Synopsis:

Through his letters home and six short stories, Alun Lewis paints a vibrant picture of life in India as a British serviceman during World War II. Intimate, vivid, observational and always filled with emotion, In The Green Tree is a rare literary example of one Welshman’s experience of empire and war.

About the author:

Alun Lewis (1915-1944) was one of the generation of writers born in the first two decades of the twentieth century who contributed significantly to Welsh literature through the medium of English.

His first volume, Raiders’ Dawn and Other Poems, was followed by The Last Inspection (and other stories) in 1943. A second volume of poems, Prepared in India, appeared after his death in 1945 as Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets.

In the Green Tree was published in 1948.

Short extract:

November, 1942

I’ve got a little while before I plunge into a sweating hold to see that a piano accordion sing-song is in progress, and then up to the wireless cabin for ‘On Board Tonight’. I’m in my hot little cabin and I thought I’d be alone but in come Tudor and another batman called D.O. Evans who is known everywhere as Bugger All Evans! They pretend they’ve got work to do in our cabin but really it’s simply to have somewhere less unbearably sweltering than the crowded hold in which they are forced to exist – what places they are!

Buy:

Buy In The Green Tree from the Parthian online bookstore for £7.99