Emyr Humphreys – författare

Emyr Humphreys, poet, novelist, short-story writer and dramatist, is one of the foremost literary figures in Wales. For over 40 years he has interpreted the world of Welsh-speaking Wales, sympathetically but without sentiment.

This story of a child named Amy Parry follows her on a journey to maturity, when she will savour to the full the subtle flavours and rich textures of a way of life that has now all but vanished from the Principality of Wales.

This novel follows Flesh and Blood in the Amy Parry narrative sequence. Amy and Enid go together to university, where the former takes a leading part in the Nationalist campaign against Anglicization. Later Enid pairs off with John Cilydd More, a young solicitor who is also a poet, and Amy with Val Gwyn, an idealistic student leader. But Val dies of tuberculosis and Amy, in the post university world, falls prey to Pen Lewis, Communist and opportunist; Enid also dies. In this section of the narrative Amy loses her way: the props provided by other people's ideals and visions of society (the Communist one proving to be just another exploitation of women) having been removed she is empty of purpose.

Perhaps the key word of the 1930s was 'crisis'. The comfortable world of a bourgeois world had been declared shattered for ever by the Great War: and yet, between recurrent nightmares and dark forebodings for the future, every family continued its individual pursuit of an odd variety of bluebirds of happiness. The Prydderch family for instance, devoted to education and getting on, were very cross when Enid, their youngest and brightest, sacrificed her own promising career in order to marry John Cilydd More, a country solicitor, whom she believes to be a poet of great potential. Now she is pregant. Her aunt Sali Prydderch, particularly yearns for a reconciliation. She approaches Amy Parry, Enid's best friend who is now a County School teacher in the same North Wales seaside town. Salt of the Earth is the third in a sequence of novels which began with Flesh and Blood and The Best of Friends - a sequence which when completed, will have described the processes of growth, change and decay which have made Wales what it is today.

Amy Parry is bereft of her best friend who died in childbirth, unable to marry Val Gwyn who is seriously ill with TB, and determined not to choose poverty and struggle with her former lover Pen Lewis. So she marries John Cilydd More, but her peace is soon shattered by strikes and then Pen returns.

In this novel, Peredur defies both his mother's hostility and his brothers' lack of concern to seek out the truth of his father's death and to take part in a protest against the 1969 Investiture that goes violently wrong. Only at the end when Amy Parry faces death can reconciliation be achieved.

The 5th in a series, this work conveys the conflicts and passions of a small group of individuals in Wales, weighing them against the turmoil caused by war and its effects on a significantly changing Britain.

In National Winner, the sixth novel in the Land of the Living sequence, Amy Parry appears to have reached a summit of affluence and influence. As Lady Brangor, the widow of her third husband, she plans to create a cultural centre for women at Brangor Hall. These ambitious plans are impeded by the obsession of her youngest son, Peredur, with the mysterious death of his father, John Cilydd More, Amy's first husband, the poet and National Winner of the title. Her devoted stepson, Bedwyr, and her other son Gwydion, each with his own agenda and concerns, are also resistant to Amy's enthusiasms and practised charm. This is a family that has emerged from a tightly knit and recognisable society: each now in his or her own way, in spite of obstacles, seeks a path to fulfilment in a post-war period of unprecedented change.

This volume offers a section of the most important essays published by Emyr Humphreys over a 30-year period. The essays are prefaced by a series of discusssions which explore some of the intellectual concerns and motifs that have recurred throughout Humphreys' work.

Shards of Light is a collection of previously unpublished poems by Emyr Humphreys. Now in his hundredth year, he has been described as Wales's foremost novelist of his generation. This newly discovered collection of poems has all the sharpness and incisiveness of thought as if they had been written today. Humphreys scrutinises life with a wry humour, coloured by the experience of his great longevity and grounded in Wales. With a sharpness of thought and a sparseness and frugality of expression - a hallmark of his work - the poems contain a profundity which challenges us to think more deeply about the nature of our being. They fearlessly ask difficult questions of ourselves as to the nature of being within the vastness of creation. The subjects are as varied as is man's experience, from the vastness of time, space and God's power, to musings on everyday life leading to old age. Ultimately the reader will find the experience entertaining yet deeply felt, satisfying and rewarding.

Winner of the Hawthornden Prize A Toy Epic is the story of three boys moving towards the threshold of adult life in the Thirties. From differing backgrounds, their lives cross and touch until they become firm friends. Each of them, Michael, Albie and Iorwerth, take up the story in turn, creating their own particular world and contributing to the composite picture of 'one of the four comers of Wales'.Emyr Humphreys has written a challenging novel of childhood and of Wales in the 1930s. First published in 1958, A Toy Epic is now viewed as a classic of writing from Wales. This new edition is introduced by M. Wynn Thomas, and includes an Afterword and a fragment from an earlier version of the novel."It has strength and beauty many more experienced writers might envy... the sense of youth is beautifully conveyed. One feels the strange mixture of nostalgia and fear that remembered boyhood rouses"Daily Telegraph"Emyr Humphreys has expanded his powers and strikes a new note, evocatory and lyrical. His characters are sharp and clear, more than this they change and grow, revealing new aspects, new 'characters' that strike themselves and us with an echoing surprise"The Sunday Times"Beautifully conceived and written"The Observer"Emyr Humphreys is one of the most masterful yet natural-seeming authors of fiction in these islands today"The ScotsmanEmyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.

