MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity
A lyrical evocation of pre-industrial Calderdale
END OF AN EPOCH: The earliest known image of a cotton mill dates to 1746. Mills like this one - converted from a corn mill in Northampton - proliferated through the valleys of Calderdale
[Public Domain] 
ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing
MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
Where the Skylark Sings
By Lee Garratt
Dimensionfold Publishing, £12.99
IN THIS slim novel, Lee Garratt takes us on a historical journey through the hills and valleys of Calderdale in Yorkshire and introduces us to the people who lived there.
He begins in 1790, and through the lives of one weaving family, he charts the devastating destruction of the old-style cottage weaving industry with the coming of mass production mills during the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Despite the attempts of the cottage weaving families in the area to prevent the mills destroying their livelihoods and way of life, the inexorable march of the wealthy mill owners is relentless.
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