There are readings in centre pubs and a flock of writers' circles but that's no different than it is, say, in Newport. In literary terms Cardiff has spent far too long exhibiting Victoria Park values, harking back after Billy the Seal, Clarksies pies and pints of dark. It's great to say I belong. The light here is different. But there are pockets of backsliding.
Progress never moves forward like a wall.
The Bute Dock, a showpiece of municipal-run regeneration with the UCI cinema and club complex at its south and the pagoda roof of County Hall along its western edge, is by now showing strong signs of neglect. The brick walkways are overgrown, the cast-iron railings have mostly been uprooted and hurled in the sea. And beyond there are others who seem determined not to join the great new society. The vast lumpen enclaves of Ely and, to a lesser extent, Llanrumney remain walled cities with their own cultures running largely obliviously to what's going on elsewhere. They support Cardiff City, a team bobbing the league's lower echelons and with a reputation for violence not usually witnessed in Wales.