A volume of personal reminiscences of a rich childhood and youth in Llŷn by a writer and critic, scholar and educationalist, comprising a warm and sincere tribute to his home together with interesting comments on the history and landscape of the area.

Cyfrol o atgofion personol am brofiadau cyfoethog plentyndod a llencyndod yn Llŷn gan lenor a beirniad, ysgolhaig ac addysgwr, yn cynnwys teyrnged hynod gynnes a didwyll i fro mebyd ynghyd â sylwadau diddorol am hanes a thirwedd y fro.

Llŷn has inspired a number of creative writers over the years while the fascinating history of the region has also been well covered. This posthumous work is, in terms of genre, an extended essay running to over a hundred and fifty pages and the author is one of the most distinguished Welsh-language writers of the second half of the twentieth century. He died in 1999 and his widow, Sŵ, rightly describes the work as ‘a labour of love’.

The son of an Anglican cleric, Jones spent his childhood and youth in various parts of Llŷn and the book is a celebration of this unique part of Wales. Although the main focus is autobiographical, Jones skilfully weaves strands of legend, folklore and local history into his writing and the result is truly fascinating. We read of the churches and the clerics, the schoolteachers, farmers, fishermen and so many others. What struck this reader was the lack of any overt class consciousness.

I loved the vignettes of the famous Keating sisters of Plas-yn-Rhiw. When the author was a schoolboy, these fabulously rich Anglo-Irish upper-class spinsters `understood the basis of our summer freedom and summer joy’. For entirely different reasons, Jones was drawn to a local character named Griff. He taught the boy the best way to catch fish in a mountain stream or rabbits in the fields and clearly a feeling of affection developed between them.

Llŷn emerges as ‘not in any real sense a peninsula, but an island’. In terms of its singularity, one can see exactly what the author means and in this sense it is interesting to compare it with Anglesey.

One can only extend belated thanks for such a marvellous book about a part of Wales which is ‘a small testimony to the ultimate sanity of the universe’.

Dewi Roberts

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 ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.