How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

 

Around the World in 80,000 Pages - Book 19

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

You can read about my Around the World in 80,000 Pages challenge here.

Miles travelled: 1,062 
Pages read: 7,438

Disclaimer: I'm rather behind on my reviews, so they will be super brief until I get caught up again.

From Cardiff we head north west, into the valleys for Richard Llewellyn's classic How Green Was My Valley. This is a bildungsroman following Huw Morgan as he grows up in a coal mining community of south wales.

The author biography at the beginning of the book claims Richard Llewellyn was born in Pembrokeshire. This isn't true. Llewellyn (real name Richard Lloyd) was actually born in Middlesex, though he was of Welsh stock.

How Green Was My Valley is an interesting look at a very hard people, and is well written. At times it verges on the mawkish, and the characters have a tendency to be a little flat, and this does detract slightly from what otherwise could be a great novel. The details of the setting are more vivid than those of the people and the book has a great sense of time and place.

Overall, I gave the novel 109/140, firmly in ★★★★☆ territory. We stick with the red dragon of Wales, and the suggested music is the evocative Land of My Fathers, sung here by the Fron Male Voice Choir.