Union activities cause a rift (even within the Morgan family for while father Gwilym belives strongly in religion and prayer as the paths to pursue, Huw’s older brothers are for petitioning and agitation), and one sees how families are affected. Some one once said, after seeing the beauty of Alaska, that he wished he had seen it as an old man, for it's magnificent beauty would surely spoil any scene he would ever see after. Not just because they have so much to teach us, not just because of all the world's history they contain, but just to remind us of what we have lost, and what we'll lose still. Appreciated the Guide to Pronunciation of Welsh names that’s in the back of the book, even though it was only somewhat helpful. I found Huw's parents quite irritating, Gwilym was so self righteous and Beth was so backwards, I guess that was realistic though for the time.

Dada is the undisputed figure of silent authority in the family who did not hide his fondness for his wife and children, especially Huw. It seemed odd that the book began with the main character leaving the valley, yet as the story of his childhood and coming of age unfolds, you never get to the point where he came to the decision to leave the valley. A world of simple people, simpler lives, great food, family, values and a connection to nature that has since then been completely lost.

And, if you're me, you're having trouble seeing them because the tears are welling up so quickly and so close together. We watch a few of his many brothers become involved in forming a union–against their father’s wishes. And due to this, despite the myriad of characters that go in and and out of Huw’s life, it is easy to tell them apart after some time. For me, part of the problem was that the serial spanned quite a long period and it was a bit home and away, meaning a snap shot of a situation and then fast forward to another time and scene. I read this aloud with my husband (then-boyfriend) and I really can't overstate how beautiful it is read aloud.

Interestingly, the major storylines involving women characters are given to Bronwen and Angharad, rather than Mama, despite the centrality of Mama’s role in the family. Directed by John Ford, How Green Was My Valley was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. I remember my parents had a copy of it on their shelves decades ago, though I was never tempted to read it then, I might be now. I tend to seek out and enjoy the older serials from the 70 because they are more leisurely and allow time to develop insights into characters, much as the authors originally intended. The characters are so vividly portrayed that they come alive even though none of them is given a thorough physical description.The winds came down with the scents of the grass and wild flowers, putting a sweetness to our noses, and taking away so that nobody could tell what beauty had been stolen, only that the winds were old robbers who took something from each grass and flower and gave it back again, and gave a little to each of us, and took it away again. Well, I'm rather disappointed with this apparent 'classic' as quite honestly it was such a slog to get through. Gwil and Beth's relationship was beautiful though, the love they had for each other was so pure and sweet. Mining is a way of life here, and there is pride in the skill of the work and in the role Wales plays in Britain's growing power.

I bought this especially for the challenge as I’d agreed with Mallika from Literary Potpourri that we would do a buddy read of it (we both read it at the same time and are sharing each other’s reviews but didn’t discuss it separately to these, mainly for reasons of my holiday!Angharad,the only daughter of the Morgan family, eventually married Iestyn,the son of the Colliery owner who treated her abominably. After everyone Huw has known either dies or moves away, and the town is reduced to a contaminated shell, he decides to leave, and tells the story of his life just before going away. We see the family working and then trying to relax without being bored to death by the lack of entertainment. A great deal of the book covers the hard life of the coal miners and their struggles with mine owners to earn a livable wage and the unsafe conditions they work in.

Korkuları, kıskançlıkları, zayıflıkları, güçlü yanları, bağnazlıkları, cehaletleriyle ve onları insan yapan tüm kusurlarıyla. This story tells of the courage of the men who mined and the women who waited for them to come up from the mine and home. We meet Huw Morgan as a small boy, the youngest in his family, his brothers and sisters settling (or not) into their roles, and we follow him into his late teens; however, his story is being written from much later life, with the horror of a pit slag heap that’s slipped pressing and pressing onto the little house where he was raised and lives now. The original print run also included a glossary covering Welsh words and terms at the end of the book.I started the book without reading (or rather rereading) the blurb, and had gone in expecting a mostly tragic tale. Me ha gustado muchísimo, especialmente la primera mitad del libro, porque los relatos de infancia me fascinan. The prose is so lyrical I found myself reading it aloud to my dogs, who are used to my declamations, often in dialect.