Return to Hendre Ddu (23 page)

Tom had listened to the flow of words, hardly able to hold anything in his head except death, the death of his loved one. But already the life force was buffeting him again. ‘Yes May, I love him already and I love you too.’

It would, in time, be a sort of healing perhaps. In time. Yes, he knew he would be a good husband and a fond father. And he knew the tears he shed that night would be accepted as suitable for the momentous occasion. To May and Tom Evans, an adopted son, Ianto.

A Small Country

by Siân James

The first novel about Hendre Ddu

Now a feature film and television series from S4C – Calon Gaeth (2007 Bafta Cymru award winner for Best Drama/Drama Serial for Television)

First published in 1979 and now part of the Seren Classics series,
A Small Country
is the story of the Evans family; farmers in Carmarthenshire. In the summer of 1914, son Tom returns from Oxford to find the family falling apart. His handsome father has gone to live with schoolmistress Miriam Lewis, who is to have his child. His mother, broken-hearted, lies ill in bed, while his beautiful sister Catrin longs to leave for London and art college. Soon Tom’s college friend Edward will arrive to holiday with them, half-aware of his attraction to Catrin but already engaged to Rose, a supporter of the Suffragettes. And Tom himself is in debt and disillusioned with his proposed legal career. He would like to manage Hendre Ddu, the family farm, but finds that family troubles and the approach of war set him on a very different course.

Sian James interweaves the lives of her characters with skill and understanding as they face the complications of family breakdown, love, war and propriety. Her ear for dialogue and eye for detail make
A Small Country
a hugely enjoyable novel.

Simply told, a moving story deeply and imaginatively embedded in its Welsh background and Welsh ways.’

– Birmingham Post

Seren paperback, £6.95 www.seren-books.com

seren
is the book imprint of Poetry Wales Press Ltd

57 Nolton Street, Bridgend, Wales CF31 3AE

www.seren-books.com

© Siân James 2009

ISBN 978-1-78172-123-0

The right of Siân James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

Extract from Siegfried Sassoon’s
The Death Bed
© Siegfried Sassoon, by kind permission of the Estate of George Sassoon

The publisher acknowledges the financial support ofthe Welsh Books Council.