Spanning the twentieth century, Outside the House of Baal is the story of the conflict between public duty and personal love. In the course of a day J.T. Miles looks back over his life, a "Good Man" confronted by the choices of living. He is forced to contemplate the modern world (of which he feels no part) and his betrayal of his Welsh-speaking heritage; the unsuitability of his marriage and his relationship with the woman who now shares his house; his self-defined mission to bring about social change and his own inability to pass on love. It has been a life of drama, and defeat; a life which mirrors the fate of his country in the twentieth century.This classic novel has been completely revised for this edition, which includes an introduction by the author, and notes on the text."In a phrase or two Mr Humphreys's people are solid and present. If novels are about the human heart then this is an impressively central one"The Sunday Telegraph"One of the most gifted of novelists. He has an instinctive sense of the ways in which men and women are shaped by their environment, an eye for the incident that reveals character, a deep feeling for the poetry which is a part of everyday life, the sharp and loving clarity of some Dutch master"Goronwy Rees

In the months between May and August 1945 the world is both winding down and changing forever. The European war over, Britain looks to the future and prepares for a general election. Unknown to all but a few, life is about to be pitched into the atomic age.Unconditional Surrender charts these changes though two voices, the rector of a rural parish in north Wales, and a mysterious German countess housed under his care as a displaced person. At the centre of their attention is Meg, the rector's daughter, and her increasingly fraught relationships with a conscientious objector and a young prisoner-of-war held nearby. The results of these relationships are as momentous, in their way, as the bombing of Hiroshima.Unconditional Surrender sets young against old, local against international, and follows the changing social mores of a unique period in history. Fascinating in its characterisation and scope, beautifully executed, this is Emyr Humphreys at his best.Emyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.

The Gift of a Daughter is a novel of delusion and self-knowledge, tradition and change, loss and identity in which the pace, plotting, characterisation and dialogue are as faultless as we expect from a writer of Emyr Humphreys's experience and skill.Archaeology lecturer Aled Morgan and his wife Marian flee to Tuscany, and the home of old friends, to escape a family tragedy. Yet even immersed in Etruscan culture, Aled finds that friendships aren't all they seem, and that his wife has become almost a stranger to him. In fact he isn't even sure he knows himself any more. By the time he returns to his once idyllic home in Anglesey, Aled is sadder and more experienced but in many ways no wiser. In charting Aled's journey of spiritual discovery, Emyr Humphreys has once again written an engrossing novel of the human condition.Emyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.

Ghosts and Strangers is an exquisite exploration of relationships. Wives and husbands, parents and children, lovers past and present, test and confirm the notion of love, the ingredient in life for which we all look. As the characters dance around each other, in France, Italy and Wales, Emyr Humphreys shows his considerable skills and draws on his long experience to produce subtle and intriguing fiction of the highest order.Emyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.

Eddie Lloyd, troubled son of the famous Welsh actor Orlando Lloyd is introduced to ambitious film-maker Bethan Mair Nichols, and immediately finds himself captivated by the intense young woman. It transpires that Bethan's Great Aunt Sulwen has left her a derelict shop in rural Wales. As the novel and their relationship progresses, Bethan's legacy becomes increasingly contentious, until a brutal assault allows the couple to reassess their fraught relationship.The Shop is a work of immense richness and sophistication; compassionate, deeply intelligent and engaging, it is a novel about the power exerted over our lives by our ancestral and cultural heritage, about the impact which the ghosts of the past have upon the present."The Shop is a graphic example of the critical intelligence and compassion the novelist brings to his examination of our human dilemmas. His work has become a touchstone against which we can measure our civilisation."Western Mail Magazine – Bookcase feature by Mario Baisni "There is more than enough here to declare Humphreys an author of great humanity: wise in the ways of men and women; strong and subtle in the expression of them."Colin Greenland, Saturday Guardian"Humphreys stands at the height of his powers."The Guardian"One of our most distinguished novelists" The Independent on SundayEmyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.

Emyr Humphreys is a major figure in twentieth-century writing and The Woman at the Window is an immensely enjoyable and impressive addition to his outstanding list of award-winning novels and short stories.From the widow alone in the rectory drawing room to views across the sunny expanses of post-war Europe, celebrated writer Emyr Humphreys offers this urbane, mature collection.His protagonists look back over the patterns of their lives and forward too, for the chance to untangle family relationships, rekindle lost loves, or find a home for themselves in familiar yet fresh surroundings."A Welsh writer of European stature, Emyr Humphreys is at the height of his powers. Like Sandor Marai, he is a lord of irony, whose wry, sage wit and eagle eyesight capture a panorama of the twentieth century, with its fratricidal wars and struggling ideals, in a richly epigrammatic English. And on the human level, this volume speaks, through its cast of fascinating characters, intimately to the reader's heart." Stevie Davies Emyr Humphreys is the author of twenty novels in English and Welsh, and has also published collections of stories and poetry. He has written screenplays and adapted other works for television and radio, in addition to producing and directing in both of those media. His novels have won the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, Hawthornden and other prizes.