|
Dr William Evans published his grandfather's Diary of a Welsh Swagman in 1975, but his book covered only the years the 'swagman', Joseph Jenkins, spent in Australia, and in his introduction, while praising his grandfather's many talents, Dr Evans glossed over the personal faults which led to Joseph's solitary emigration and attached any blame solely to his grandmother.
Readers will find a rather different, though sympathetic, portrait in Bethan Phillips' excellent biography, fifteen years in preparation, which has drawn on all Joseph's surviving diaries. A melancholy and introspective man, he called his diary 'this long lonely affair with myself' and considered he was 'doomed' from his birth in 1818, at Blaenplwyf near Talsarn. He kept his diaries and notebooks as a 'monument' to his life, from 1839 until his death in 1898.
While Dr Evans allowed the diarist 'to speak for himself', Bethan Phillips, although she frequently draws from the diaries, has amplified the background in Cardiganshire and also in Australia, where she has followed Joseph's wanderings. By including quotations from the Wales-based diaries, she has given an invaluable picture of rural life in Cardiganshire in the middle of the nineteenth century', which was often harrowing, as the poor died like the proverbial flies, especially in the harsh January and February of 1845. The many funerals were attended in blizzards and freezing sleet, as neighbours like Joseph strove to maintain the traditional forms of respect. Bethan Phillips quotes the Medical Officer's report of the time, for example: 'Nothing but the sternest frugality can ever hope to find gain.'
Joseph was a clever man and his home after he married, Trecefel, Tregaron, was judged the best farm in Cardiganshire in 1857, but it was nevertheless a constant struggle to make it pay. However, as Bethan Phillips demonstrates, it was not this struggle that drove Joseph literally to run away without a word to his family, but the fearful discord his heavy drinking had created. And yet, one has to admire the sheer guts of the cantankerous old man in his far harder time as a swagman.
Bethan Phillips is to be congratulated on another fine biography.
Susan Passmore
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
|
