Rape of the Fair Country

Mortymer Trilogy #1

by Alexander Cordell

Set in the turbulent times of the Industrial Revolution in 19th century Wales, this famous novel begins the story of the Mortymer family and the ironmaking communities of Blaenavon and Nantyglo.

It is the book which launched Alexander Cordell in 1959 as a best selling author and was translated into numerous languages to sell millions of copies throughout the world. It is an enthralling story which has now been turned into both play and musical and is regarded as the finest of this popular author’s many novels.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Novels, Book Club, Historical, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Anglo-Welsh writer born to an army family in what was then Ceylon.

After retiring from the army he adopted Wales as home and began to write of the country and its history. His first, and best-known novel, the Rape of the Fair Country (first in the Mortymer Trilogy) was a million selling best-seller in its day.

Reviews

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK...

This was a re-read for me from my teenage years. It’s been looking at me from its shelf for a long time, and it struck me it would be a good lead-in to my Welsh course (starting next week!). Alexander Cordell is a celebrated Welsh author, writing in English, as Welsh had largely gone from South Wales at the time, but this book has been described as a “pot-boiler”, by at least one renowned literary critic of my acquaintance! If you want to suck as if from your mother’s breast the early industrial history of South Wales, then this is the book for you. It deals with the conditions of iron workers in the first half of the nineteenth century. The famous “How Green Was My Valley” (which makes me cry every time I read it) deals with coal mining, at a later period, the second half of the nineteenth century. It’s gentler and more romanticised than the Alexander Cordell, which has a lot more fighting and general earthiness in it. Conditions for the poor were of course harder during the period in which “Rape of the Fair Country” was set. I was going to say, “indescribably harder” but, no, Alexander Cordell describes them in intense detail. The book tells largely of the progress of the protagonist, Iestyn Mortymer, from dutiful son of a respectable and law-abiding family in the village of Garndyrus to become a Unionist and then a Chartist, following Zephaniah Williams. With my background as the daughter of a Union leader and granddaughter of a South Wales coal miner, this was right up my street.
Except that this time round, unusually for me after reading historical fiction, I tried to look up different accounts of the period. I knew, from having grown up in Wales as a young child, and from the early death of my grandfather, that a lot of what Alexander Cordell wrote was absolutely authentic, but it was so uniformly terrible that I felt the need to check out, if possible, the degree to which it was a subjective and emotive account.
One of the villains of the book is the Ironmaster of Merthyr Tydfil by the River Taff, William Crawshay. Here is an excerpt from the book: an old man, an iron “puddler”, blind, is dying by the roadside.

“Have you seen the iron of Cyfarthfa, then?” he asked, struggling up. “Have you even heard of Merthyr, that is dying under Crawshay? Have you heard of Crawshay, even?”
“Yes”, I said.
“Yes, indeed! You cheeky hobbledehoy! And Bacon the Pig before the Crawshays? God alive, we thought him bad enough. What right have you to march for freedom, Garndyrus, if you have not worked the firebox under Bacon and Crawshay? Tell me, have you seen Cyfarthfa by night even?”
“From the belly of my mother,” I said, talking the old language to please him. “She was born in Cyfarthfa long before Bacon puddled a furnace.”
“Well!” said he.
“Can you walk?” I asked him.
“I have walked from Merthyr hand in hand with St Tydfil,” he said. “I have been splashed eight times and blinded, but the saint led me across The Top to the great Zephaniah Williams, for I put no trust in our mad Dr. Price. I put my trust in no man but Williams, whom I once saw spit at the feet of Robert Crawshay, who starved us.”
The column was thinning, the marching song of the Chartists growing weaker.
“He will starve you no more,” I said. “Can you stand, old man?”
But he was still. Quite still he lay in the fading light of the torches, and his hands were frozen to the musket he held.

