Dinefwr: A Phoenix in Wales, Gerald Morgan, Gomer Press, 2014, 227p, £19-99.

ISBN 978-1-84851-820-9.

This fascinating book offers the complexities of varying spellings of place names and surnames as it charts the long story of an historic site. Although it was attached to many other landholdings, both in Wales and England, at various points in the past, this estate has basically been in the ownership of one family since medieval times.

Dinefwr is an estate in Carmarthenshire. With evidence revealing occupation of the site from pre-Roman times, from the medieval period the Rhys family, re-named Rice in the Tudor era, have now occupied the estate for many centuries. The castle is always named Dinefwr but the stately home is generally called Dynevor or Newton House, the latter arising from a medieval attempt to create a planned or ‘new' borough in that proximity. In the 18^th Century the Rice family were elevated to the peerage as Barons Dynevor.

Gerald Morgan introduces the complicated history of the Rhys family, with its dynastic extension into England and its political contribution at both local and national level, in a very clear narrative.

This book, therefore, would be of interest to anyone exploring the history of South West Wales, because this estate and its house have survived the vicissitudes and hazards of dynastic and economic change, with it finally becoming a National Trust property. However it offers more than just that: it is also a case study for others to mirror in just how an historian pieces together the complicated story of a particular house or property.