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Country Dance
This first-person account of passion, murder, and cultural conflict plays out in the person of the young Ann Goodman, who is torn by the struggle for supremacy in her mixed blood, Welsh and English. In this love story, set in the late 19th century, the rural way of life is no idyll but rather a savage and exacting struggle for survival.
110 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1932
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About the author
Margiad Evans
14 books8 followers"Margiad Evans" was the pseudonym of Peggy Eileen Whistler, an English poet, novelist, and illustrator with a lifelong fascination with the Welsh border country
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
March 7, 2022
Country Dance by Margiad Evans (1932), takes place in the mid 19th century. It is the diary of Ann Goodman who lives on the border of England and Wales and describes a life of travails and disappotments. A short book, but vivid in the descriptions of characters and the hardship of rural daily life.
The book is told in journal form as Ann reveals her life in relation to her family and the push pull of her liminal life caught between cultures. I found that so interesting. Language plays a big role in what it means when you speak Welsh or English.
As a young woman of marriageable age she is also caught between countries and the demand to marry, but she is fiercely independent and demands respect. This is a challenge for both herself and her suitors.
I had never heard of this book, but enjoyed it immensely. I am grateful for readalongs that bring new books and authors to my attention!❤️
The book is told in journal form as Ann reveals her life in relation to her family and the push pull of her liminal life caught between cultures. I found that so interesting. Language plays a big role in what it means when you speak Welsh or English.
As a young woman of marriageable age she is also caught between countries and the demand to marry, but she is fiercely independent and demands respect. This is a challenge for both herself and her suitors.
I had never heard of this book, but enjoyed it immensely. I am grateful for readalongs that bring new books and authors to my attention!❤️
October 15, 2019
Very moving story.
HIRAETH......I read this book with a lump in my throat and a smile on my face. I did not choose to read this book. It chose me. My birthplace was Pontypridd and went to Pontypridd Girls Grammar. I am 80 now. In 1965 we left Wales with our young son to live in Africa when I was 26. I still have a T shirt which reads 'You can take the girl out of Wales but you can't take Wales out of the girl.' I still wear it with pride, especially for international rugby games!!
HIRAETH......I read this book with a lump in my throat and a smile on my face. I did not choose to read this book. It chose me. My birthplace was Pontypridd and went to Pontypridd Girls Grammar. I am 80 now. In 1965 we left Wales with our young son to live in Africa when I was 26. I still have a T shirt which reads 'You can take the girl out of Wales but you can't take Wales out of the girl.' I still wear it with pride, especially for international rugby games!!
January 28, 2025
Country Dance wastes no time to draw you in with the matter-of-fact urgency of tasks that need doing. And that is the pace and the mood of the whole story. There’s work to be done – so, do it without being told. Everyone is immersed in the business of holding up their part of the world through stolid action – cooking, cleaning, herding/dipping/shearing sheep, planting, harvesting, chasing pigs, suffering fools, being brave, being kind, being cruel, marrying, birthing, dying, and burying the dead. Even falling in or out of love has a quotidian stoicism about it. There is simply no need or the time for meditation on the ways of things, which are what they are. This novella written in the 1930s set in the mid 19th C on the Welsh-English border has all the artless charm of life being – nothing more or nothing less than – life. Hence, the quality of the story it yields is wholesome and organic. And yet, it is timeless in its depiction of the most fundamental human traits of love and jealousy, pain and pleasure.
The protagonist, Anna Goodman, of mixed Welsh and English parentage – which seems to be an unremarkable norm of the time and the place – is a young woman whose clarity and sense of judgement is impressively modern. She reacts to the common fears and magic of her time with an anachronistic sense of humour and reason. Her strength comes from a solid grounding in hardship that isn’t sentimental as there is nothing else to hold it up against.
It is a world where the most hardened of men may fear dogs; where a woman may dodge a massive bull like it is a minor bother; where people walking alone on lonely roads talk aloud in several voices to ward off evil spirits by faking the strength of numbers while others laugh off the idea of the supernatural; where the most simple-minded don’t pause to think before jumping into dangerous waters to rescue a drowning child; where compassion refuses to be dimmed down by the lack of gratitude. There is, of course, joy, mirth, anger, and grief. But all of that, and all bigger questions and concerns of the world beyond one’s own are dissolved in the only philosophy of life as the exigency of survival. Linguistic and cultural politics, therefore, are a diffused reality of existence on the border rather than an articulated binary of oppression and emancipation. Mixed marriages, Welshman living in England, Englishmen living in Wales, movement across borders, and any feeling of acrimony are just the way of things in a community where one lives in relative poverty of the other. Countries are no more than neighbouring villages and there are no peans sung to the land whose devastating beauty is subsumed by the difficulty of traversing it. Language is a choice of function – one for singing one for commerce, and they are interchangeable. It may also be a tool for petty conning – a door-to-door salesman, for instance, thieves small objects by invoking, alternately, Welsh and English empathies based on the household. Bilingualism is as common as slander and gossip.
