FURY OF PAST TIME | A LIFE OF GWYN THOMAS

TITLE - FURY OF PAST TIME | A LIFE OF GWYN THOMAS

WRITTEN BY - DARYL LEEWORTHY 

GENRE - WELSH WRITERS/ BIOGRAPHY 

PUBLISHED BY - PARTHIAN BOOKS 

PUBLICATION DATE - OCTOBER 2022 

Gwyn Thomas once admitted that whilst his novels were full of the love of people, they were not full of the love of life, an effect of the nihilistic worldview inherited from his mother. It was this cynicism, albeit with a strain of dark humour running through it, that coloured his life as a coruscating writer and celebrated raconteur. 

In the most in-depth biography of Gwyn Thomas yet published, Daryl Leeworthy makes use of letters and documents, many published for the first time, to deliver an unprecedented portrait of a complex and often contradictory man. Fiercely political (at least in his heart) with communist leanings, Gwyn Thomas was an angry young man who experienced the “split-personality” due to the dwindling use of the Welsh language in his hometown and own home, in a sense growing up as both Welsh and English.

Affected at a young age by the early death of his mother which gave Thomas a cynical, often bleak worldview which informed his written work. Ill-health, both physical and mental, and the widespread unemployment and decline of his native South Wales also marked his writing. But the humour that would see him become a popular mainstay of ‘70s television never wavered. He drifted through a multitude of jobs, most of which drove him to various kinds of utter despair, before settling into married life and teaching in Barry.

Thomas’ skilful and lyrical way with words bursts from the page thanks to the many, sometimes lengthy, quotes from Gwyn’s letters and books, and his voice is clear and resonant throughout. There is also a wealth of welcome information about the many foreign editions of Gwyn’s novels, and his vast influence in Europe and the USA in general, although he was banned in Ireland. The longest chapter in the book is devoted to Thomas’ famed television and radio appearances, the media in which he made his biggest and best remembered impact. There is also deep insight into his mostly successful yet chequered life as a playwright. 

Part biography and part savage, excoriating political and social history of South Wales and the wider world in the mid-20th century, Daryl Leeworthy makes a bold attempt at capturing Gwyn Thomas the man, but, through no fault of the author, he remains somewhat elusive. Nevertheless, this is an excellent and readable book, and as thorough a biography of the towering man of Welsh letters as we’re ever likely to get.

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A KIND OF LOVING

TITLE - A KIND OF LOVING 

WRITTEN BY - STAN BARSTOW 

GENRE - CONTEMPORARY FICTION 

PUBLISHED BY - PARTHIAN BOOKS 

PUBLICATION DATE - 10TH JUNE 2022 

A Kind Of Loving” was a “kitchen-sink drama” classic in its day, its reputation bolstered by the celebrated film starring Alan Bates. The novel returns in a brand new edition from Parthian Books - which is fitting because author Stan Barstow lived in South Wales in later life until his death - but does this slice of Northern life have any relevance today? 

It is, without doubt, somewhat dated, with characters and attitudes very much of their time; the language, for example, will surprise a modern reader, and it is not a novel that is likely to be a feminist “Book of the Month Club” pick - this is very much a book for men, with much talk of “bints” and other even less savoury epithets. Although Vic Brown is not a hero, or even an anti-hero; he’s just as flawed and human as any young man. 

Barstow makes Vic a likeable narrator despite his faults, and gives him some breathtakingly beautiful turns of phrase in his inner monologues which counterpoint the “bloke-iness” of the character. Vic’s rather awkward and fumbling pursuit of Ingrid is endearing, and there is a very funny section where Vic reads Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from “Ulysses” and can’t believe such sexual frankness is allowed in print. He is also a bit of a snob in his occasional scorn of certain Northern working-class traits; always restless and wanting something better. His treatment of Ingrid, (a character who is, by accident or design, not as well drawn as Vic, but she engenders sympathy from the reader) seems callous, and when he admits to himself that he doesn’t truly love her, it comes as a quite a shock. 

The story is timeless, but, more than anything, the novel, originally published in 1960, is a vivid snapshot of early ‘60s Britain, the North of England in particular. The politics and class divides of the time are prominent, especially in the factory where Vic works. Bus fares cost threepence, there are jobs for life, men work in coal-mines and go to the football on Saturdays, while their wives run the house. There is much talk of a “boom” in industry and business during the novel’s time period, and whether it can last. 

Stan Barstow was a very skilled and naturalistic writer, with a gift for observing the realities of life. The characters’ journey is one that virtually anybody can relate to. Ultimately, “A Kind of Loving” is an immensely readable, honest and captivating story from an era when you could have a red-blooded male as a hero without incurring a jail sentence, and the story itself can be enjoyed, with an open mind, on its own terms.

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TEMPO - EXCURSIONS IN 21st CENTURY ITALIAN POETRY

TITLE - TEMPO - EXCURSIONS IN 21st CENTURY ITALIAN POETRY 

EDITED BY - LUCA PACI

PUBLISHED BY - PARTHIAN BOOKS 

PUBLICATION DATE - 1ST JULY 2022 

 

“Tempo - Excursions in 21st Century Italian Poetry”, edited by Luca Paci, is a collection of select works by over twenty modern Italian poets, separated into their own discrete section, with each poem presented in both Italian and English, alongside a short biography of both the poet their translator. Pretty much all the poetry included in this collection is very good to excellent, with vivid, often brutal imagery melding with effortless lyricism, creating many memorable moments. 

There is no doubt that a certain something is lost in translation, as always, but I would argue that something is gained, too. The poems, on the whole, are about the “dark underbelly” of the Italian psyche. The Italian language doesn’t seem suited to such dark themes, it being one of the most lyrical, romantic and “happy” languages in the world, but the translations often lay that darkness bare by using the harsher words of English. It’s telling that the first line of the first poem in the book, the sombre “VI” by Antonella Anedda, translates as “This language has no innocence”. Death and darkness stalk Anedda’s stark poetry; it is deeply concerned with mortality and the inevitability of decay. By contrast, the work of the next poet, Franco Buffoni, evokes Italy’s classical age. 

Much of the poetry is dark to the point of morbidness. The frailty of the human body and it’s eventual collapse, murder, the brutality not only of death but of birth, too, are recurring themes - the visceral body-horror of Dome Bulfaro being a standout - but depictions of such things have rarely been so beautifully rhythmic. However, this is not, to coin a phrase, poetry to kill yourself too, yet the reader would be forgiven for thinking that the world conjured up in these verses jars quite significantly with their accepted impression of Italian culture. From the urgent, urban poetry of Milo De Angelis, to Matteo Fantuzzi’s savage dissections of terrorist attacks and Shirin Ramzanali Fazel’s love letters to language and home - there are rare, enlightening jewels to be found in this uncharted territory, though I feel that the poems are best consumed in small doses. 

The selection is a model of diversity. The aching and poignant verse of Mariangela Gualtieri is fragile and elusive, and concerned with the passage of time, while Andrea Inglese’s clinical and highly visual blocks of prose conjure up images of scientific exhibits, forensically detailed. There is something for everyone in this vital and energised collection. 

With this collection, Luca Paci has delivered a breath of fresh poetic air that deserves a wide audience. If nothing else, it presents a new side to Italy that I assume many are unaware of: an Italian intellectualism that perhaps even it’s own country has suppressed, whether by accident or design. Very much a groundbreaking celebration of Italian poetry, presented in both the original language and in new translations, Parthian Books are to be congratulated for bringing such a vibrant, diverse and thorough compilation of under-known verse to a wider audience. I have rarely been so moved by poetry this dark, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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