Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales, 1962-97 ('Oral history at its revelatory best' DAVID KYNASTON)

Description

Brittle with Relics is a landmark history of the people of Wales during a period of great national change. In the closing third of the twentieth century, Wales experienced the simultaneous effects of deindustrialisation, the subsequent loss of employment and community cohesion, and the struggle for its language and identity. These changes were largely forced upon the country, whose own voice often went unheard outside Wales and was argued over within its frequently tempestuous borders. Brittle with Relics is a history of the people of Wales undergoing some of the country's most seismic and traumatic events: the disasters of Aberfan and Try-weryn; the rise of the Welsh language movement; the Miners' Strike and its aftermath; and the narrow vote in favour of partial devolution. Featuring the voices of Neil Kinnock, Rowan Williams, Leanne Wood, Gruff Rhys, Michael Sheen, Nicky Wire, Sian James, Welsh language activists, members of former mining communities and many more, this is a vital history of a nation determined to survive, while maintaining the hope that Wales will one day thrive on its own terms.

ICHARD KING is the author of Original Rockers (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and a Rough Trade, The Times and Uncut Book of the Year), How Soon Is Now? (the Sunday Times Music Book of the Year) and The Lark Ascending (a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Penderyn Prize), all pub-lished by Faber & Faber. He was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, Mid Wales. | richardhy-welking.com

'A peerless cultural history.', Evening Standard, Books of the Year, on THE LARK ASCENDING 'Nothing in this book is uninteresting . . . King soars.', Financial Times, on THE LARK ASCENDING