Of Talons and Teeth

An historical novel set in Wales before the Industrial Revolution, as human love tries to flower amidst squalor and serfdom.

Wales, a mining village, pre-industrial revolution. A world of serfdom and squalor, its inhabitants oppressed by both Chapel conformist impulses and the predations of a new kind of capitalism being born.

Sion, a metalworker, strikes up an illicit relationship with Katherine, the wife of the mineowner's personal dogsbody. And so begins the struggle of non-transactional and non-exploitative human love to be recognised in a place bent on the destruction and negation of that very thing.

A mix of political anger, historical excavation, Celtic mysticism, praise of the human impulse to love and rage at avarice and exploitation, Of Talons and Teeth seeks to explore that moment when human beings and the natural beauties around them were turned into mere chattels; when Mammon became the only god worth worshipping.

Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool and has now lived in Wales for over a quarter of a century. An established novelist and professor of creative writing, his work has been translated into twenty languages, adapted for the screen and widely reviewed. His works include Grits, Sheepshagger and Stump.