“It has filled me with a sense of seeing great talent trying its first flight, which I have not experienced since reading D.H Lawrence’s The White Peacock” - Howard Spring
“It is a mystery why a masterpiece like The Heyday in the Blood has been overlooked. Alternately comic and touching... a poignant romance." - Paul Durden
"[The Heyday in the Blood] explores issues of nationality, language and class with a humorous yet tragic story attached... The in-depth descriptions of places and situations create a vivid image for the reader, providing an interesting if challenging read." - Buzz Magazine
Synopsis:
The village of Tanygraig on the Welsh-English border is the setting for this passionate novel of love and its consequences.
It's 1936, and Beti is conscious of living on the border - not only between two nations, but between the old world and the new.
The beautiful and wilful daughter of a pub landlord, Beti is pursued by two men: Llew, her aggressive, red-haired cousin, and Evan, the dreamy miller and would-be poet. She has to make a choice but it’s not her future alone that depends on her decision. She and Tanygraig are positioned precariously on borders of class, nation, language, and changing times.
‘The old way of things was ending; she had come at the end of one age and the beginning of another. Wales would be the last to go – but it was going…’
About the author:
Geraint Goodwin was born in Wales in 1903. He started writing at an early age, his first success being at a local eisteddfod. As a young man he made his living as a journalist in London, where he wrote his first book Conversations with George Moore, and followed it with Call Back Yesterday. It was not, however, until he reached the age of thirty-two that he published his first work of fiction.The Heyday in the Blood made a considerable impression on the critics, and its author was hailed as a second Thomas Hardy. His untimely death in 1941 brought to an end a brilliant literary career which had barely time to begin. He was married and had two children, a girl and a boy.