Real Aberystwyth

Book excerpt: This guidebook provides a remarkable overview of the Welsh town Aberystwyth--a community of two languages that contains a university, a farming community, a port-turned-marina, the National Library of Wales, provides a home for writers and spies alike, and was also made recently famous--or infamous--by Malcolm Pryce's novels. The travel guide details an enthralling account of a city that is any number of conflicting and complimentary things--from its medieval beginnings through its Victorian heyday to the fluid mix of longstanding natives, large student population, and colony of those who came and never left. Mixing autobiography with topography, aligning the oblique approach with historical report, and contrasting the prosaic with the downright odd, this study paints a vivid picture of a world-famous town.