The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories

by Alun Richards (Editor)

'It is my hope that the Wales of the past and present is well represented in this volume, together with the world of work and workmen in some of our more ravaged terrains.' In twenty-four short stories, written by Welsh men and women, for the most part about Welsh people, we are treated to depictions of valley and mountain, country and town, as well as offered powerful and moving insights into the nature of the people.

Genres: Short Stories, Literature, Fiction

348 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 1976

About the author

Alun Richards (1929-2004) was a Welsh novelist and short story writer, with a fondness for rugby union.

Reviews

[Judith Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read these stories over thirty years ago, and hadn’t clearly remembered any of them, except for Dylan Thomas’s marvellous evocation of teenage years, Extraordinary Little Cough. I’ve walked the length, and back, of Rhosilli beach, so I can appreciate the feat described in the story!

Interesting to re-read them, having finally moved to Wales, and I’m looking forward to exploring more Welsh fiction, particularly more by the authors Gwyn Thomas and BL Coombes. Gwyn Thomas’s story in this volume, ‘The Teacher’, is quite beautiful and deeply moving.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the stories in this book in random order, or rather in an order determined by (a) which authors I had heard of and liked, (b) which stories seemed the briefest and easiest to digest, (c) which stories had the most interesting titles. This explains why the Dylan Thomas story was first to be read and why the Alun Richards story was almost at the very end.

The main thing I learned from reading this volume is that the famous names of Welsh literature really deserve their fame. The Dylan Thomas, Kate Roberts and Emyr Humphreys contributions were excellent, exactly what one ought to expect from them. However, there were authors here new to me who turned out to be extremely pleasant suprises, E. Tegla Davies, Geraint Goodwin and Islwyn Ffowc Elis chief among them. Nonetheless, Dylan remains best for sheer style.

My ratings of the individual stories are as follows:

'Extraordinary Little Cough' by Dylan Thomas. A boys' camping expedition goes right and wrong. Crisp, breezy, funny, wild, poignant, beautifully written. Set in the Gower I know so well. A gem of a tale. The prose is so lyrical it sings on the page. 4.5/5

'Be This Her Memorial' by the great troublemaker of Welsh literature, Caradoc Evans. Very short, very slight. A fable about the dangers of devotion. Not bad but not good. 2.5/5

'The Strange Apeman' by E. Tegla Davies. A prehistoric fantasy in the style of H.G. Wells. I believe this story was written in the 1920s but I'm not sure. It is superb. 5/5

'The Brute Creation' by Gwyn Jones. Darkly brooding, vicious little story with an unpleasant protagonist who is responsible for his own downfall. Clunky but quite effective. 3/5

'A Successful Year' by D.J. Williams. Another tale of impoverished farming life but done in a rather anaemic way. Lacks atmosphere. Some good dialogue exchanges. 2/5

'The Loss' by Kate Roberts. A story about thoughtlessness and disappointement, very well written. The author demonstrates admirable control. 3.5/5

'The Teacher' by Gwyn Thomas. Muddled prose, heavy and laboured. The stodgy language fails to serve the worthy message. 2/5

'A Writer Came to Our Place' by John Morgan. A brief proletarian incident in a factory. Nothing special but not a bad story. 2.5/5

'Twenty Tons of Coal' by B.L. Coombes. A powerful and savage story about the dangers of working underground, especially when following the instructions of an incompetent manager. An eyeopener for those of us who have never been down a mine. The ambiguous ending is perfect, as the narrator has to make a choice between doing what is right or doing what is best (the two things are different in this particular scenario). 4/5

'A Roman Spring' by Leslie Norris. Muscular prose reminiscent (to me at least) of Hammond Innes, which is no bad thing. A summary of the story won't do justice to it. A man with a holiday home in a remote part of Wales talks to his neighbours and digs in the ground. 4/5

'The Return' by Brenda Chamberlain. A moody story about making a perilous channel crossing on a small boat during a thick fog. It is also about narrow minds, devotion and stamina (both physical and emotional). 3.5/5

'Saturday Night' by Geraint Goodwin. A delightfully sour comedy about a man in a small town who considers himself more cultured and therefore superior to the other inhabitants. He takes a girl on a date to an amateur production of an opera during which everything goes wrong. Uproarious and perhaps the sort of story that Dylan Thomas might have written, but Goodwin got there first. 4.5/5

'Morfydd's Celebration' by Harri Pritchard Jones. Dreadful. An old woman shares a few memories with the reader. Tedious and badly written. 1/5

'An Overdose of Sun' by Eigra Lewis Roberts. Atrocious. A woman who is sunbathing decides to move to a location that is shaded. 1/5

'The House in Builth Crescent' by Moira Dearnley. Terrible. A unfit woman shows another woman around a house that has nothing inside it. They talk a bit. 1/5

'Blind Date' by Jane Edwards. Appalling. A woman goes on a date. Nothing happens. 1/5

