The Journeying Boy: Scenes from a Welsh Childhood - Softcover

White, Jon Manchip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0916078442 ISBN 13: 9780916078447

Publisher: Iris Press, 1998

Synopsis

"The Journeying Boy" is a beautifully crafted travelogue, a charming history of Wales, and a nostalgic look back at one man's varied and interesting life. Jon Manchip White returns to his native Wales for the first time in twenty years and discovers that time has wrought immense change to this unusual and mysterious little country in the United Kingdom.

While touring the country, White recounts his childhood in Cardiff, where his fore bears had lived since Norman times, spawning an entertaining crew of rich men and ne'er-do-wells, shipowners, sea captains, buccaneers, and murderers.

From Cardiff, White travels to the coal country of Glamorgan and the Black Mountains, introducing an amazing panoply of odd Welsh characters, past and present: from kings and queens, poets and writers, to warriors, coal miners, and seamen. At the heart of the story in the singular and tragic nature of the Welash race--their language, their religion, their passion for music and literature, their love of life, and their obsession with death.

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Manchip White, born and brought up in Wales, spent six years at Cambridge University after serving in the Royal Navy and the Welsh Guards in World War II. Later he spent five years in the British Foreigh Service before working twelve years aa a writer and script editor for British and American film companies. Afterwards he spent ten years as a professor at the University of Texas and a further twenty at the University of Tennessee, where he occupied the Lindsay Young Chair of English. He is author of over 30 books of fiction, poetry, travel, history and biography. He is a member of the Welsh Academy. He has become an American citizen and currently resides and writes in Knoxville, Tennessee.

From Kirkus Reviews:

White (Death by Decree, 1981, etc.; English/Univ. of Tenn.) takes a loving look at his boyhood home and comes up proud to be a Welshman. Born in Cardiff in 1924, and educated in English schools and universities in the 1930's and 40's, White views his Welsh nature and English nurture as a source of strength, providing a happy blend of romance and reality. At age 64, he makes a pilgrimage to his native land, quite possibly his last visit, and shares the thoughts and memories evoked by what he finds there. A good deal of Welsh history, from the Bronze Age on, is thrown in to give the reader the right perspective on matters Welsh, but primarily the story is a personal one--White's recollections of his now- dead parents and his uncles and aunts, his remembrances of old friends and mentors, his anguish over the present plight of his invalid wife back in America, and his regrets and satisfactions in the face of the changes--and sometimes the lack of change--he finds in Cardiff and the other places he journeys to. ``Journeying'' is an appropriate title term, for the text wanders about rather freely as White discourses on whatever pleases him. At times he goes off track, as when he inexplicably devotes a lengthy section to a discussion of the rigors of American football; perhaps the untamed Welsh side of his nature occasionally takes the upper hand, and the rational English side temporarily loses control over his whims. An engaging and personal look into the past of a man who may not yet have come to terms with himself--but who at least is clear about his love for his homeland. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Iris Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0916078442
• ISBN 13: 9780916078447
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 336