A WELSH CHILDHOOD

Early reprint. Bound in full black morocco with three raised bands and gilt titles to the spine and a red leather Welsh dragon motif and gilt titles to the upper board. Housed in a navy cloth-covered slipcase. Generously illustrated throughout with beautiful black and white photographs of Welsh life and landscapes by Patrick Sutherland. A very near fine copy, the binding square and tight, the leather with a few very faint scuffs. There are a few small areas of toning to the closed text-block edge, the contents are otherwise clean throughout and without previous owners' stamps or inscriptions. The slipcase is also in near fine condition.

A memoir by the English novelist and editor Alice Thomas Ellis (1932-2005). Thomas Ellis had a lifelong connection with Wales - her mother was half Welsh, and as a child during World War II she spent time as an evacuee in North Wales, a place to which she would always return. Many of Thomas Ellis' novels are set in Wales (such as 'Fairy Tale', 1996, and 'Unexplained Laughter', 1985), and despite living in London she maintained a holiday home in Powys, where she lived permanently after her husband's death in 1995. 'A Welsh Childhood' describes Thomas Ellis' experiences in Wales as both a child and an adult, the early impact of Welsh folklore on her imagination, her love of the Welsh landscape and her grief as it changes with time. These recollections are set against the backdrop of Thomas Ellis' own personal and professional life, including her painful struggle with the death of her nineteen-year-old son and her profound and complex relationship with the Catholic faith. Supported by fantastic, intimate images of Wales and Welsh people by the documentary photographer Patrick Sutherland.