And then, the contained fractures come to the fore in a devastating denouement. The sharp contrast of the Shakespearean tragedy-like conclusion to the quietude of the previous narrative works as a reminder of the deep-seated politics of life on the border of countries with complicated histories.
Country Dance is a classic ‘ahead of its time’ piece of work. I might reread it.
The protagonist, Anna Goodman, of mixed Welsh and English parentage – which seems to be an unremarkable norm of the time and the place – is a young woman whose clarity and sense of judgement is impressively modern. She reacts to the common fears and magic of her time with an anachronistic sense of humour and reason. Her strength comes from a solid grounding in hardship that isn’t sentimental as there is nothing else to hold it up against.
It is a world where the most hardened of men may fear dogs; where a woman may dodge a massive bull like it is a minor bother; where people walking alone on lonely roads talk aloud in several voices to ward off evil spirits by faking the strength of numbers while others laugh off the idea of the supernatural; where the most simple-minded don’t pause to think before jumping into dangerous waters to rescue a drowning child; where compassion refuses to be dimmed down by the lack of gratitude. There is, of course, joy, mirth, anger, and grief. But all of that, and all bigger questions and concerns of the world beyond one’s own are dissolved in the only philosophy of life as the exigency of survival. Linguistic and cultural politics, therefore, are a diffused reality of existence on the border rather than an articulated binary of oppression and emancipation. Mixed marriages, Welshman living in England, Englishmen living in Wales, movement across borders, and any feeling of acrimony are just the way of things in a community where one lives in relative poverty of the other. Countries are no more than neighbouring villages and there are no peans sung to the land whose devastating beauty is subsumed by the difficulty of traversing it. Language is a choice of function – one for singing one for commerce, and they are interchangeable. It may also be a tool for petty conning – a door-to-door salesman, for instance, thieves small objects by invoking, alternately, Welsh and English empathies based on the household. Bilingualism is as common as slander and gossip.
And then, the contained fractures come to the fore in a devastating denouement. The sharp contrast of the Shakespearean tragedy-like conclusion to the quietude of the previous narrative works as a reminder of the deep-seated politics of life on the border of countries with complicated histories.
Country Dance is a classic ‘ahead of its time’ piece of work. I might reread it.
May 23, 2011
There is a certain lyrical quality to the few Welsh books I've read and it's here as the pastoral landscapes of the Welsh border clash with the battle between two men for the heart of a shepherd's daughter.
Penned by the Welsh-border writer Margaid Evans the story of Ann Goodman unfolds. She is torn by the mixed English and Welsh in her blood and finds herself the object of affection for a Welsh land owner and an English shepherd.
She moves between them as she crosses the border and although she is in effect engaged to the English shepherd Gabriel it is when working on the Welsh farm she becomes a woman the master sets his sights on.
Gabriel turns up to check up on his love and finds the master sweet talking her in Welsh. fights ensue and it is not until the very end Ann makes up her mind.
Apart from the three characters involved in the love triangle what stands out here is the description of a rural world that is bitterly hard. Village life is full of hardship, gossip and little joy.
Ann works hard and moves from one grueling task to another while facing the responsibility of looking after her ailing father and navigating her way through the troublesome waters of courtship from two potential husbands.
it provides an insight into the hills and valleys that leaves a lasting impression on the reader and the description of Wales is no doubt why it was chosen to be part of the Library of Wales series of books. It deserves to be read by a wide audience.
Penned by the Welsh-border writer Margaid Evans the story of Ann Goodman unfolds. She is torn by the mixed English and Welsh in her blood and finds herself the object of affection for a Welsh land owner and an English shepherd.
She moves between them as she crosses the border and although she is in effect engaged to the English shepherd Gabriel it is when working on the Welsh farm she becomes a woman the master sets his sights on.
Gabriel turns up to check up on his love and finds the master sweet talking her in Welsh. fights ensue and it is not until the very end Ann makes up her mind.
Apart from the three characters involved in the love triangle what stands out here is the description of a rural world that is bitterly hard. Village life is full of hardship, gossip and little joy.
