Aberystwyth By Heart: Local Secrets, Honest Stories & the Town That Won't Let You Leave

An honest book about Aberystwyth, written by a bloke who came for three years in 2004 and never went home. I got off the train in September 2004 with a suitcase that had one working wheel. Eighteen, from Stoke, never been further west than Shrewsbury in my life. I dragged that case down Terrace Road, and then the road ran out and the whole of Cardigan Bay opened up in front of me and I stopped dead in the street. Anyone who has done that walk knows exactly what I mean. This town doesn't ease you into it. It just hands you the sea. I gave it three years. It has been twenty two. My mate Gethin, born and raised in Penparcau, has never once called me anything but "the student". This book is everything I have worked out since. It is not a guidebook and it does not read like one. It is what I would tell you over a pint in the Cŵps if you asked me straight out why I never left. 68 pages. 22 short chapters. A PDF that lands the second you pay, and reads on any phone, tablet or laptop. Send it to a Kindle if you'd rather. Who this is for You have lived here years. You will argue with half of it, which is the point, and there are two or three things in here that long-timers have told me they did not know. You left and still think about it. This is the closest thing to a walk down the prom you can get on a wet Tuesday night three hours away. You are thinking of moving here. There is a straight, unsentimental chapter on what February is actually like, area by area, including the parts an estate agent will not raise. You visit and want the real town. The wind rule, the starlings, the wet day plan, and the spot. Not the trolley route. The whole contents. Nothing padded. That is every chapter in the book, listed. Below are the nine people ask about most, and what is actually in them. GET THE BOOK — £12.99 Nine things you will not find in a guidebook The wind rule. Which beach to be on depending on which way it is blowing, and the ten minute walk that turns a ruined afternoon into a good one. Nobody on the front will tell you this. The starlings. Thousands of them dropping under the pier at dusk, October to March. Where to stand, roughly what time to be there, which months are best, and why the pier itself is the wrong place to watch from. The Old College. What that building means to everyone who arrived here scared and eighteen, and honestly where the project stands now. The real view of the town. It is not the top of Consti. Exact spot, exact time of day. The wet day chapter. For the sort of Aber weather that sends visitors home by eleven in the morning. There is a whole town to do instead and most people never find it. Gethin's chapter. Penparcau born, same house his whole life, on the harbour, the marina, the students, the council and every incomer including me. I have not tidied him up. The chip argument, settled. You will disagree. That is rather the point. Moving here, honestly. Area by area. What February is genuinely like when the students go and the sea comes over the wall. And a straight, unfunny section on housing and why people born in this town are being priced out of it. The spot. Twenty minutes' walk from the clock, with exact directions and the right time of day. It is the best thing in this book and I very nearly kept it to myself. See it before you buy it Not a mock-up. This is Chapter Four exactly as it appears in the book. GET THE BOOK — £12.99 Buy it once, keep it for good Aber changes. Shops shut, cafes open, the council changes its mind about the harbour. Every time this book is updated you get the new version free, forever. Most guides go out of date on the shelf and you buy the next edition. This one does not work like that. Straight answers How do I get it? An email arrives with your download link the moment you pay, and the link is on the thank-you page as well. Nothing is posted. Nothing turns up a week later. Will it work on my phone? Yes. Phone, tablet or laptop. If you would rather read it on a Kindle you can send it across. Can I send it to someone who left? Please do. Half the people who buy this are buying it for a son in London or a sister who moved to Cardiff. Forward it on, that is allowed. What if I don't like it? Email me and I will refund you. No form to fill in, no reason needed. Is it just a list of cafes? No. It is stories, with the useful things woven through them. Read it front to back in an evening, or dip into it for years. Why is it not two quid? Because it took twenty two years of living here to write, it has the spot in it, and I would rather sell fewer copies of something worth keeping. One last thing. The starlings come back in October and they are under that pier every dusk until March. If you are going to read one chapter before then, read that one, and go and stand in the right place this year. DOWNLOAD ABERYSTWYTH BY HEART — £12.99 Instant download. Free updates for life. More than 2,000 orders taken across the Roots & Routes shop. Diolch. Tim Morris