So I looked up the Crawshays, and hit upon this little gem:
“When we refer to William Crawshay of Merthyr Tydfil we allude to a man who has done more for Glamorganshire, and perhaps for South Wales, than any other living individual. He was one of the few remarkable men who can give a character to a country and a tone to an age. In the extent of his speculations and unbounded enterprise, we cannot name another Cambrian who has done so much and so well or the Principality of Wales.”
This seems to have come from The Crawshay’s of Cyfarthfa Castle, by Margaret Stewart Taylor. The other source referred to is The History of the Iron, Steel, Tinplate and other Trades of Wales, by Charles Wilkins 1903.
http://cynonculture.co.uk/wordpress/m...

So is it just a question of perspective? Of social attitudes to the poor? Wikipedia includes this:
“The failure of the works (in 1919) was a devastating blow to the local community, as it had depended heavily on the works for its economic livelihood.”
Cordell is at pains to point out through the mouths of his Chartist characters that the appalling conditions the workers endured were not confined to South Wales. He is not, however, interested in giving a social or economic overview, but simply in portraying the price paid by the people of Wales. This short passage, for me, was the most moving:

“What a land it is, this Wales! And of all its villages Llanelen is surely the best. The river is milk here, the country is honey, the mountains are crisp brown loaves hot from the baker’s oven one moment and green or golden glory the next. Beauty lies here by the singing river where the otters bark and the salmon leap, and I wish to God the English had stayed in England and ripped their own fields and burst their own mountains.”

Maybe it is a potboiler. But it doesn’t have the ending you might expect from a potboiler (I don't know if this book continues into the next part of the trilogy) and the language of it is wonderful, full of the music of the Welsh. I find I have been slipping into my childhood speech mannerisms after reading it! And its message of the need for collective bargaining in the face of capitalism is as relevant today as in the past. Add to that now the physical destruction of South Wales, and this book has an eternal message. I grew up beside a brown, dead River Taff, and now, from what I see on television, it runs clear again, and can again be fished. The fictional characters of this book had their real counterparts, and what they contributed to our world should not be forgotten.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many books will provide a greater understanding of Wales and its people.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

After attending a recent family funeral and listening to the stories of my ancestors' lives in Wales in the late 19th/ early 20th century, I was keen to read some Welsh literature and make sense of the changes possible in three generations. I got my hands on as many classic Welsh books as I could and I think this was the best. It had something of Dylan Thomas' language and captured the political awakening of the characters of the time.

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[E Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d heard a lot about this book, because 1) it’s a compassionate narrative of the injustices of industrial Wales from an author with an English background; and 2) it doesn't shy away from the brutality of industrial life in Wales. There are some books that I want to dislike and end up thoroughly enjoying, and others that I want to enjoy and end up thoroughly disliking. Unfortunately this book falls into the second category.

The book centres around Iestyn Mortymer, growing up as a child labourer in the mines of the south Wales valleys - fighting, drinking, seducing and struggling under the watchful eye of his strict Calvinistic father. The attitude of “Dada” Hywel is played off against Iestyn’s older sister Morfydd, who clearly represents the reformist views which would come to prominence in industrial Wales. Those who accept their fates versus those who strive for more is always a compelling theme. The sights and sounds of his upbringing are well detailed as he tries to steer himself through this harsh life. Maybe it is because it is coming from the perspective of a young hot-blooded Iestyn, but it seems like every introduction of a female character begins with a description of her breasts and what they are doing (e.g. quivering, bouncing) which is always a bit weird if a woman isn't moving.

I also take umbrage with some of the historical liberties. In an early part of the book, Dafydd Phillips From Bangor is mocked by the Mortymer family for his poorly spoken English. Wales was overwhelmingly Welsh-speaking in the 1820s and 1830s. In fact, Herefordshire and Shropshire were Welsh-speaking in the 1820s and 1830s! Apart from a few fringes, Wales was overwhelmingly Welsh speaking until the early 20th century, especially the Valleys. The whole book should have been written in Welsh with a Glamorgan dialect, for it to make more sense. On the point of language, the Valleys Wenglish feels affected and unnatural. A lot of the vocabulary is correct, but over the top, of the whole “look you boyo” caricature variety. The family sitting down to listen to the harp being played by the matriarch in the evening (did every family have a harp?) felt like a very twee “How Green Was My Valley?” variety of Welshness. I had hoped this novel would be the antithetical gritty version of that tiresome book.

