Library of Wales – serie

Harry Price has worked for years as a railway signalman in the Welsh border village of Glynmawr. Now he has had a stroke, and his son, Matthew, a lecturer at Oxford, returns to the close-knit community that he left. As Harry lies in silent pain in his cramped bedroom, Matthew experiences the jarring familiarity of the childhood world which, alienated, he can no longer re-enter. Struggling with the unspoken tensions and losses that returning home has provoked, he recalls what has made him who he is. Upstairs his deeply thoughtful father recalls his own arrival in the village, the relationships between men during the General Strike, and the social and personal changes that followed, and he struggles to articulate all that has been left unsaid. A beautiful and moving portrait of the love between a father and son, and of the strength and resilience of a small community, Border Countryis Raymond Williams' finest novel

The Voices of the Children is a delicate and heart-felt story of the golden, ephemeral, uncertain world of childhood. Set in a rural mining village in South Wales in the years leading up to the Second World War, George Ewart Evans has recreated a magical but alive world that will resonate with our memories, real and imagined, of childhood.'The hills were freedom, and the valley was the shop, milking the cow, errands, difficult customers, and, last of all, the new baby'“I hope you like it. Me, I loved it.” Gwyn Jones

Presents the story of Michael Caradock, a writer whose life has ended violently on an isolated Welsh island. This book follows his protected Welsh childhood, his crucial first encounters with sex, his literary success in London and his final withdrawal to Wales.

One of Merthyr’s Victorian brickyard girls, Saran watches the world parade past her doorstep on the banks of the stinking and rat-infested Morlais Brook: the fair-day revellers; the chapel-goers and the funeral processions. She never misses a trip to the town’s wooden theatres, despite her life ruled by the 5 a.m. hooter, pit strikes, politics and the First World War that takes away so many of her children. Her Glyn will work a treble shift for beer money; her brother Harry is the district’s most notorious drinker and fighter until he is ‘saved’. The town changes and grows but Saran is still there for Glyn, for Harry, for her children and grandchildren.In his 1935 novel Black Parade, writer, soldier and political activist Jack Jones creates a superbly riotous, clear and unsentimental picture of Merthyr life as his home town reels headlong into the twentieth century.

In Ron Berry's masterpiece, and kaleidoscopic history of the South Wales valleys, lovers Rees Stevens and Ellen Vaughan must discover and interpret Ellen's father's journal.

This is a limited hardback edition of Dannie Abse's classic memoir Goodbye Twentieth Century. Dannie Abse's rich mixture of Welsh and Jewish backgrounds, and his dual occupations of doctor and author, have led to what is widely regarded as one of the most readable, humorous and poignant autobiographies since the war.

The Water-castle is a journal of love, romance and discord in 1950s Germany as a Welsh artist and poet, Elizabeth Greatorex, travels with her French husband to meet her former lover Klaus, a German count. Elizabeth maps a frost- and snow-bound landscape of desire against the hardening borders of a newly divided Germany. In her revealing diary, she records her struggle to bridge the distance between Wales and Germany, East and West while considering her own mythologised past and real diminished present. Brenda Chamberlain’s writing pits creative idealism, emotional hunger and sexual longing against the brutal displacements of post-war Europe.

The first of Lewis Jones' two epic industrial novels of the 1930s. Big Jim, collier and ex-Boer War soldier, and his partner Siân endure the impact of strikes, riots and war, while their son Len emerges as a sharp thinker and dynamic political organiser. Cwmardy paints a graphic portrait of the casual exploitation, tragedy and violence as well as the political hope and humanity of South Wales industrial workers from the 1900s to the 1930s.

The second of Lewis Jones' two epic industrial novels of the 1930s.Len, son of Big Jim and dynamic political organiser, takes centre stage in Lewis Jones' sequel to Cwmardy. Along his journey, he is influenced by Mary, a teacher, and the Communist Party, which becomes central to his work both underground and in union politics, and to his decision to leave and fight in the Spanish Civil War.We Live paints a graphic portrait of the casual exploitation, tragedy and violence as well as the political hope and humanity of South Wales industrial workers from the 1900s to the 1930s.

A moving and revealing memoir of real life at the turn of the century, Young Emma is W. H. Davies's frank and honest account of the relationship with the woman he encountered on a London street corner who was to become his wife.

Arguably the greatest of all published memoirs of the Great War, Old Soldiers Never Die is Private Frank Richards' classic account of the war from the standpoint of the regular soldier, and a moving tribute to the army that died on the Western Front in 1914.

‘...a remarkable and fascinating account...’ --Phil Carradice, BBCFrom the author of the celebrated Great War memoir , Old Soldier Sahib is Frank Richards' account of his experiences as a private in the Royal Welch Fusiliers in India at the dawn of the 20th century.

These sharp, ironic and compelling stories are perfect hard gems of observationabout the truths of everyday life: kindness and friendship balance precariouslywith obsession and desire.

Widely acclaimed for its warm humour, lyricism and honesty, as well as its accurate evocation of the 30s, this has become a classic. In this autobiographical novel, Abse interweaves public and private themes, setting the fortunes of a Jewish family in Wales against the troubled backcloth of the times.

