Does He Speak Welsh?

by John Scott

In this delightful childhood memoir the author takes us back to a time when he was evacuated from wartime Newcastle, with his mother, to stay with an elderly aunt in Wales. It was a time when the local people all conversed fluently in their own native tongue, and the diverse characters he met, uncles, aunts and cousins several times removed, were a fascination for the young lad. Not least, his Uncle Bob the local baker who introduced him to the mysteries of bread-making, which stayed with him all his life. A year or so later, mother and son left the safe, slow lifestyle of seaside Pwllheli to rejoin his father in Newcastle and then on to York just in time to survive the German bombing raid on that city. The book follows the family's fortunes and the author's occasional returns to Wales in adulthood. 'Hiraeth' - that nostalgic longing for the distant mountains of Wales will ever be with him.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 16, 2014

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Stephen Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book! Well written and so very easy to read. Being Welsh myself I can relate to so many of the behaviours, especially the chapel stories and funerals. I must look to see if John Scott has written any other books as it would be a shame if he didn't.