Ann works hard and moves from one grueling task to another while facing the responsibility of looking after her ailing father and navigating her way through the troublesome waters of courtship from two potential husbands.
it provides an insight into the hills and valleys that leaves a lasting impression on the reader and the description of Wales is no doubt why it was chosen to be part of the Library of Wales series of books. It deserves to be read by a wide audience.
December 30, 2014
This is a story about passion set in a small and rather claustrophobic community. The evocation of the working lives of farmers, their wives and shepherds in 1850s Wales is fascinating and I liked the way the brooding atmosphere of tragedy and violence is played out over these mundane details. The prose is very terse, which is interesting but in some ways unengaging. It was not so much difficult to like the narrator - Ann Goodman who is the object of desire of two violent men - but difficult to get to know her. And I wasn't sure about the end note where the author tells us how to read the story - it represents "the entire history of the Border...Wales against England". Yes, it does, and the "Wales against England" tension is very powerful. I especially liked the way it figures in the use of language: the occasional usage of Welsh, for example, or a characters' hatred of hearing Welsh spoken. But for a story of passion it is curiously passionless. Nevertheless, the writing has a power all its own. I would certainly like to read more books by Margiad Evans.
September 4, 2011
I first heard this book serialised on Radio 4 a number of years ago, and bought it to read for myself. It is very short, written as a diary of Ann Goodman, a dairymaid living on the borders of England and Wales in the 19th century. This is where my grandmother's family came from, and where when I was a little girl we would go on holiday. It's reminiscent (to me) of Wuthering Heights; Ann is torn between two men, one representing passion, and the other respectability. One is English, one is Welsh, and eventually the jealousy of one threatens to destroy the other, and Ann. It's an absolutely wonderful book, and the Welsh songs and phrases add to the enjoyment for me, although I don't remember much Welsh. It deserves to have a far wider audience.
June 5, 2010
I will probably have more to say about this when I've gone to the lectures about it, and better understood the context (and what the course is aiming for, etc). It's easy to read, though the syntax is very Welsh-sounding so that it might read oddly to people now. It's written in the present tense, as a diary, which is also a little odd until you get used to it. There are some untranslated bits of Welsh, but their meaning is plain enough in context. It's a relatively simple story, but you can feel the heavy tension from the first few pages -- the jealousy of Gabriel, the push and pull between Welsh and English.
March 12, 2014
a strange, gothic, compelling story set in 1850 on the welsh-english border. the writing is great - lots of mundane everyday stuff about baking and looking after sheep... which sort of lulls the reader into a false sense of security...
(nice introduction by catrin collier too)
(nice introduction by catrin collier too)
August 4, 2020
I actually don’t know why I liked this. It’s a phenomenally understated book - written in diary form by the young farm girl Ann Goodman, and focusing on the border between England and Wales and the ‘conflicts’ between the English and the Welsh living in mixed communities on either side. The blurb talks about passion and tragedy and struggle but, although these are all present, it is not really the book to go looking for any of these things. Instead, and I presume reflective of the kind of education that Ann would have had, as well as the life that she has no choice but to lead, the writing is rather matter of fact and practical, even when dealing with emotional issues.
I can only think that I found its no nonsense view of farming life in the 1850s refreshing. It is very different to a lot of the lyrical nature writing we normally get in this type of book - and although I love that kind of writing, it was interesting to see a story differently (as the author says in her ‘mock’ introduction, Ann doesn’t indulge in ‘rustic description’ because, as a countrywoman, it is completely unremarkable to her). In the end, Ann tells it as it is, and the reader needs to take from it what they will.
This is a very short book (and maybe it needs to be to keep our interest), but somehow, despite the lack of most of the devices that would normally see you empathise with a character, I still found the story and the end in particular to be very affecting.
I can only think that I found its no nonsense view of farming life in the 1850s refreshing. It is very different to a lot of the lyrical nature writing we normally get in this type of book - and although I love that kind of writing, it was interesting to see a story differently (as the author says in her ‘mock’ introduction, Ann doesn’t indulge in ‘rustic description’ because, as a countrywoman, it is completely unremarkable to her). In the end, Ann tells it as it is, and the reader needs to take from it what they will.
This is a very short book (and maybe it needs to be to keep our interest), but somehow, despite the lack of most of the devices that would normally see you empathise with a character, I still found the story and the end in particular to be very affecting.
