Our Number Ones

The Best of 2020 – Our Number Ones

Welcome to Wales Arts Review’s Best of 2020. Over the last two weeks we have been nominating our top selections across the arts of Wales, and now we are very excited to announce our numbers ones in each category. Here are the favourites of our writers.

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Welsh Books

Thinking Again by Jan Morris (non-fiction, Faber & Faber)

What we said: “Despite almost exactly two years having passed since it was penned, Thinking Again is uncannily contemporaneous. On Day Two Morris claims that the spring of 2018 has felt like “one long, disorienting cock-up, [that] has knocked many of our disciplines askew,” forcing her to question “is nobody decent anymore?” This is a question that many of us have been asking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis hitting the UK this spring.”

Number ones

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Welsh Visual Arts

Claudia Williams Retrospective (Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff)

What we said: “Listening to Music/Gwrando ar Gerddoriaeth (1984) is a stunning example of an artist in full control of a blue colour palette and mesh of patterns which draw the eye around the image as if following the music in the air.”

Number ones

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Welsh Albums

Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Stewart Goodyear (Orchid Classics)

What we said: “The orchestra clearly relish these concertos and perform them with a gratifying freshness and vitality, sensitive to a fault and demonstrating a real affection, as if collectively shaking hands with a much-loved friend. With just a nod to historically informed performance, strings are obligingly lean, woodwinds agreeably responsive, brass suitably festive, but never over blown, and timpani always considerate to the mood.”

Number ones

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Welsh Theatre

The Beauty Parade (Kaite O’Reilly, WMC Cardiff)

What we said: “The production is an undeniable achievement, a moving piece characterised by O’Reilly’s distinctive attention to questions of accessibility and deafness.”

Number ones

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Welsh Books for Young People

Wilde by Eloise Williams (Firefly Press)

What we said: “The latest book by the Children’s Laureate of Wales is a heady mix of wry humour, warmth, and a genuinely frightening build-up towards the ending. This is our top pick in a year of outstanding books for children and young people from Wales.”

Number ones

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Welsh Film & TV

In My Skin (TV, BBC Wales and BBC Three)

What we said: “In My Skin feels like the real world, these characters feel like people we know, and that’s what the real power in the writing is.”

Number ones