'The Mountains Between' came about after I had decided to record my father's amazing memories of Blaenavon and my mother's intriguing recollections of life in Abergavenny and Goytre. Their story inspired this one and I hope it reflects my deep feelings for my heritage. This is what my publisher has to say about the book. It's all true, but I couldn't write about it myself in such a positive way!!:
Blaenavon and Abergavenny surge to life in this vibrant, haunting, joyful masterpiece, a celebration of the Welsh people in the 1920s to '40s: a saga of two families and their communities - the farmers and the miners, villagers and warriors, singers and mourners, noble and ignoble, cowardly and brave, in a smorgasbord that keeps the pages in perpetual motion.
This is the story of a little girl growing up on a farm, fighting to keep her balance in the face of an unbalanced mother and the deepest heart-blows a child can bear. It's a story of strength and courage; of a girl-woman with a huge heart who took what life threw at her and kept on loving - the story of a survivor.
It's the story of a mining family who suffered an unspeakable tragedy; but they got up and got on because that's what those amazing people did. And it's a story about two young people who could have and should have found each other much sooner, but their valleys were separated by the mountains and never the twain, in those days, would meet.
It's a war story; a love story; a hate story. But more than all this, it's the story of a chunk of Wales's lifetime slashed like a scar on a mountainside - about the people of Wales, the people of the mountains and the valleys who formed the beating heart of that country; the people who enable the current Welsh to stand proud and hold the Red Dragon high, because of what their forefathers did.
This is the story of their essence.
- "Intensely moving."
- "Funny, tender, utterly fascinating."
- "Wales gleams brilliantly through the dust of farmland and coalfield, mountain and valley, heartache and delight. You can almost taste it!"
'The Mountains Between' is to be published by Sunpenny Publishing on November 27th 2007
ISBN 9780955528330. It will be available from all good bookshops or online from
www.sunpenny.com
Book signings for 'The Mountains Between' are to take place on:
Saturday December 1st at Mandalay Books, Twyn Square, Usk, from 1.30pm
Saturday December 8th at Browning Books, in Broad Street, Blaenavon from 2pm
Come along and purchase a signed copy for an ideal Christmas present for someone in your family!