June 29, 2023
Oh my, how have I missed this writer these past 40 years? Tremendous novel set in the Welsh Marches in the 1850s telling the story of a young woman and those that love her (and those that don’t). The friction between England and Wales, English and Welsh language, church and chapel, farmer and worker, are covered beautifully whilst giving a real insight into rural life and hardship of the times.
Now I need to find the rest of her books!
Now I need to find the rest of her books!
September 2, 2022
I really enjoyed this. The writing was wonderfully easy and a pleasure to read. A snapshot of the lives of rural women and society at the time. The themes of female friendship is contrasted with the violence of men. I really loved this book.
August 12, 2024
From a literature student perspective it was definitely enjoyable and a super easy read. The fragments of the union within, the squabble over Ann and Ann’s overall character is definitely interesting to study but just isn’t something I’d pick up again unforch
September 30, 2018
Very engaging and tells a lot about Welsh country society
February 13, 2019
So boring, almost nothing happens at all. Only worth reading if you are interest in English-Welsh border country life.
July 29, 2019
This Welsh classic reminded me of Independent People with its focus on shepherds, but the characters are not as memorable. The diary format, however, works well to convey 19th-century life on the border lands.
November 5, 2019
3.5/5
Atmospheric setting, interesting imagery and point-of-view, but writing style and length really detracted from the story.
Atmospheric setting, interesting imagery and point-of-view, but writing style and length really detracted from the story.
January 17, 2020
Perfect. Loved it. Thank you Shawn Mooney. 🥰
September 23, 2022
This was an interesting short read which had the odd witty part too.
December 30, 2025
Pastoral novella about life at the border between Wales and England and its small and tragic conflicts.
March 28, 2023
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023...
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023...
December 1, 2013
The writing is bold and fierce, and the story of the young Ann Goodman, torn by her mixed identity and between two rival lovers, is engaging. Wrapped up with an intriguing appeal by Margiad Evans to the truth of the story, positioning herself as having made the "discovery" of Ann's diary, it posits a brilliant scope for an epic tale of the border life ...
Why then are there barely over 100 pages of this story?#! I finished it wanting so, so much more. There are so many avenues that could have been taken, so many angles from which to expand the tale to something appropriately grand. Perhaps because the works of Thomas Hardy were always at the back of my mind while reading this (the rural setting, two-lovers convention, bleakness!), I was after an altogether larger kind of tragic epic of fate and love. Or even something of the generation-spanning, wide in scope, tales of Kate Roberts, which are nonetheless small works (e.g. Feet in Chains).
Which is why, although the writing was fantastic, I cannot say that I was satisfied. I liked what it was becoming, and what could have been made of it. But, perhaps Turf or Stone can give me what I am after? I hope so!
Why then are there barely over 100 pages of this story?#! I finished it wanting so, so much more. There are so many avenues that could have been taken, so many angles from which to expand the tale to something appropriately grand. Perhaps because the works of Thomas Hardy were always at the back of my mind while reading this (the rural setting, two-lovers convention, bleakness!), I was after an altogether larger kind of tragic epic of fate and love. Or even something of the generation-spanning, wide in scope, tales of Kate Roberts, which are nonetheless small works (e.g. Feet in Chains).
Which is why, although the writing was fantastic, I cannot say that I was satisfied. I liked what it was becoming, and what could have been made of it. But, perhaps Turf or Stone can give me what I am after? I hope so!
February 17, 2020
I was driven to read this novella which could. Have been a ballad but was in the form of dairy entries . It was compelling. I read the introduction first & when I finished the novel that I was reading, resumed reading this novella. There was no compulsion & once started I just had to finish reading.
Set in the 1850s it recounted the story of Ann who lived on the borders of England & Wales. Her mother was Welsh & her Father English. It speaks of rural communities & how they negotiate their luminal spaces. Ann is the daughter of one shepherd who is about to marry another but breaks off the relationship with him because he is evil tempered, jealous & possessive.
She agrees to marry her Father’s Master who is similarly bad tempered, but genuinely fond of her.
They never marry. She is found drowned in a pond & buried in a churchyard. The Master is charged until a relative witnesses to the bad attitudes of her former lover, the English shepherd who has disappeared from his place of work. It is about people’s perceptions of their neighbours.
It is about hybridity, a sense of belonging, love & loss at the time when the Blue Book was written totally discrediting Welsh education & the language. It contains themes of loss & bereavement. Also Margiad Evans wants to point out that there are good & bad in any community. Each community doesn’t have a monopoly of saints or sinners.
In this short novella, Margiad Evans packs in a great number of themes. I found it an excellent fast moving read.
