The Oldest Music

Compiled by Phil Cope, a photographer and author based in south Wales. It explores and celebrates how holy wells have inspired poets for hundreds of years and includes a selection of old and new poems, in Welsh, English and Irish, including by Lewys Glyn Cothi, Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, Ieuan ap Rhydderch, Angela Graham, Tony Curtis and Phil Carradice.

Phil Cope is a writer, photographer, and exhibition and book designer on a wide range of subjects from Haitian vodou to the Spanish Civil War, from the singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson to the footballer John Charles, from the prehistory of Margam Park to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in addition to his celebrated series of books on Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and English sacred springs and holy wells. Born in Cardiff, and after travelling extensively throughout Europe, North, Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia, he now lives at the dead-end of an ex-coalmining valley.