Alice Thomas Ellis was born in north Wales, educated there and returned later, when married, to live part of the time there. This is a nostalgic look back at the country of her childhood, and at the Wales she now knows. By the author of "Unexplained Laughter" and "The Skeleton in the Cupboard".
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
These two memoirs celebrate the magic of growing up in small villages in the British Isles during the 1930s and 1940s. For Walsh, it was a time of contentment in a closely knit Irish farming community where "luxury was a full stomach and being clothed." Her reminiscences of odd neighbors, local customs, holy days, and school are interspersed with folklore and ghost stories. She looks back at her childhood with fondness and delight. Novelist Ellis's (Serpent on the Rock, LJ 10/1/95) nostalgia, on the other hand, is filled with melancholy, not only a yearning for what is gone but also a sorrow for what has changed. Her portrayal of the unspoiled beauty of the North Wales coast contrasts sharply with her depiction of its present-day ugliness, a condition brought about by tourism and suburbia. Along with details from her childhood, Ellis presents legends, myths, historical facts, and memories of raising her own children in an isolated wilderness area. Her scenic descriptions are enhanced by an abundance of evocative black-and-white photographs of the Welsh landscape. Though their moods are quite different, both books are well written and suitable for regional collections.?Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, Tex.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Scientific American
A Welsh Childhood is strengthened by photographs, large and handsome: they celebrate the misty greyness and wetness of rural Wales, small, ruined houses in vast, luminous landscapes.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Idiosyncratic meanderings about a long ago Welsh childhood.,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Welsh Childhood (Hardcover)
Perhaps not for all tastes this autobiographical series of set pieces is wonderfully reminiscent of life in small country areas not all so long ago. There is a sense of time lost folded into the scattered vignettes. I would suggest that it would be particualarly appealing to those of Welsh ancestry and/or those who have lived in small American towns. The photographs are very much in synthesis with the stories and point up the sense of enjoyable loss.
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