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| "Cymru am byth" "Wales for ever" |
Let's talk about Wales.
I once spent about seven minutes in this country on a tour of Great Britain. The bus pulled in at what I remember to be little more than a rest stop, we all got out and said, "Wow! Wales!" We then proceeded to travel back across the border and on to Chester.
Book-wise, I have spent a bit more time in this country than I did on that one occasion.
In addition to recently reading The Cold Light of Mourning which takes place in North Wales, I recall three other books in which the country - land of rugby, two languages, and singer Sir Tom Jones - is a main character.
On my 2011 Books Read List is the delightful Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett. It tells the true story of her and husband Peter's restoration of a crumbling 16th century mansion, Gwydir Castle in Conwy, and their adventures in dealing with local workman, scurrying critters in the night, and even a ghost or two. They now offer the castle as a bed and breakfast.
Another non-fiction book is Jan Morris's A Writer's House in Wales in which she writes not only about her home, Trefyn Morys, which holds a sweet jumble of books and travel keepsakes, but also about the country - its culture, ways and, well, Welshness.
Finally, the wild and witty Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce which I wrote a little bit about here. The action in this novel concerns what happens when the National Gallery in London is flooded and its paintings are moved to an abandoned slate quarry mine in Manod for safe keeping. The story is told by nine-year-old Dylan Hughes and will have you laughing out loud. Just writing about it makes me want to reread the book.
As far as I know, those four books are the only Wales tales that I have read. Do you have any that come to mind?
