"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. Beti, the beautiful and wilful daughter of a pub landlord, 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. In this enduring novel by Geraint Goodwin, first published in 1936, Wales is associated with tradition and stability, England connotes modernity and movement. Beti is conscious of living at a temporal border: ‘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.

Short extract:

Beti had gone out to see the kingfisher. She went tripping out over the old lawn, her feet sinking into it and with each step there came that strange resilience from the earth; it felt as though she were going to take flight.

Buy:

Buy The Heyday in the Blood from the Parthian online bookstore for £7.99.