The Buzz...About Books

March 1st is St. David's Day, the patron saint of Wales.  St. David was a 6th century Welsh bishop who became a renowned teacher and founded several monastic settlements and churches.   Buried at St. David's Cathedral, his shrine became a popular pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages.

Books set in Wales:

The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
When nine-year-old Laddy Merridew is sent to live with his grandmother, he begins an unlikely friendship with Ianto, the town beggar-storyteller. Through Ianto's lively stories, Laddy learns about the collapse of the local coal mine decades earlier and how this disaster has echoed through generations in their town.

Resistance by Owen Sheers
In this alternative history, D-Day has failed and half of Britain is occupied by the Nazis.   Sarah wakes one morning to find that all the men from her remote Welsh village have disappeared.  Soon a German patrol arrives and Sarah learns that it is there to claim an extraordinary medieval art treasure that lies hidden in the valley.  As the pressure of the war beyond the valley presses in on this isolated community, the fragile state of harmony is increasingly threatened.

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
Esther Evans, who has lived her whole life within her remote mountain village, yearns for a taste of the wider world. Then, in the wake of D-day, the world comes to her in the form of a German POW camp set up on the outskirts of her village.  One evening, at the camp boundary, she meets Karsten Simmering, an eighteen year-old German corporal. These two young people from worlds apart will be drawn into a perilous romance that calls into question the meaning of love, family, loyalty, and national identity.

Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman.
Thirteenth century Wales is a divided country and threatened by England's King John.   Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures a truce by marrying John's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Although initially reluctant, Joanna slowly grows to love her husband.   When John's attentions turn again to subduing Wales, Joanna is repeatedly caught between her love for  her father and her loyalty to her husband.  This trilogy continues the story of Wales and England in Falls The Shadow and The Reckoning.  Highly recommeded to all historical fiction fans.  My all-time favourite series.

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
No list of Welsh novels is complete without Llewellyn's classic novel.  Growing up in a mining community in rural South Wales, Huw Morgan is taught many harsh lessons. Looking back, where difficult days are faced with courage and the valleys swell with the sound of Welsh voices, it becomes clear that there is nowhere so green as the landscape of his own memory.  In 1941, this book was made into a film starring Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pigeon.  It is also available in eAudiobook

Books by Welsh authors:

Patrick McGuinness  – The Last Hundred Days
Set in chaotic Bucharest in 1989, a young English student arrives to take up a job he never applied for and whose duties are never made clear. There he finds dissidents, party loyalists, black-marketeers, diplomats, spies and ordinary Romanians, all watching each other as Europe's most paranoid regime plays out its bloody endgame. Also available in eBook and eAudiobook. Winner of the Wales Book of the Year in 2012.

Joe Dunthorne – Wild Abandon
A darkly humourous story set in a dying Welsh commune.  Eleven-year-old Albert is a bit of an odd duck while his sister, Kate, flees the family dysfunction by running off with her boyfriend.  As their mother, Freya, has retreated to a mud-walled yurt, it is only Don, the misguided, egotistical father of the family and the original visionary for "the community," who feels compelled to give a last-ditch effort to save everything he believes in.  Nominated for the Wales Book of the Year in 2011.

Alastair Reynolds – Terminal World
Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. In contains a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different level of technology.  Following a mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito and working as a pathologist in the district morgue. When a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time.   Nominated for the Wales Book of the Year in 2010.  Also available in eAudiobook

Mari Strachan – The Earth Hums in B Flat 
A story of dark family secrets unraveled by the shrewd insight of 12-year-old Gwenni, a child with an irrepressible spirit who is living in a Welsh village that is reluctantly entering the modern age.  Also available in Large Print.

Dylan Thomas – A Child's Christmas in Wales
Originally written for BBC radio and broadcast in 1937.  In this story, the Welsh poet recalls the celebration of Christmas in Wales and the feelings it evoked in him as a child.

Non-Fiction books about Wales:

Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country by Jan Morris
Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country reflects the rich bilingual literature and folklore of Wales, the buildings and wonderfully varied landscapes, the national character and humour, the historical predicaments and the political condition of this small but extraordinary country.

The Story of Wales by Jon Gower
Covering from earliest settlements to the present day, The Story of Wales explores a country constantly on the move and connected with the wider world, and a people who have reacted with energy and invention to changing times and opportunities.

Wales, a History by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas
Wales is close to England geographically and politically, but it is also very diverse. To many, it is a mysterious country famed for its majestic mountains and essential industries, but about which they know relatively little.

Tales of the Mabinogion by Gwyn Thomas
A retelling of the four books of the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh medieval tales about the feats and exploits of legendary Welsh kings and princes.

Wales by Richard G Keen
In this book of photography, Richard Keen captures Wales  with intimate portraits of its cities and villages, its churches and chapels and its castles and forts, all set against a magnificent backdrop of lakes, mountains and valleys.