John Humphries 
Search for the Nile’s Source 
The Ruined Reputation of John Petherick, Nineteenth-century Welsh Explorer

This experimental volume of literary criticism offers various interpretations of the work of the poet Menna Elfyn, and gives an outline of our relationship with literature and our reading habits. It is an attempt to provide a fresh interpretation of the work by experimenting for the first time in Welsh with the epistolary method of criticism, through a series of fictional letters. This is also the first extended study of Menna Elfyn’s poetry: addressed to the poet’s work in particular, but also looking at contemporary issues such as interpretation, performance and the marketing of literature in contemporary Wales. Academic practices are vigorously challenged by walking the line between ’fact’ and ’fiction’ to create a multi-vocal and readable criticism reflecting the complex and multifaceted nature of the reading process.