"This lively and stimulating book gets to grip with the question of the political beliefs and actions of one of Wales's most controversial cultural icons: Edward Williams, Iolo Morganwg, the self-styled 'Bard of Liberty'. Revealing a profound knowledge and understanding of the vast and famously chaotic archive of Iolo's manuscripts held at the National Library of Wales, Professor Jenkins has produced here more than an analysis of Iolo's politics: this is effectively the first really detailed biography of the man, tracing his life from birth to death against the context of a rapidly changing world." Dr Mary-Ann Constantine