[To purchase: click on book title on right hand side of page, which links to Whistling Shade Press.]
You are about to set foot in The Tinker’s Dam, a Welsh country pub run (with a little luck and a dash of panache) by Irish proprietor Gerry Culhane. Whether the topic is rugby, singing coal miners, or Margo the barmaid’s current boyfriend, there’s always something afoot at The Dam.
In Tales From The Tinker’s Dam, Daniel Gabriel has gathered together a lively cast of quirky characters—the inhabitants of a small village in Wales—whose adventures and misadventures are full of humor and humanity. A vivid depiction of a cherished time and place, Tales From the Tinker’s Dam is a tribute to a world were loyalty and love, failure and friendship, form the dramas of daily life.
– Sheila O’Connor, author of Tokens of Grace and Where No Gods Came
This book is funny. Daniel Gabriel’s witty writing took me to a place I had never before visited and introduced me to a new friend in Gerry. With every chapter I finished I had the same, demonstrative feeling I experienced each week for my friends from Lake Wobegon: ‘Don’t leave now, I was just going to make espresso!’
– Ali Selim, writer and director of Sweet Land
Daniel Gabriel has written a gem. This collection of boisterous tales, featuring the misadventures of an Irish publican striving to bring improvements and a bit of class to a Welsh pub, sets a cozy spot for readers at the bar. Have yourself a Best Bitter or a pint of dry cider with a touch of sweet, as you rub elbows with Wee Hughie, Dai Legg, lovesick Rhys Jones, and the rest of the regulars.
– Bart Schneider, author of Secret Love and Beautiful Inez
Pub Signs 1978: Backdrop to Tales From the Tinker’s Dam
Wales 1983-84: Setting for Tales From the Tinker’s Dam