'Before Forever After' by Ron Berry. A wonderful story of courage and danger in a factory setting. The ending is a very pleasant surprise, uplifting and in opposition to the reader's expectations. Excellent dialogue and pacing. 4/5

'Acting Captain' by Alun Lewis. Excellent long tale of waiting for the Germans to drop bombs on South Wales. The boredom and mindless routine of army life is interrupted by extreme drama. This story is strong on themes, incidents and characterisation. 4/5

'Black Barren' by Islwyn Ffowc Elis. A ghost story about sheep. That sounds ridiculous but in fact it is a superbly menacing story filled with a nightmarish sense of dread. This is a magnificent piece in terms of pacing and the steady build up of atmsophere. There is also a pleasing ambiguity about it reminiscent of some of Poe's tales. Is the ghost real or in the imagination of the narrator? What if it isn't a ghost but a demon or curse? 4.5/5

'The Fashion Plate' by Rhys Davies. One of the most renowned short story writers Wales has produced but I have always felt he is rather overrated. His work tends to be maudlin and there is an unspecified feebleness about his prose style that I dislike. However, this is not a bad story at all. A woman who lives beyond her means proves to be a factor (not the only one) in the destruction of a man who, in my opinion, is a rather sordid and impleasant fellow and no loss to the world. 2.5/5

'The Golden Pony' by Glyn Jones. I have heard great things about Glyn Jones. He has been described to me as a 'total master' of the short story. This is the first tale of his I have read. I can see that he certainly knew how to write, but I found this story to be slow moving to the point where my mind kept wandering, at least until the last few pages which are genuinely exciting. The plot, such as it is, can be described as: a bullied boy on a remote island makes friends with a young horse. But it is more than that. There are elements of folk horror in the descriptions of the grandmother and grandfather and the chained dog. I wanted to love this story, I really did, but I ended up only liking it. 3.5/5

'The Squire of Havilah' by T. Hughes Jones. Excellent. One of the longer stories in the book and it starts slowly and discouragingly. I thought it was going to be akin to a moral tract, but then it takes off and becomes something else, an intensely serious farce. It's a mini-epic about delusion and unshakeable faith, written in gloomy but powerful prose. 4/5

'Hon. Sec. (R.F.C.)' by Alun Richards. The biggest surprtise in the entire book. Alun Richards was the editor of the anthology and I have a principled objection to editors including their own work in anthologies. I was therefore expecting this story to be substandard and small-minded. In fact I found a touching comedy of mismatched behaviours with a neat and pleasant resolution. 4/5

'Mel's Secret Love' by Emyr Humphreys. The longest story in the book and a very good one. The prose style is clear and the story seems full of space in which to breathe. The main character Mel engages the reader's sympathy from the outset. The ending should be dour but doesn't feel negative. A superb story with which to finish this excellent anthology. 4/5

[Ria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought I might have an affinity with this volume considering it's a collection of Welsh tales.
Pretty much all of them were of abysmal quality and only giving it a score of two as the final tale redeemed it a little and was slightly more interesting.
Always hated short stories, they are a concept that I just can't gel with.
I always want more out of what I read so they just don't appeal and sadly this was no exception.

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a short-story aficionado. My bookshelves groan under the weight of anthologies and collections, ranging in genre from literary to crime to horror, and more. I also love writing short stories, with many credits to my name and a few award nods. But this particular book? Hmm. When people say they hate reading short stories, this book is exactly what they mean, and now I understand. One star because I just could not force myself to finish it after slogging away - on and off - for five weary months.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A group of stories that represents well a post war era in Wales. Dialogue and characters are often colorful here. I especially liked stories by Kate Roberts …Annie felt she had lost a lover in gaining a husband. » Jane Edwards writes of her characters, girls going out at night with a borrowed over-sized dress and talking of her mother with. Younger babies and her « teats »

And Eigra Lewis Roberts « The sun was a cruel thing revealing one’s age as it did the dust on furniture. » and the last two stories by Alun Richard and Emyr Humphries were outstanding.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent and varied collection of short stories I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Wales has produced some first class writers, their talent is on full display in this book.

There are 24 stories in total, some set in Wales, some not. All of them are well written with rich and varied characters. The genres vary too with some being thrillers, others romance and there is even some horror in there too. My favourite story of all was a tongue in cheek coming of age story.

The only stories which I found disappointing were ‘The House in Bulith Crescent’ and ‘Mel’s Secret Love’ as neither grabbed my imagination.

It was also brilliant to discover that Dylan Thomas didn’t just write poetry, he also wrote short stories, one of which is included in this collection.

