Overview

Set in the valleys of the Welsh iron country, this turbulent, unforgettable novel begins the saga of the Mortymer family. A family of hard men and beautiful women, all forced into a bitter struggle with their harsh environment, as they slave and starve for the cruel English ironmasters. But adversity could never still the free spirit of Wales, or quiet its soaring voice, and the Mortymers fight and sing and make love even as the iron foundries ravish their homeland and cripple their people. The Mortymer’s struggle has become emblematic of a nation’s history and struggle, it is a unique story of the people of Wales.

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9781917140997

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Reviews

‘Ribald, bawdy, exciting, tragically violent’ – New York Times ‘A tremendously lusty story... a splendid novel’ – The Sunday Express ‘Cordell’s historical novels reflect the radical politics of the Chartist movement, the hardship of the workers and their families and the spirit that bonded Welsh industrial communities in times of adversity’ – Carolyn Hitt, Western Mail

Author Information

Alexander Cordell (1914 – 1997) was a prolific novelist and author of thirty works which include the Mortymer trilogy: Rape of the Fair Country, Hosts of Rebecca and Song of the Earth. He was born George Alexander Graber in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the son of a soldier. Much of his youth was spent in the Far East, particularly China, to which he would return to in later fiction. He joined the British Army in 1932 aged eighteen, reaching the rank of major in the Royal Engineers before demobilisation in 1946 saw him pursue a second career as a quantity surveyor. He settled with his wife and young daughter in the Welsh border town of Abergavenny. His first novel was published in 1954 but attracted little attention. It was the publication of Rape of the Fair Country in 1959 which went on to become an international best-seller which enabled him to sustain a career as a writer of fiction. He would return several times, over a long career, to the stories of his adopted country's industrial past and has become one of the best-loved and most read of modern Welsh novelists.

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