A new edition of Caradoc Evans's collection of short stories portraying rural life in West Wales at the turn of the last century. Originally published in 1915, this edition first published in 1987.

Argraffiad newydd o storïau enwog Caradoc Evans am fywyd yn ardal Rhydlewis. Cyhoeddwyd yn wreiddiol ym 1915, a chyhoeddwyd yr argraffiad hwn gyntaf ym 1987.

This book comprises a biographical introduction by John Harris entitled ‘The Banned, Burned Book of War’ including six pictures of the author and the district in which he grew up; fifteen short stories by Caradoc Evans (1878-1945) originally published in 1915 under the title My People, and a short bibliography.

In the 1940s, as a young visitor to the district in West Wales where the stories are based, I quickly realised that the name ‘Caradoc Evans’ was anathema to my relatives and friends there. Although a quarter of a century had passed since My People had been published, no-one would discuss why he was so disliked or would refer in any way to his stories. I became very curious, but it was not until I had the opportunity to read this new edition of My People, published in the Seren Classics series, that I was able to judge for myself.

The introduction gives a clear and detailed account of Evans’s harsh upbringing. The fourth of five children, his father died when he was four, and the family lived in poverty on a smallholding during his childhood. As a young man he became a draper in South Wales and moved to London in 1899. There he discovered books and reading and started to write sketches for various popular literary papers. He never forgot the austerity of his childhood or, as he saw it, the hypocrisy, bigotry and injustice he witnessed in the community in which he lived. He told his first publisher ‘. . . it is the ugly side of Welsh peasant life that I know most about’. His stories reflect this and are not light reading. They are written in a way that suggests a direct translation from Welsh which adds to the interest because it gives an insight into the idioms and syntax of colloquial Welsh at that time.

The stories are very short and deal with dark family relationships, and community life centred around the farms and chapel in an isolated, close Welsh neighbourhood at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. The titles are especially intriguing – ‘A Heifer Without Blemish’, ‘The Woman who Sowed Iniquity’, ‘A Just Man in Sodom’ etc. but the stories are too bitter and dismal to be enjoyable. They are very well written and easy to read, but left me with a feeling of sadness that a man should have had such an experience of childhood as to equip him to write in such vitriolic terms about his own people.

Beryl Thomas

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 ai www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.