Life was not easy for St Dwynwen, Wales’ answer to St Valentine. Forbidden to marry the man she loved, then raped by him, she dedicated herself to a life of contemplation. Celebrating her day at St Benet’s on January 25, some sixteen centuries later, was rather more fun.

When she withdrew from the world, Dwynwen asked God to grant the wishes of all future lovers and, naturally, love was the theme of the event in her honour. Foremost Welsh poet Dannie Abse, a spry octogenarian, read from his own work, including poems from his new collection, Two for Joy: scenes from married life, due to be published this Spring. He varied the mood from romantic (in poems such as “Epithalamion” beginning “Singing, today I married my white girl/beautiful in a barley field.”) to the comic “Domestic, 3 a.m” (about a husband suspected of wandering) and counterpointed these with a masterly performance of the narrative poem, “Events Leading to the Conception of Solomon, the Wise Child”.