There are a lot of mentions of the ubiquitous Irish families in the towns and working in the mines. It’s true, there was a lot of Irish immigration to south Wales, but this wasn't in full swing until a few decades later (think Great Famine). In the 1820s most of the “strangers” to industrial Glamorgan and Gwent were from rural Wales (mostly Carmarthenshire, rural Glamorgan) and borderers from England (Herefordshire, Gloucestershire) which as border folks tend to be, were already very intermixed with the Welsh.

There were elements I did enjoy in the latter half of the book. The book does well to capture the community control of the Scotch Cattle and the excitement surrounding the growing Chartist movement. Zephaniah Williams and John Frost were and are giants of the working class campaign for universal (male) suffrage, political transparency and fairness for all. Industrially it was volatile moment in Welsh history and radical politics and protest came to the fore against shameful exploitation and destruction, there were even whispers of a Welsh Republic.

The cover of the Pan edition (which does not have an ISBN) which I bought makes it look like a Mills and Boon romantic novel, which is a bit weird because the book has rape in the title and every other page is a iron foundry punch up. Back to the charity shop with you! Diawl!

[Nansi Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unsure how it took me so long to read this Welsh classic. Essential to anyone wanting to understand the brutal landscape of Wales in the 19th century and fascinating to reflect upon in a time of great political change. However, also essential as a beautiful, raw, lyrical, yet savage piece of writing. Cofiwch Dryweryn.

[Eirwen Abberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will hold a special place in my heart as a classic of Welsh history and culture, specifically mining, exploitation and uprising. It made me smile and cry, and it warmed me inside ❤️ thoroughly enjoyed

[Emilee Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is much of a man in a pig and more of a swine in a man, and who are we to pass sentence over one who eats from soil while we have teeth and nails to tear with?"

This book is absolutely essential reading !!!

[Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insight into the struggles of my Welsh ancestors.

[Jonathan Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb.

Essential reading.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It is dying, this...not living."

[Peter R Wetton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing and very moving book, especially for folks from S. Wales.

[Lauri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poeetiline ülimasendav naturalistlik-realistlik pilguheit 19. sajandi esimese poole Walesi rauasulatustööstusesse, ehk siis Inglise industrialismi sünnivaludele. Neidsamu sünnivalusid jälgitakse läbi Mortymeride perekonna suht traagilise käekäigu. Ehedat autentsust lisavad walesikeelsed väljendid ja mõningad tavad. Eks see raamat vene ajal 1964. aastal ilmuski kuna teda saab ka kirjeldada kui "tööliste võitlust kapitalistlike ekspluataatorite vastu" ja eks pidanud marksismi klassikud tšartiste miskiteks eel-revolutsionäärideks niikuinii, kahe silma vahele on aga jäänud täiesti keltidest waleslaste suht vabad abielueelsed suguelukombed ja julmad kaklused millega nad omavahel tülisid lahendasid, samuti walesi tööliste suht vankumatu ja konservatiivne usklikkus. Olles seda raamatut lugenud vähemalt 10 korda on mind alati siiski haaranud äärmine poeetiline traagika, mis tegelastele osaks saab, samuti walesi looduse ülistus.
Tegemist on triloogia esimese osaga, teised kaks osa pole eesti keeles ilmunud ja panevad huvilise originaalide poole kiikama. Teises osas Hosts of Rebecca saab lugeja loodetavasti teada, mis Iestyn Mortimerist sai, peategelane on tema noorem vend Jethro ja samuti õde Morfydd.

