A collection of witty, sharply observed short stories which engage with feminism, the 'fast' New Women of the 1890s, alongside narratives which explore the personal and emotional conflict experienced by people torn between multiple ethnicities or between different social and national groups.

Casgliad o straeon byrion craff a chlyfar sy'n ymwneud â ffeministiaeth, 'Benywod Newydd' y 1890au, ynghyd â straeon sy'n bwrw golwg ar wrthdaro personol ac emosiynol yn ymwnued â materion hil, hunaniaeth genedlaethol a grwpiau cymdeithasol gwahanol.

Bertha Thomas (1845–1918) was a popular novelist, essayist and short story writer between the 1870s and 1912 when her last book, Picture Tales from the Welsh Hills, was published, but her work had fallen out of print until Honno rediscovered her short stories.

Although never living in Wales, Bertha Thomas used her father's Carmarthenshire background for many of these stories and shows an easy familiarity with the styles of life of both minor gentry and their rural tenants. Although aware of the mutual mistrust (and some of the faults on both sides) she writes with insight and sympathy for both English and Welsh characters. Her narrators are sometimes (like herself and her audience) modern metropolitans, but she conveys the impressive qualities of those whom her readers might expect to mock or even despise.

The title of her final collection presumably alluded to Kipling's Plain Tales From The Hills and, despite obvious differences, it was of Kipling I was reminded when reading this collection. Both authors have a talent for depicting the problems and subtleties of relationships for those who move between two cultures. ‘The Castle of Sleep’ reveals in Bertha a similar sense of history pervading a landscape in which Kipling excelled. Both like to hint at the gothic or supernatural while conveying detailed physical reality and sometimes an earthy humour. In the words of Zebedee, Bertha Thomas perhaps revealed more awareness of the disasters to come than many of her contemporaries had. This edition could benefit from better proof-reading and I was not convinced that placing the three earliest works at the end was correct but they were an important aspect of Bertha's work. She was a champion of women's rights, suffrage and education. Her Swiftian satire 'from the planet Venus' was influential but in ‘My Friend Kitty’ she ironically depicts the predicament of a similarly satirical authoress whose wit cost her a lover!

This interesting collection presents Bertha Thomas as a complex, perceptive and unjustly neglected writer in whom there may well be more to rediscover.

Caroline Clark

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment 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.