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She has spent her career in the fields of languages, literature, education and the arts. She won the National Eisteddfod of Wales’ Chair, Crown and Prose Medal and Welsh Book of the Year prize for poetry in 2016 for her collection of poems, Nes Draw...
Mererid Hopwood came to the Chair of the Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University in January 2021. Before that she had been Professor of Languages and the Curriculum Cymreig in the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She has spent her career in the fields of languages, literature, education and the arts.
She won the National Eisteddfod of Wales’ Chair, Crown and Prose Medal and Welsh Book of the Year prize for poetry in 2016 for her collection of poems, Nes Draw. She has been children’s poet laureate of Wales (Bardd Plant Cymru) and in 2018 won the Tir na n’Og prize for her writing for children. She has composed words for musicians, visual artists and dancers, and has taken part in literature festivals in Europe, Asia and South America.
She has translated many works of literature into Welsh including plays from Spanish and German for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. She is Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Academi Gymreig, and Honorary President of the Waldo Williams Society. She is the secretary of the Academi Heddwch Cymru.
Ben Llwyd
Ben Llwyd, a contemporary artist and lecturer based near St Davids, has dedicated over a decade to exploring utopias in his work. With exhibitions across the UK, including Chapter in Cardiff, D-Unit in Bristol, and The British Museum, his projects such as ‘The Utopian Impulse’, ‘Gwales’, ‘The Road to New York’, and ‘Empire Kiosk’, consistently interrogate notions of idealised societies and communal migrations.
Jess Ward
Pembrokeshire's own harpist, Jess Ward, says "I have been lucky to live all my life in this land of crashing waves, rugged cliffs, mirrored pools, twisting oaks, windswept thorn and peeping primrose." A prolific songwriter with 3 original albums recorded, Jess has also enjoyed many years of delving into the traditional music of Wales, Ireland and Brittany. Bringing a touch of Celtic magic to Ty'r Pererin for the festival exhibition, Jess will be performing on her Teifi lever harp to accompany the feast of visuals.
Daniel West
Dan is the Energy & Sustainability Manager at Pembrokeshire County Council , responsible for corporate energy management, delivering the Council’s Net Zero by 2030 plan, and engaging with regional energy and sustainability projects. Dan’s background is in engineering. He spent the first 5 years of his career as a mechanical engineer in the private sector designing low and zero carbon energy systems in new and existing buildings, before transitioning to a more strategic role with the Council.