In September 2012, author Roger GK Penn, a former Welsh Rugby Union referee well known to rugby clubs across Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Powys – left his home in West Wales for a five-week research tour of New Zealand.
Exploring libraries, archives and museums; and talking to devotees, officials and players of the game, Roger returned home with a wealth of material, including fascinating anecdotes from All Blacks past and present whom he met along the way.
The result was the release of Three Feathers and a Silver Fern (an Off-field History of Wales and the All Blacks) in 2013, a volume which is once again rolling off the print lines into readers’ homes.
This time sporting the new title, Wales and the All Blacks – an Off-field History, and enhanced with an additional chapter updating events, the volume is, according to the game’s proven experts, “a terrific read”.
With a foreword from legendary fullback JPR Williams and highly recommended by Sir Gareth Edwards, the book has been published Y Lolfa in Talybont, and distributed as far as Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand, to nationwide book distributors.
Suitably re-styled in a smart, eye-catching jacket, and complete with a ‘Look Inside’ e-book feature, Wales and the All Blacks – an Off-field History is available mainstream bookshops and online, and is a book rugby lovers will enjoy reading and talking about.