[John Dare · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child of the Welsh Valleys this book sings to me. I originally read this book in the late 1960s as a teenager and it helped form many of my political views. I recently read it again and was still totally engrossed in it. A great read.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in a trilogy with Hosts of Rebecca and Song of the Earth. Loved the whole thing. Spoke to me as wife of a Welshman. Great historical novels

[Graham Monkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Rape Of The Fair Country’ is a dramatic account of the industrial revolution in the raw. It is set in the early years of the nineteenth century, when that turbulent and cruel period in British history was in full flight - destroying the countryside and creating dreadful sufferings for the working population – whose former gentle life in green fields was replaced by brutal labour in quarries, factories, coal mines and ironworks.

‘Rape of the Fair Country ’is about the Mortymer family, who live in the Welsh valleys and toil in both of the latter industries. The story is narrated by one of the sons, Iestyn Mortymer, as he grows up in a village in South Wales – where the workers are at the mercy of callous and greedy coal owners and iron masters – who not only offer pitifully low wages but also control the shops for the workers, in which they regularly put up prices. It is clearly a toxic recipe for anger and unrest.

Two of the women in the story – Iestyn’s sister Morfydd and the girl he eventually marries, Mari Dirion– work in the mines crawling on all fours dragging coal tubs. When Mari become pregnant she stays in the job, and Morfydd observes:

‘Six shillings a week she earns on the trams like an animal, too big round the waist for the towing belt. In less than four months she will drop it in coal dust’.

And Mrs Mortymer observes: ‘Half the population of Wales is born underground these days.’

Conditions in the ironworks are equally appalling – many of the puddlers end up either blind or being ‘splashed’ by the molten metal. Iestyn’s father dies as a result of an explosion, and his brother Jethro is also ‘splashed’ and badly injured.

The drive for safer conditions and better wages is spearheaded by the ‘Chartists’ – a working class movement for political reform in Britain which was active from 1838 to 1857. It represented a national protest and was particularly strong in Northern England, the Staffordshire Potteries, the Black Country and the South Wales valleys. While the Chartists saw their cause as a fight against political corruption, they also attracted support from economic reformers who opposed wage cuts and unemployment.

Iestyn’s father initially opposes the Chartist movement on the grounds that it identifies violence as a necessary vehicle to achieve its objectives. His anti violence posture makes him a high profile target for the ‘Scotch Cattle’ – a name taken by bands of vicious coal miners who attack anybody who either opposes a strike or cooperates with employers – by ransacking their property and conducting merciless floggings. Mr Mortymer is subjected to both before his untimely death in the ironworks.

Violence in fact has a strong presence throughout the entire novel. Iestyn himself is involved in many fights, and tragedy strikes the family again when Iestyn’s sister Edwina is murdered and Morfydd’s fiancé, Richard, is killed in a riot. The Chartists’ commitment to violence is confirmed on the night of 3-4 November 1839 when support for the movement is at its highest. Several thousand marchers, including Iestyn Mortymer, go to the Westgate Hotel in Newport, expecting to seize the town and trigger a national uprising.

But the hotel is occupied by armed soldiers and their superior firepower forces the Chartists to retreat, with twenty of their number killed and at least another fifty wounded. It is a disaster for the movement, and it is not clear what happens to Iestyn Mortymer – but his likely fate may well have been the same as top Newport leaders like John Frost and Zephaniah Williams, both of whom are transported to Tasmania. Others receive lengthy prison sentences with hard labour. Alexander Cordell clearly put in a lot of research into Chartism to write this book and his in depth knowledge of the history of the movement can be found in every chapter. Aside from the general reader, it should also be on the shelves of every student of English and Welsh social and economic history.

Although the story exudes violence, the exploitation of a downtrodden workforce, sadistic floggings and bestial behaviour, it has its gentler and romantic moments. When Iestyn falls in love with his lovely Irish girl, Mari, there are delightful passages describing their courtship amongst the parts of the Usk valley which have yet to be destroyed by coal mines and ironworks.

Powerful and imaginative, ‘Rape of the Fair Country is written with great sensitivity, and a finely tuned awareness of the period in which it takes place. The industrial revolution in the raw may be a frightening read, but it is also an enthralling one.

[Bethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books that remind you what a book, or any story, can do. Rape of the Fair Country was one of those for me. The best way I can describe it is incredibly rich: everything this book does, it does so fully. Every emotion in this book is all-encompassing - anger, hatred, lust, grief, hilarity.

I'm quite ashamed of how little I know of Welsh history, considering I am Welsh, and I went into this book knowing it would be a learning experience for me. It was, and Cordell's beautiful, lyrical writing brings to life the gorgeous and brutal 1800s Wales in which this book takes place. He has a brilliant talent for controlling the camera angle from which we read: sometimes the reader is up close, studying a character's wrinkles; sometimes we are panning across jagged black landscapes, looking down at sunken pits where families of workers blacklisted after strikes live in filth, having been chucked out by their landlords. He captures the Welsh humour perfectly too - the chapter where Iolo Milk delivers a very well-used double bed to the Mortymer family was a stand-out. Cordell also demonstrates how central Christianity was to Welsh culture at the time, acting as the basis for social hierarchies and judgement, as a topic of inter-family conflict in the Mortymer home, and as a source of comfort in horrendous times.

A lot of books with a political message don't particularly flesh out their characters. This book isn't one of those. Every character felt real to me, each with their own strong emotions and opinions, each having their own relationship with the community to which they belong. Morfydd, our protagonist Iestyn's older sister, was a particular standout. Odd passages about breasts aside, I did feel like the women in this book were particularly fleshed out (no pun intended). In a book set in the 19th century and published in 1959 it was refreshing to see a female character drive the politics of the earlier sections of the book, and the importance of politics in women's lives was a thread which ran throughout.

I have way too many favourite quotes from this book but here are some highlights:

“‘You will sleep with him one day, remember. Eton or not, a husband expects more from a wife than cooking and cleaning.’
‘Whee, there is terrible!’ said Edwina, and she turned and squeezed herself like a tap-room barmaid. "And you not married, either! How do you know what a husband expects?’
‘Oi, oi,’ whispered Morfydd. ‘It is amazing what some girls know, even if they have not been to an altar, but do not get me on my favourite subject or I will talk all night.’”

“‘Lend me sixpence, then.’
‘Not if it is for whoring.’
‘Sixpence more and I can go on the ships.’
‘Threepence to go on ships—there is the notice.’
‘Bloody old skinflint.’”

“‘It is time somebody spoke the truth for it has been whispered around corners far too much in Wales. There is too much spouting in private and too little action in public, which is a shame to a country that gave birth to Owen Glyndwr. There is too much self-pity, too, if nobody minds me saying it— you are not the only ones exploited by my countrymen. Slaves are still being sold in Bristol by men who go on their knees in church.’”

“Strange that a thing alive is acceptable and when dead horrible.”

“Strange and wonderful is the first loving.
The blood runs hot with the kiss, hammering on the heart with quickening beats, forging muscles to steel in a riot of manhood as yet undiscovered. Trembling are the fingers that twist and seek, searching warm places blindly in darkness, and, finding, grip to hurt. There is no pity for the captive then. The pain is deep under a rush of breathing as the lancing steel is poised. Pennants fly, forests rise and swords go reaping in satanic joy. The back is bent in the bowman's hands and the arrows fly, plunging to wound, rending, as befits a conqueror. The tongue is noble then, the breathing is a sigh.
All in hours, all in seconds.”

“‘It has taken me twenty years of loyalty to learn that they make profits out of peace.’”

“‘I have little time for grief, which is nothing but self-pity when you boil it down. Let there be no tears when loved ones die in this hell, my people; save your tears for the day they are born.’”

“‘Stolen, is it?’
‘Stolen from us in the first place,’ I replied, ‘so do not play the virgin. It is eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.‘“

“Was there no end to the persecution? Or was this misery a birthright handed down through generations of men oppressed by men of power?”

[Huw Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although there are flaws in this book - the place of the Welsh language in the narrative, and the inaccurate use of "Wenglish", the portrayal of women, and many of the historical details, this is nevertheless a powerful, powerful story.

