Owl at Midnight: a story of Gwenllian the lost Princess of Wales

by Patricia Lennan, Jenny Knowles (Editor)

Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, daughter of the last native Prince of Wales, was born in 1282, a tumultuous time when King Edward of England was determined to take Wales for himself. After Edward had killed Gwenllian's father, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, and her uncle, Dafydd, and had imprisoned her boy cousins, he must have felt some compassion for the infant Gwenllian for he ordered her to be hidden away in a nunnery, her name changed, to live out her days in anonymity. Taking these few known facts Patricia Lennan has brought the young Gwenllian to life in a story that expands from the minutiae of prayers, service and fasting in a Gilbertine nunnery, to the wide sweep of extraordinary events in 13th century Britain. In Patricia's own `Wales has a reputation for being a land of myths and legends. She harbours magic in the hollows and hills, in secret places, the rivers and valleys echo with ancient tales. I invite you to step into the living history and share an adventure.'

368 pages, Paperback

Published November 16, 2017

Reviews

[Lauren Phillips-Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is an interesting story here, but personally I found the execution somewhat lacking. I read this after reading Sharon Penman's Welsh Princes Trilogy, as I was interested in Gwenllian's story. While the plot was sufficiently interesting to keep me reading, albeit very slowly, I found the writing style and storytelling to be very pedestrian and uninspiring. It is a shame, as I was very intrigued by the subject matter. The delivery is what lets it down for me. It could have been told in a much more compelling way.