Set in the 1850s it recounted the story of Ann who lived on the borders of England & Wales. Her mother was Welsh & her Father English. It speaks of rural communities & how they negotiate their luminal spaces. Ann is the daughter of one shepherd who is about to marry another but breaks off the relationship with him because he is evil tempered, jealous & possessive.
She agrees to marry her Father’s Master who is similarly bad tempered, but genuinely fond of her.
They never marry. She is found drowned in a pond & buried in a churchyard. The Master is charged until a relative witnesses to the bad attitudes of her former lover, the English shepherd who has disappeared from his place of work. It is about people’s perceptions of their neighbours.
It is about hybridity, a sense of belonging, love & loss at the time when the Blue Book was written totally discrediting Welsh education & the language. It contains themes of loss & bereavement. Also Margiad Evans wants to point out that there are good & bad in any community. Each community doesn’t have a monopoly of saints or sinners.
In this short novella, Margiad Evans packs in a great number of themes. I found it an excellent fast moving read.
July 6, 2019
Peggy Whistler from Middlesex moved to the Welsh Marches and fell in love with Wales. Under the name Margiad Evans, she wrote this remarkable short novel, published in 1932 but set in the border country in the 1850s.
A spoiler introduction - best read at the end - uses the well-worn device of a lost manuscript to present the day-to-day journal of a shepherd's daughter who is half-Welsh, half-English. The "journal" itself is written in the present tense, giving it a wonderful energy and vitality, with the shepherd's daughter portrayed as a young woman with a sharp tongue and a mind of her own. There are no lyrical passages and meditations, as might fill a real Victorian journal. Instead the novel is a terse but lively account of neighbours and parents, failed crops, sheep scab, and a looming and ominous conflict between two hot-blooded suitors. Brief but spirited.
A spoiler introduction - best read at the end - uses the well-worn device of a lost manuscript to present the day-to-day journal of a shepherd's daughter who is half-Welsh, half-English. The "journal" itself is written in the present tense, giving it a wonderful energy and vitality, with the shepherd's daughter portrayed as a young woman with a sharp tongue and a mind of her own. There are no lyrical passages and meditations, as might fill a real Victorian journal. Instead the novel is a terse but lively account of neighbours and parents, failed crops, sheep scab, and a looming and ominous conflict between two hot-blooded suitors. Brief but spirited.
July 21, 2016
A quiet yet bleak portrayal of farming life on the Welsh-English border of the 19th century; Margiad Evans didn't aim to thrill with dense narrative. As suffocating as the love-triangle between protagonist Ann, Evan and Gabriel is, I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters, everyone was as bitter as one another.
I liked how as things fall apart for Ann and her acquaintances, from familial deaths to poor harvests, her romantic, and by extension - identity issues surrounding her Welsh/English heritage, release their suffocating grip - presenting her with a clear final decision on who to choose. Its presentation as a diary was well executed, and made for a good delivery; I wasn't so much a fan of the author presenting the tale as if it was a 'recovered diary', however.
I liked how as things fall apart for Ann and her acquaintances, from familial deaths to poor harvests, her romantic, and by extension - identity issues surrounding her Welsh/English heritage, release their suffocating grip - presenting her with a clear final decision on who to choose. Its presentation as a diary was well executed, and made for a good delivery; I wasn't so much a fan of the author presenting the tale as if it was a 'recovered diary', however.
July 20, 2018
There's something about the simplicity of this book that actually makes it so good. Margiad Evans perfectly encapsulates the simplicity of a young, hardly educated girl's mind that makes her main character so believable.
Her simplicity grates at times, and the ending is quite rushed, but otherwise the book is a good read, especially for those interested in photo-feminist writing or interested in the Welsh Borders.
Her simplicity grates at times, and the ending is quite rushed, but otherwise the book is a good read, especially for those interested in photo-feminist writing or interested in the Welsh Borders.
September 8, 2013
A lovely, if really sad, story based in Wales. The only real drawback is that it is presented as a "found" true story which I always find inexplicably irritating. Just call it a story! Why try and pretend it happened? *grumblegrumble*
March 6, 2014
Opening: Gabriel gives me this book, telling me to write in it all I do, for him to see, until we shall be married. And when that will be I do not know, since I am to leave Twelve Poplars and look to my mother.
A Welsh Border's Wuthering Heights.
A Welsh Border's Wuthering Heights.
July 10, 2011
Another charity shop bargain. Woo!
December 1, 2016
This is a good book and has a lot to say about Welsh identity.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews