The most recommended books about Wales

I came across this book at a bring-and-buy sale in West Wales and it has become one of my firm favourites. It tells the story of Faye Ludlow whose husband is impatient for her to adapt to life in his family's ancient manor house. As the Second World War unfolds and nearby Dover comes under daily bombardment, Faye struggles to save not only her marriage but the family's finances threatened by her husband's increasingly grandiose schemes. Any sense of purpose she acquires from her war work as an ambulance driver is bolstered by an unlikely friendship with an enigmatic London banker. A story for any of us who have ever faced temptation.

This is the first of the Castleby series which are thrilling reads filled with action, mystery, suspense, alongside a touch of humour and romance.

What I love about this book is that the author chose the unusual setting of a RNLI station on the Welsh coast for this series, which brings a unique slant to the story. The well-drawn characters and vivid descriptions quickly draw you into a thrilling and fast-paced read.

I will never walk past a RNLI station again without thinking about the lives of the people who volunteer there.

Daniel Owen is a cop in a small Welsh town where everyone knows everyone else, and it seems like everyone is holding secrets. I love this book because of the atmosphere and the chance to see a different culture. Daniel is a great guy and I’ve enjoyed all the books featuring him so far.

My father was Welsh, and so I’m drawn to Welsh stories and history. Feet in Chains is about Jane and Ifan Gruffydd’s struggle to keep body and soul together on their small holding near Caernarfon, and raise their children. Ifan is a quarryman, at the mercy of powerful employers who can lower wages or increase hours at will. Kate Roberts was herself the daughter of a quarryman and was brought up on her parents’ smallholding in Caernarfonshire. Like two of the Gruffydd children, she won a scholarship enabling her to attend school. She became a teacher, but had to give up her career when she married because of the marriage bar on women. Her personal experiences give the novel much of its power. 

This is the book that made me think an East Asian woman could be the hero of her own book, not just the supporting character in someone else’s. I knew I loved Dan’s previous work, and when I discovered he’d written a book about someone East Asian set in the far west of Wales, it felt possible for someone like me to write and be written about.

Surrounded by the sort of character-ful Welsh-types from a work by Dylan Thomas, Miyuki Woodward embarks on a Midas-like project to turn base material into gold. I liked Miyuki’s holiday habit of going to the pub each night on her own to have a pint and read her book, Bliss, just like this funny book about heartbreak and hope.

The perfect title reflects how imperfect life can be, so just accept it!

Is it a memoir or a cookery book? The recipes are there to add to the background story, as we know how popular cookery books are when we empathize with the person behind them. In this case, Anita’s view that food is the basis of making and keeping friends shines through.

Anita’s story is of a professional, mature Canadian relocating to rural Wales, with anecdotes about people and how they interact when spread widely across a rural area. Anyone from this county (including me) will instantly recognize characters and places!

It is a large, sturdy coffee-table book to dip into with lots of full-color photographs and seasonal recipes for entertaining friends, a nice, easy read.

So many history books about medicine in the early modern period focus on London and other English urban centers. Withey’s book allows readers to move beyond the metropolis and glimpse sickness, disease, and medicine in a largely rural setting. It challenges readers to move beyond the concept that rural medicine was dominated by folklore and magic, Wales was not insular or remote but connected to broader medical trends in both Britain and Europe. This book illuminates how the ‘Welsh’ body was perceived: strong, robust, possessed of a hot choleric temperament, and a fondness for toasted cheese. And paints a clear picture of the men who made their living treating these bodies.

There are a number of anthologies of Welsh poetry in translation, but Tony Conran’s collection remains my favourite.

It is a terrific selection, from the great medieval court poets to the giants of the nineteenth century and the modernist poets of the twentieth century. Well-known poets such as Dafydd ap Gwilym and Waldo Williams rub shoulders with less familiar names, such as Gruffudd ap Maredudd and Alun Llywelyn-Williams.

Some individual poems have their own prefaces explaining their context, while the whole volume begins with a masterly introduction to the Welsh bardic tradition.

As a bonus, the volume concludes with a substantial explanation of the metres of Welsh poetry, so if you are not sure how to tell an englyn from an awdl, this is the book for you.

This is the second of Stephanie Burgis’s Regency Dragons books, but in my opinion, it can stand on its own.

The protagonist and viewpoint character, Rose Tregarth, is slowly emerging out of a fog of depression caused by the loss of her parents. She now lives with loving and somewhat eccentric cousins in Wales. Part of the charm of the book comes from the diverse cast of secondary characters, which includes a sapphic couple, a young girl with an anxiety disorder, and a young woman of color.

As an autistic reader, I very much appreciate that Rose’s love interest, a renowned dragon scholar, is coded as autistic, because it’s difficult to find good autistic representation in historical romance. Dragon fans take note: the book abounds with adorable miniature dragons with magical powers! 

I read this novel soon after returning from Wales where I was visiting on a writing fellowship. My experience of the country is contemporary while the book is set several decades in the past. But I found the references and nuances of life, society, politics, language, and religion familiar.

It is a beautiful study of realistic rural life without romanticizing it. Spanning nearly four generations and panning wide to take in the entire neighbourhood, it depicts history as lived experience. Be it late 21st century India or early 20th century Wales, ‘upended’ power dynamics in marriages in historically hierarchical societies lead to tragic, albeit interesting, stories whose impact continues to be felt many generations on. While this is the underlying theme of the story, the narrative doesn’t seek to educate. It simply paints an intricate and highly enjoyable picture.

I found it to be a classic, unputdownable book.