It is about the rise of Chartism in the south est Wales valleys in the early 19th century, seen through the eyes of young steelworker, Iestyn Mortimer. The shift in the piece takes place through his father's changing attitudes - at first, loyal to the owner's, but slowly seeing the inequalities perpetrated by the wealthy landowners, he shifts his perspective.

It is a small village tale which is a part of a huge, ultimately worldwide movement - the birth of socialism, collective bargaining and universal suffrage.

But for me, as a very proud Welshman, it can be a little anti-English in its sentiments at times. The author isn't Welsh, though he settled here eventually, and had an obviously very strong affinity with the country. But in his constant anti English rantings;

"'Plundered is my country, violated, raped'"

and

"....I wish to God the English had stayed in England and ripped their own fields and burst their own mountains.”

being just two of the more extreme examples, I get a little bit of a sense of "the lady protesteth....". What happened was not the fault of the "English" at all - at the same time as this was happening in south east Wales, similar things were happening all over industrial England, in the steel and coal and the copper and the cotton works in the midlands, the north , the south West and even further afield. The Crawshays, who re portrayed as the main protagonists in this novel, were more Welsh than English. They just had money, which in turn bought them power over people.

And that is what raped this fair country, and huge swathes of other fair countries as well - money, and abused power. It wasn't, and it still isn't, a purely Welsh problem - it's a universal one, one felt as much in post industrial England today as it is in the Welsh valleys. Although this book does get to that conclusion ultimately, it is still cloaked in a much too parochial anti-Englishness throughout most of the book for my liking.

But some hair splitting apart, this is still a very important, powerful and thoroughly absorbing tale.

[Elo Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘What a land it is, this Wales! And of all its villages Llanelen is surely the best. The river is milk here, the country is honey, the mountains are crisp brown loaves hot from the baker's oven one moment and green or golden glory the next. Beauty lies here by the singing river where the otters bark and the salmon leap, and I wish to God the English had stayed in England and ripped their own fields and burst their own mountains.’

‘I thought of my river, the Afon-Lwydd, that my father had fished in youth, with rod and line for the leaping salmon under the drooping alders. The alders, he said, that fringed the banks ten deep, planted by the wind of the moun-tains. But no salmon leap in the river now, for it is black with furnace washings and slag, and the great silver fish have been beaten back to the sea or gasped out their lives on sands of coal. No alders stand now for they have been chopped as fuel for the cold blast. Even the mountains are shells, groaning in their hollows of emptiness, trembling to the arrows of the pit-props in their sides, bellowing down the old workings that collapse in unseen dust five hundred feet below.
Plundered is my country, violated, raped.’

‘Is my country dead, this beloved land that has powdered the bones of other conquerors and trampled their pennants into dust? O, this Land of the Ancients that has echoed to the feet of Rome and known the laurels of victory; who has snatched her soul from the fire of her persecutors and held high her honour in the face of shame!’

At times I found certain aspects of the book fairly off putting, especially the way the author writes female bodies and the main characters reactions to them (related or not). Yet, the author would at times write with such heart wrenching prose. I think this novel really speaks to this feeling of hiraeth within Cymru, surrounded by the ruins of industrialism scattered upon the beauty of our nature, taunting you with the nostalgia for an idealised idyllic past.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mum suggested this book to me after I watched the episode of the crown that surrounded the Aberfan disaster. My grandfather was Welsh, and my great grandparents came to Canada because the working conditions in Wales were so atrocious.

I am someone who believes that unions benefit workers greatly, and this book really highlighted that for me. The conditions endured by the Welsh at this time were pretty brutal - children were working, children and adults were injured/maimed by the trams, fire, molten iron, etc. This book is also strangely still relatable - parents not understanding the youth, the bourgeoisie have always had a ton of power. Here are a couple of quotes that stuck out to me:

Talking about friction within households surrounding politics/unions:
"[My father] despised my generation for its refusal to grovel to authority as he had grovelled and his father before him."

