This passage made me cry. It has spoilers and so if you are planning to read the book, please don't read this passage. And after saying daily bread, I didn’t go any further with the others, I just started thinking. I remembered Mam telling me before we came to Church that we had no bread to make bread and butter with, and so I asked God for some more daily bread cos the parish money wasn’t coming till Friday. Anyway, Philip has a suspicion about Lyle and asks Maddie if there was anything between them. Her exact words are: "not really", "I felt lost", "nothing happened", "I didn't let it."

Readers in general seem very mixed about this novel. Some loved it. Others were disappointed or bored. In this blog, I will briefly tease out what made this novel work, and what didn’t, as well as how to fix it. It was lovely to read a novel set largely in Norfolk too, having spent many years in Norwich myself after attending UEA (where Rachel actually taught me in one of my English Literature modules!) before I moved to London. Jesus, the people in the South talk funny, don’t they? said Moi when we went to see him the following day. Pass me that pot again. And there was poor Moi, still in bed and still spitting blood. And that was the last time we saw old Moi. The following Sunday night, Huw called round and his face was like chalk. Have you heard? he said at the door without coming in. Heard what? said Mam. Come in from the door, Huw, I said. What’s up? Moi’s dead, he said quietly. Moi? No, you’re telling lies, Huw. But I knew by his face that Huw was telling the truth. I just needed to say something, just like ages ago when I used to whistle as I went along Post Lane after dark, pretending that I wasn’t frightened of bogeymen. And we were talking to him on Monday night, I said, as though I still didn’t believe it. He was spitting a lot of blood that night, said Huw. That bloomin’ TB, said Mam. It takes young and old alike. Then I started to cry like a baby. I couldn’t stop for the life of me, though I tried my very best to stop cos I was embarrassed with Huw and Mam watching me. Moi and him were close friends, Huw said to Mam. But, of course, Huw was making excuses for me crying cos he was as close to Moi as I was. You never saw Huw crying like I did. But Huw cried, too, at the funeral though nobody saw him that time except me. It was only one little tear that rolled down his cheek and even I wouldn’t have seen that if he hadn’t wiped his eye with the sleeve of his surplice, as we both stood with the Choir at the graveside singing: My friends are homeward going Before me one by one And I am left an orphan A pilgrim all alone That’s what we sang at Griffith Evans Braich’s funeral, and Canon’s and all the others, too, but we were just singing cos we got tuppence for singing at those. It was different at Moi’s funeral cos he was our friend and the words were true. I couldn’t see anything when Hughes the Parson threw a handful of soil onto Moi’s coffin after they’d lowered it into the grave with a rope cos my eyes were just like two windows after it’s been raining." Cut the whole scene where the Nazis catch Philip and his companions as they attempt to cross the Pyrenees. Why not have Philip and his companions meet the guide at Perpignan, and disappear into the distance as they climb the Pyrenees without any Nazi thugs to interfere? That would have solved the whole problem of Philip’s return to England, because it would have seemed natural and not sudden. Loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair the story is a captivating and sinister piece of work we hope will delight global audiences and bring a new perspective to the classic.”Yet their exuberance doesn’t mask the darker reality of their lives. In just the first chapter the narrator encounters an epileptic fit, suicide, illicit sex in the woods, and domestic violence. These don’t cause the boys any deep anxiety however; a sign perhaps that they are such common place occurrences they don’t warrant any commentary. The ending was perfect with Grace and Marguerite meeting , it makes you wonder if that happened later to other children of soldiers that had been in France . I have enjoyed this book , maddie was such a great character who experienced a very awful time during the war with the air raid and bombing if her house in London and knowing that her husband Philip was missing presumed dead in France . Prichard's biographer, Menna Baines, has remarked upon the difference in what is made of the community as it is looked at in Prichard's work, with how it appears in the work of Kate Roberts, and T. Rowland Hughes, also writers of the Caernarfonshire quarrying district. Multi layered, with themes of betrayals and secrets and the all enduring love between a husband and wife separated by war, it’s an absolutely compelling and evocative read.

