This book portrays the life, two generations ago, of a district in Southern Wales where an industrial coalmining community meets the more placid rural Wales. The detail of the description, which is absorbing, makes it clear that we are not reading about a part of England, nor about contemporary Wales which is profoundly different from the land of Nathan Hughes' childhood and youth.
There are no class distinctions in the working-class society described here, but it is no rootless proletariat, for this is Wales which was described by Milton four centuries ago as "an ancient nation." Its native language is Welsh, an ancient tongue in which Welsh law was codified over a thousand years ago. Many of the nation's values are seen in the author's description of the religious and cultural life of the area. The one thing I knew in my youth about Penygroes was that there was a wonderful brass band in the district. But its musical culture went much deeper than that, in the choirs, the oratorios sung and concerts held, and its splendid singing festivals. Nor was the cultural life confined to music. The popular lectures, the evening classes, the literary tradition, drama, the weeknight and Sunday meetings of the powerful non-conformist chapel and of course the eisteddfod that unique literary and musical festival; all these fostered a broader intellectual, religious and literary culture.
The first Eisteddfod was held in 1176 under the patronage of Rhys ap Gruffudd, Prince of Deheubarth, the kingdom of which the Penygroes area was a part. His main fortress at Dinefwr castle is only a half dozen miles from Penygroes. His successful struggle against the Normans went far to save the Welsh language, and literature of course, from extinction. For a thousand years Welsh literature was one of the great literatures of Europe in poetry and prose, quality and quantity. It is the oldest living literature in Europe, outside Greece. Whereas the oldest poems in the Oxford Book of English Verse come from the 14th century; the oldest poems in the Oxford book of Welsh Verse were composed in the 6th century.
The literary tradition survived strongly among the Welsh speaking working class of Nathan's youth. This was illustrated by the experience of the Reverend Dr. Gomer Roberts. In his early years he worked as a collier in a pit a few miles from Nathan's home. He felt an urge to go to the University in his early twenties and was helped by his fellow miners. Six of them published a volume of their own poetry - "O Lwch Y Lofa" (From the Dust of the Mine) and gave Gomer, who became a premier historian, the profits from its sale.
We see that the community described in this book by Nathan Hughes has very deep roots.
Gwynfor Evans