Talking about how the owners are handling unions:
"For it is greed you are discussing not politics. And until greed is taken from the hearts of men you will always have masters and poor, and which way round it is matters little"

Talking about joining the union/going on strike after one of the family is badly injured in the foundry:
“The owners will not negotiate and we have been sitting tight for too long. It is war if they insist in it. It has taken me twenty years of loyalty to learn that they make profits out of peace”.

This book isn't exactly an easy read - I found the language sometimes difficult to understand and had to re-read pages often. The topic is also quite tough - lots of violence, starvation, etc. However, I actually quite enjoyed the book, and the topic (unions and the working class) very interesting.

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the time of the Industrial Revolution in Wales and the Mortymer family are working hard to make ends meet in the iron making communities.
But apart from terrible working conditions where they suffer risk of maiming every day from the iron burns they are also at risk of the fickle nature of the iron masters.
In retaliation and desperation the men succumb to the politics of the day and join the chartist movement to try and secure better working conditions for them and living conditions for their families.
A turbulent period of history, the first in the Mortymer trilogy narrates the realistic hardships of an iron worker's family struggling to survive.
Reminiscent of Llewellyn's "How green was my valley" this is a powerful and yet poetical novel that will appeal to any historical fiction buff.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little story about the industrialisation of what was probably a beautiful place before the industrial revolution: the south wales valleys. I live pretty much in the area these places historically were visited by the chartists and Rebecca rioters and those who campaigned for rights etc, so it hits home for me (the name of my village/suburb even gets a namecheck!).

If you are interested in the subject matter or just want to read an engaging story about a child miner deep in the valleys digging for coal and witnessing the struggles between oppressor and oppressed, then it's a recommended read from me.

[Margie Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1959, this historical fiction is about the iron-workers at the time in Blaenavon and Nantyglo in Wales. The narrator, Lestyn Mortymer, begins working under horrible conditions in the furnaces while eight years old. He describes the poverty and struggles of his family and the other workers during the period in which he grows up. It describes the fight between the workers (many women and children) and the owners who live in wealthy surroundings. I was particularly interested because my paternal great grandparents come from there.

[Romina · Rating 3 out of 5]

In terms of historical content and importance due to the learning one received concerning the people and history of Wales, 5 stars. But, oh, so tedious! It took me a month to read because I just couldn't get through it, so the writing itself is a 1.5-2 stars. Averaging both, it's a solid 3 stars. Will I be reading the next one in the trilogy? Nope.

[Michael Nurse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book that I read as a teenager the first time. It made a big impression on me not just for the historical aspects but the humanity of the characters and how well they are drawn. The way Cordell has crafted the story and set out the themes is masterful. One of those books that will remain on the 'best books I've read' lists for most people lucky enough to read it.

[Deborah Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live near to the Welsh town of Newport and on occasion have walked down Westgate Street not knowing the horrors that took place at The Westgate Hotel. Alexander Cordell describes the life and times truthfully sometimes with humour and other times it is painful to read. I loved this book and can’t wait to read the next book in this Trilogy “ Hosts of Rebecca”.

[Atanas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trauma, trauma, trauma and horrific violence mixed in with some unexpected humour and some wholesome family and love moments.

Also, Alexander Cordell has one of the most beautiful writing styles I’ve ever come across. The kind where you come across a sentence about the most mundane thing ever and yet feel elated and think “How does one even come up with that?”.

[Sedona Mcnally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this in a bookshop in London, easy, fast paced read and captivating until the end. The descriptions of life in the mining towns of Wales are so real and the characters come alive. Good book if slightly off putting title!

[Liz Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Interesting read about the Chartist protests in South Wales in the iron mining industry early in the 19th century. Despite being born in that area, I knew little about this and was appalled at the working conditions that people faced. I'll read the other two books in the trilogy at some point.

[Martin C · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing account of the total injustices done to Welsh (and Irish) iron workers in the 1800’s. Sure it is fiction but if one tenth is realistic then the factory owners and the gentry establishment are monsters. A very powerful book.