THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS - An Autobiography

by George Ewart Evans

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

George Ewart Evans was born and raised in the mining community of Abercynon, Glamorganshire, Wales. He wrote a series of books examining the disappearing customs and portraying the way of life as it had been in rural Suffolk. "Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay" is probably his best known book. The publication of his books gave him deserved recognition as a pioneering oral historian. He was also an accomplished story writer and wrote short-stories, novels and poems.

Reviews

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a conventional autobiography, more elliptical than most current memoirs, and none the worse for that. It is presented chronologically, from the author's upbringing in a Welsh mining village, through his school and university days, sporting and academic successes, periods of postgraduate unemployment, to his teaching appointments, marriage, his permanent relocation to East Anglia and early exploration of and identification with the nascent tradition of oral history that was to define his working life. With the possible exception of his professed embarrassment at the number of babies born to his parents, his evident depression at finding himself without work or prospects, and the occasional suggestion of marital strife and domestic disharmony, his account is noticeably discreet, passing over the passages that might arouse the reader's suspicion of an alternative version of the story. Did his wife resent supporting him financially -- an unconventional arrangement at the time -- while he remained at home recording the reminiscences of retired farm labourers and paying serious attention to old wives' tales? Did his children begrudge the greater interest he appeared to show in the childhoods of earlier generations? Such matters do not concern the author or the putative reader. If you expect privileged information and insight, you will be disappointed. I didn't, and I wasn't.