How Green Was My Valley

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There are also some absolutely brutal scenes, especially when the community seeks justice for the assault and death of a child, and the passages where a long strike brings starvation to the people. I didn’t even really get into the role of the landscape and nature in the book, a Hardyesque aspect to it, and it’s a wonderful read. One of my absolute favourites of the assigned novels I (as mentioned above) had to read for school, and yes, I am indeed very much personally pleased and tickled pink that my January/February 2019 perusal of How Green Was My Valley has stood the proverbial test of time for me and has been indeed in every fashion just as magical a reading experience this time around, for I was certainly more than a bit worried that I might not enjoy either Richard Llewellyn's prose style or the information he presents as much as I had as a teenager (but fortunately and gloriously, I need not have been worried, for How Green Was My Valley has indeed been a simply wonderful rereading experience for me, so much so that I will gladly give a five star rating, and yes, that said five star ranking pertains to both when I perused How Green Was My Valley as a teenager and now). One by one, his brothers began to leave Wales, a sign of shrinking opportunities for young people in the country.

The author had claimed that he based the book on his own experiences but this was found to be untrue after his death; Llewellyn was English-born and spent little time in Wales, though he was of Welsh descent. Stanley Baker and Sian Phillips were Mr,Mrs Morgan,who had a loving and richly warm family life in the coal mining valley. Do also visit Brona’s interesting piece about the controversies around Llewellyn’s claimed heritage and knowledge/experience (I’m still counting this for Dewithon as it’s set in Wales …). The valley and mining community was portrayed so vividly and beautifully, it was easy to see why Huw loved his valley/home. I found myself lamenting the loss of the time Huw Morgan speaks of, cursing the slag heaps, mourning Ivor's death, and watched in horror as communism clashed with market forces in the collieries of Wales.

Mining is a way of life here, and there is pride in the skill of the work and in the role Wales plays in Britain's growing power.

Her sister in law was delightful but sadly had no money of her own after Iestyn deserted them and went to South Africa. Truly the most lyrical and beautiful book I have ever read, I'll be all set to pick it up again in another ten years or so.How Green Was My Valley" comes with its brutalities where things that were not so "green" shine through the surface, but most of all it comes with a view on life which I think most of us share: a view of nostalgia and fondness.