Brand new edition of bestselling beginners' Welsh course published

A new, updated version of the classic beginners’ Welsh course, Welcome to Welsh, has been published by Y Lolfa. Written by Heini Gruffudd, bestselling author of materials for Welsh learners, the content of the new edition has been completely revamped and the book has been redesigned to bring it up to date.

“Forty years have flown by! I would never have thought in 1984 that the book would be so popular. The grammar, stories and conversations needed updating, and humour has changed. The success of materials for learners show that there is an ever-growing wish for Welsh to be increasingly used as a spoken language. I hope this new version will still be around years after I’m gone!” said author Heini Gruffudd.

First published in 1984, the original edition has sold over 70,000 copies. Carolyn Hodges, now Head of English-Language Publishing at Y Lolfa but formerly in charge of creating market-leading language coursebooks at Oxford University Press, said: “The original edition is an absolute classic and has helped tens of thousands of learners to take their first steps in learning Welsh. This edition builds on that success, with the content overhauled to teach up-to-date Welsh that you’ll hear around you in the real world today, and a fresh new design that will appeal to a brand new generation of learners!”

Ideal for self-study, the course has 16 units, using engaging new strip cartoons by Welsh illustrator Osian Roberts to present sentence structures and grammar points. There is also a dictionary section at the back of the book, and free MP3 audio files to accompany the lessons are downloadable from Y Lolfa’s website.