The Heyday in the Blood

By Geraint Goodwin

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...'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parthian Books
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781906998691

Geraint Goodwin

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.