Sex, murder, and a devastating, humour mark these three novellas that Gwyn Thomas wrote in 1946. In Oscar, the narrator of death and exploitation fails to fend off the evil that envelops him. InSimeon, the abuse of sexual and family power ends with violent death, and in The Dark Philosophers itself, the grimly humorous philosophers gather in an Italian café to tell the tragic tale of revenge and manslaughter that they engineer.

Foreword by Kim HowellsPower and politics corrupt... this is the future.A worker is killed in the striking coalfields of south Wales. Some months later a government minister suspected of being connected with the death is shot.Lewis Redfern, once a radical, now a political analyst and journalist, pursues the killer, a lonely hunt that leads him through a maze of government leaks and international politics to a secret organisation: a source of insurrection far more powerful than anyone could have suspected – the world of the Volunteers.A compelling thriller, The Volunteers is also an engrossing reminder of the conflict between moral choice and political loyalty, for through his obsessive pursuit of justice Redfern finally encounters the truth about himself.‘Every reader of The Volunteers can testify to its power and pace as a detective thriller.’ Tony Pinkey

Written by miner, union organiser and activist Lewis Jones, Cwmardy is the story of Big Jim, collier and Boer war soldier and his wife Siân as they strive to wrest a decent life from dire conditions despite the exploitation of mine owners and the apathy of a distant and uncaring political class.In We Live, their son Len emerges as a sharp-thinker and dynamic political organiser. He is influenced by Mary, a teacher, and the politics of the Communist Party, which will become central to his work both underground and with the union. It will ultimately lead to his decision to leave and fight in the Spanish Civil War.Echoing the European classics of Zola and Maupassant, the lives of Big Jim, Siân, Len and Mary reflect the changing times of a turbulent world which will see them survive strikes, riots, and biting poverty while the dark shadows of a world war gather to offer an uncertain future.

Owen Morgan, an Oxford undergraduate, returns to his family home on the rural north coast of Wales for the summer. The world has changed for Morgan. He is a man coming to terms with himself. University has offered new experiences; desires he had suspected but never acted upon have become real. It was a crime against both the law and God. He asks for forgiveness each time. A month in the decadence of Weimar Germany has shocked and enthralled him. At home, his cousin Nest waits for him; patient, loving. Matthews will be waiting for him in college; impatient, demanding.

Set in the valleys of the Welsh iron country, this turbulent, unforgettable novel begins the saga of the Mortymer family. A family of hard men and beautiful women, all forced into a bitter struggle with their harsh environment, as they slave and starve for the cruel English ironmasters.But adversity could never still the free spirit of Wales, or quiet its soaring voice, and the Mortymers fight and sing and make love even as the iron foundries ravish their homeland and cripple their people.The Mortymer’s struggle has become emblematic of a nation’s history and struggle, it is a unique story of the people of Wales.

Incest, murder, delusion and a devastating, tragic humour mark these three novellas that Gwyn Thomas wrote in 1946. They are 'Oscar', 'Simeon', and 'The Dark Philosophers'. In this book the grimly humorous philosophers gather in an Italian cafe in the Terraces to tell the tragic tale of comeuppance and manslaughter that they engineer.

Home To An Empty House tells in Alun Richards' incisive style the story of a marriage that has long since lost its sparkle. Walter, the wisecracking paranoiac and Connie, teacher of the 'backward class', are a couple who know a lot about sex but little about each other.

Edwards was a graduate of University College, Cardiff and although spent time in Vienna, Florence and London this was her permanent home. Both Davies and Edwards were clearly influenced by Chekhov (Davies called him "my god") and the stories in "Rhapsody" are reminiscent of his work. This novel established his name as a young writer to watch.

A story of a group of friends as they edge towards adulthood in the sunshine and shadow of Llandudno during the years of the Second World War.

Foreword by adrian DannatA happiness drug is found to be intolerable to society. Howell Davies describes the process by which its disseminators are hounded to death.Starling knows a chemist called Roper, who knows a painter called Jourbert, who knows a man in Mexico who works for the government. Mescal has always had its routes into the world. There has been a new shipment, but not quite what anyone expected. This is a new drug. It opens the doors of perception for a man like Roper hiding away in his north London laboratory. He can make people work for him, turn his friends into fools or murderers, if only he could control his own mind.... Anita is such a beautiful woman but she could never love a man like Roper... Power, pleasure, always corrupt...

Beti, the beautiful daughter of a pub landlord, is pursued by two men: Llew, her aggressive, red-haired cousin, and Evan, the miller and would-be poet. She has to make a choice but it's not her future alone that depends on her decision. She and Tanygraig are positioned precariously on borders of class, nation, language, and changing times.

An artist at heart, Trystan Morgan grows up in his grandmother’s valley mining cottage, duty-bound by her deep wish for him to be a preacher. He comes from farming stock and longs to paint the Welsh countryside of his people. But he agrees to study at the city university although his adolescent mind revolts at the social posturing around him. Trystan’s journey through the conflicting cultural, social and political values of his country in the mid-twentieth century is bewildering but finally liberating. And through the glittering, crowded, kaleidoscopic images of this bravura novel, the author creates a rich impression of people and place; a Wales which is a landscape of the mind. Glyn Jones was one of the giants of twentieth-century Welsh writing whether as short story writer, critic or poet, and here in his remarkable novel of 1956, he creates a narrative of exceptional power that draws on all these gifts.