Library of Wales: Battle to the Weak

Hilda Vaughan lived from 1892 to 1985. She was educated privately but her experiences with the Women’s Land Army during WWI exposed her to a different side of life. Battle to the Weak, her first novel, was published in 1925. She is known for her acute ear and ability to capture the unique style of speech of the people of Radnorshire, as well as her insight into women’s daily lives.

In rural Radnorshire, the start of the twentieth century brings a new generation that clashes with the conservative traditionalism of an old way of life. Rhys Lloyd, with his ideal of Social Darwinism, is a dangerous figure in the village but his love for church-going Esther Bevan is deeper-rooted still. Esther suffers the casual brutality of her agricultural upbringing with an inner strength which is sorely tested by the trials of love and the land in which she lives. And in the later short story A Thing of Nought, also published in this edition, Vaughan returns hauntingly to the theme of lovers parted by the world, here miraculously joined in another.