My only complaint is very minor; the book is a re-print (which is not mentioned by the publishers) The original collection was put together in 1976 and haven’t been updated with any recent works meaning the stories have quite a dated feel about them. They are still good stories but set either during or soon after the last world war. It was disappointing to realise there would be no modern examples of Welsh writing which isn’t made clear by the publishers but I still enjoyed the book overall.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining, insightful and at times chilling and sobering collection of tales describing life across Wales during the mid to late 20th Century. Each tale follows various characters through a small portion of their lives showing the different sides of life found in the Welsh mountains and valleys. These stories show the good, bad and ugly sides of Welsh communities and all of the characters are recognisable in some way to the reader, either through their own actions or traits or through those of friends and family.

One particular tale that stood out for me was Twenty Tons of Coal by C B Coombes which tells the story of a colliery worker who survived a Pit collapse while his friend did not and his moral and ethical battle in how to describe the events to an inquiry. The dilemma whether to tell the truth and get those responsible punished but lose the man's family their compensation or to lie, protect both those responsible and the family's compensation is heart wrenching and one that will chill any reader to their core, Welsh or not.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to review this as a book, because the short stories were all entirely different and unrelated in any way other than the fact that their authors were Welsh. Altogether an enjoyable read though.

[Nimue Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I slogged through this book. Being a fan of Welsh folklore and Welsh folk music, I really wanted to like this. I struggled with how grim it is, but what summed up its problems for me was right there on the back cover. It's a collection to challenge English stereotypes of the Welsh. I'm not sure what the stereotype was back then, but apparently it needed overcoming by showing lots of people struggling with abject poverty, misfortune and frequent suicides. Of course, at no point does anyone sing in a choir, but there's plenty of mining, and some tragic mining accidents, and did I mention the grinding poverty?

I can't help but wonder what a collection of short stories from the latter half of the 20th century, setting out to celebrate Welsh life and culture, would have looked like by way of comparison. Apparrently that was the book I wanted.

[Kate L · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any compilation of short stories, there were some that were fantastic, some I didn't like, and a couple where I didn't really understand what the writer was getting at. The best and most heart-wrenching story was Twenty Tons of Coal; I was surprised to read another review criticising Mel's Secret Love, but perhaps to understand this one a different experience is needed by the reader. Another review points out that they are all 'out if date' but I'd you approach the collection with that in mind, they are still good stories. First published in 1976, many of the tales hark back from that standpoint, which I actually really enjoyed, and found even the 'modern' ones an interesting insight into Welsh writers and literature of the time.

[Katherine Simmons · Rating 1 out of 5]

According to the intro this book was to showcase some of the best english written work by welsh writers however all of it plays to stereotype. I have read other stories by a couple of writers which would show a better face to their work, here the overwhelming theme is povetry and often the browbeating of the nationality by others. At no point do many of the stories make you think that it would be worth tracking down that authors work to continue reading and this is to me where this anthlogy fails so badly.

This is actually a very depressing dull book of stories with no redeeming quality what so ever which is a shame as I have said there are much better works out there.

[Tory · Rating 4 out of 5]

With stories ranging from late-Victorian up until post-WWII era, this collection has great breadth of subject and style. The element that ties them together is that they were all written by Welsh authors.

I'll admit that as an American, I was often perplexed by the language (English, but not quite the same English that I speak), and the sentiments. The culture is very different than my own, and the stories are on the whole, rather dark (sometimes very dark). Some were very fanciful, and some were very beautiful, hauntingly so.

I'm glad I read this collection, and glad that I took my time to enter all of the different worlds presented.

Some of the stories that I enjoyed the most:

The Golden Pony (Glyn Jones) -- a little boy bonds with a golden foal
The Brute Creation (Gwyn ones) -- a brutal man enters his young dog in a shepherding contest
The Teacher (Gwyn Thomas) -- a beloved teacher is lauded by his students
The Return (Brenda Chamberlain) -- on an island, a woman cares for her dying lover, who is a married man
Twenty Tons of Coal (B.L. Coombes) -- a young miner and his partner are involved in an accident that haunts the young man
A Writer Came to Our Place (John Morgan) -- a writer visits a factory to find out how the workers feel about "industry"
A Roman Spring -- An Englishman with a vacation home in Wales discovers that there used to be a Roman spring on his land
Before Forever After (Ron Berry) -- a young construction worker meets up with an old lover, who's now with another man
Hon. Sec (RFC) (Alun Richards) -- a middle-aged man who is a rubgy enthusiast gets into a tense situation with one of the young players on the club where he acts as secretary
Mel's Secret Love -- a secretary carrying on a secret affair with her boss has to make choices about her future after an unexpected event

[Serra İnderim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection's a real mixed bag, but in a good way. You'll find some absolute gems from Welsh literary greats, alongside stories that might not click for everyone. You'll encounter the undeniable brilliance of Dylan Thomas, and discover new authors and perspectives within the landscape which is really rewarding. The stories are rooted in a specific time but the variety ensures there's something to pique almost any reader's interest. However, it would be helpful if the publisher provided a notice that the collection was compiled in 1976 and has not been updated since.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful compilation of beautiful short stories. It is not at all an academic pursuit either.