Hello Pat (from Perth) & fellow listers,
Further excellent reading written by Alexander Cordell, is 'This Proud and Savage
Land', which was written as a prelude to his best selling, 'Rape of the Fair
Country', commencing in 1800.
An extract for the benefit of listers who haven't read any of Alexander Cordell's
work...........
"Most beautiful was the sky above us now, for the rain had washed it clean: the
clouds reflecting the pulsating rainbow colours as the world began to catch alight over
The Top from Nantyglo to Hirwaun. Never will I forget the sight as we neared Blaenafon;
the colours of lonely bloomeries shooting their rockets at the stars.
Music was coming from the Whistle Inn, where off-shift workers thronged; a man was singing
a plaintive song in Welsh, his voice bass and pure on the wind: the pace of industry
quickened as we neared the Brynmawr Corner and turned down North Street into Blaenafon.
And such was the flashing and baying of furnace glare that I thought it was the end of the
earth."
Another fine book of his, is entitled, 'The Fire People', which climaxes in the
inglorious Merthyr Tydfil riots of 1831 and the hanging of Dic Penderyn, the first
legendary martyr of the Welsh working class.
regards'
Mal Davies......... Ammanford, Carms.
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