In June 2023 a dramatisation by Rhiannon Boyle was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and a Welsh version broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru later in the month. [1] Poetry and other works [ edit ] Caradog Prichard (1904-1980) made his name in Wales as one of the writers of the Caernarfonshire quarrying district. Born and raised Bethesda, a tiny town and community on the River Ogwen, he spent his career as a journalist, eventually moving to London and becoming a sub-editor on the foreign desk at the Daily Telegraph. During this period, he penned four award-winning odes in addition to this remarkable novel. He remained in the English capital for the rest of his life. So much more than just a war time story, this is a novel of hope, long buried secrets and also of strength and courage. Prichard was born in Bethesda in 1904. It was an almost entirely Welsh-speaking village and owed its existence to the slate-quarrying industry. In 1905, when Prichard was five months old his father was killed in a quarry accident. The portrait in the novel of a mother struggling to survive reflected reality just as its story of a young boy whose life is torn apart by his mother's mental illness reflected his personal history. His mother suffered a breakdown when he was in his teens and in 1923 entered a mental hospital from which she would not emerge. I loved the fact that Maddie continued to work as a children’s illustrator after she married and had children, modern beyond her time and with a supportive husband who did not want to prevent her from her art. When she left London, to move to her husband Philip’s family home, it felt poignant given the news reports we’ve had in recent weeks of mothers and children fleeing from their homes with what they were able to salvage, Maddie and her daughters leaving with the few items salvaged from the rubble where their house had stood.As she begins to discover more about the family her husband has kept at arms' length, she feels more and more conflicted about the history he has never shared with her.

A Welsh language version of this drama was broadcast on Radio Cymru in two parts on June 11th and June 18th 2023 at 4pm. And what's more, Lyle invites Maddie, a woman he once apparently loved and wanted to marry, to stay in his house with Anna while Philip is away because everyone is best friends all of a sudden. Sure, Lyle...if Maddie's marriage didn't stop her from randomly making out with you, yours won't either.

The novel contains a great many biographical details, especially in relation to Prichard’s family and the seemingly hard-working, devout, politically aware rural folk of his childhood. In these esoteric musings, delivered as he makes his way to Pen Llyn Du, he ponders his troubled boyhood and recounts in a glorious prose-stream his memories of the people, events and slate-fields of his childhood. Recollections of a long-vanished way of life. About the Author I didn’t take to this book initially but slowly its humour and energy won me over. I loved the narrator who has a zest for life that’s hard to quench and a love for his gran and his widowed mother that is matched only by his love of bread and butter and lobscouse (a kind of lamb and vegetable stew). He even prays for food, inspired by a line from the Lord’s Prayer he’d recited in church that morning: I think that’s why the book has such a strong sense of the child’s love for the village and its inhabitants. Pritchard’s narrator knows every inhabitant and how they are related. He knows too every inch of his village; each street and lane being but a playground for him and his best friends Huw and Moi. I honestly don’t read enough historical fiction. I’m not entirely sure why and I can’t off hand remember the last one I read. One Moonlit Night was my first Rachel Hore read I believe even though I do own at least one more of her books, but it won’t be the last. I have a taste for historical fiction now and I’m itching for more.

Our narrator is highly observant and emotionally sensitive but i began to realise that the harsh everyday of life in the village has no room either for reflection or explanation . Silence, a good feed or the solace of religion are offered as the only options for making sense of or to numb the chronic trauma of a community in freefall. He learns early on how to suppress pain, anger, hurt and lust which eventually leads to the books bewildering and tragic climax. I really like stories set in large ancestral homes in a rural setting. They are always appealing; I find the descriptions of nature restful, there are always plenty of secrets hidden within and scope for strained relations and mysteries at the heart of the household.

Broadcast

At least Maddie had a flimsy excuse for her actions, Philip had none. Did my version of the book have missing chapters? Because it feels like something is off here. The smut scene came out of nowhere, no build-up, no nothing. It was ridiculous to read. And the motive for Philip's infidelity is never explained, except for a few lines of him reflecting on how he had not been in love, but fond of Sophie and very grateful. She had risked her life to help him. And he knew she felt something deeper for him. She also knew how much he loved his wife. It is a nice read, a simple linear story which reveals what happens to Maddie and her two children after they leave London and wait to discover the fate of Philip, their husband and father. With just a few items of belongings, Maddie and girls seek refuge at Knyghton, the country house in Norfolk where Philip spent his childhood with his grandmother, aunt and cousin Lyle. Her husband Philip as been reported missing in action and so she finds herself with no choice but to move her young family to her husband's family's house in Norfolk. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited. This passage made me cry even more. I can't tell you why he is crying. You have to read the book to find out.