Novelist, essayist, poet and writer of short stories, Margiad Evans (1909-1959) was one of the most remarkable women writers of the mid-twentieth century. Having published three novels, two autobiographical works and two volumes of poetry during her life, her relatively slim output belies considerable achievement in the face of intermittent poverty and the illness of her later years. (Aged forty-one, she was diagnosed epileptic, falling pregnant the same year; she died of a brain tumour in 1959.) Evans's fiction has been compred to that of the Bronte sisters, her poetry to W.H. Davies and de la Mare. Her writing ranges from the balanced symmetries of her debut novel A Country Dance, to Creed with its 'postmodern' authorial interventions and anticipation of structuralism, through the meditations on creativity and divinity contained in the Autobiography, to the coming-to-terms with mortality that is A Ray of Darkness. Unifying this complex oeuvre, however, is a concentration on certain key themes which resonate strongly today. Foremost is Evans's ground-breaking depictions of love, sex, illness and death in the lives and work of women inhabiting harsh and restrictive rural environments. Her beloved south Herefordshire borderland was inspirational in itself. And, as her health deteriorated, so death, and its unquiet acceptance, became central. In this, the fullest study to date, Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan draws on Margiad Evans's extensive personal and literary archives to offer valuable, sympathetic, well-balanced criticism of an important and highly individual woman writer whose work retains its force, identity and freshness.

English literature has a fine tradition of rural writing, and one of this century's greatest exponents was Margiad Evans (1909-1958). Although born in Uxbridge, she was brought up near Ross-on-Wye, and it is the south Herefordshire borderlands, its farmsteads, hamlets and towns, which are the setting for The Old And The Young, her collection of short stories first published in 1948. These fifteen stories are a distillation and refinement of all that is best in Evans's writing. A close observer of nature, her descriptions of trees, water, rocks, the movement of air and the interplay of light and darkness, are both exact and fluid. She was equally attendant to the subtleties of the human world. Her child's-eye narrations are remarkably empathetic, coloured and informed by memories of an idyllic year spent with her sister on her aunt's farm near the Wye. But the countryside, though treasured, is not romanticised. A rose-covered cottage could mean isolation, poverty and back-breaking physical labour, as Evans herself experienced. Her sympathies with the old, the infirm, the lonely and the careworn are a constant strand. In many of these stories, all but one written during the Forties, the hardships of rural living are exacerbated by the war. Men are absent, families are separated, women have to shoulder added burdens. This collection is testament to the quiet heroism of the home front, to the stoic resourcefulness of those who have no cenotaph. Indeed, in war or in peace, it is Evans's ability to delineate the defining nature of small incidents, and to uncover in a precise locality moments of profound spirituality, which raise The Old And The Young to the level of a classic.

This is the first comprehensive authoritative survey of Arthurian literature and traditions in the Celtic languages of Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. With contributions by leading and emerging specialists in the field, the volume traces the development of the legends that grew up around Arthur and have been constantly reworked and adapted from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It shows how the figure of Arthur evolved from the leader of a warband in early medieval north Britain to a king whose court becomes the starting-point for knightly adventures, and how characters and tales are reimagined, reshaped and reinterpreted according to local circumstances, traditions and preoccupations at different periods. From the celebrated early Welsh poetry and prose tales to less familiar modern Breton and Cornish fiction, from medieval Irish adaptations of the legend to the Gaelic ballads of Scotland, Arthur in the Celtic Languages provides an indispensable, up-to-date guide of a vast and complex body of Arthurian material, and to recent research and criticism.

Discussion of site and buildings, books and manuscripts, cultural life and traditions, from the earliest Anglo-Saxon period to the later middle ages. Glastonbury Abbey was one of the great cultural centres of Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, yet this is the first volume of scholarly essays to be devoted to the subject. Written in honour of C. A. Ralegh Radford, the first itemsare concerned with the physical remains of the abbey, ranging from the place of Glastonbury in the development of Christianity in Somerset to specific examinations of surviving monastic buildings. The main body of the essays explores documents relating to the abbey for evidence of its history and traditions, including the earliest Anglo-Saxon period, pre-conquest abbots, and links with the Celtic world. The final section deals with the cultural life of the abbey: Glastonbury's role in education is discussed and the concluding essay deals with the most magical of all Glastonbury legends - its link with Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail. Contributors: PHILIP RAHTZ, MICHAEL D. COSTEN, C.J. BOND, J.B. WELLER, ROBERT W. DUNNING, LESLEY ABRAMS, JAMES P. CARLEY, ANN DOOLEY, SARAH FOOT, DAVID THORNTON, RICHARD SHARPE, JULIA CRICK, OLIVER J.PADEL, MATTHEW BLOWS, CHARLES T. WOOD, NICHOLAS ORME, CERIDWENLLOYD-MORGAN, FELICITY RIDDY.

This volume catalogues manuscripts from and in Wales.

`No single recent enterprise has done more to enlarge and deepen our understanding of one of the most critical periods in English history'. Antiquaries Journal The proceedings of the 1996 Battle Conference contain the usual wide range of topics, from the late tenth century to 1200 and from Durham to Southern Italy, demonstrating once again its importance as the leading forum for Anglo-Norman studies. Many different aspects of the Anglo-Norman world are examined, ranging from military technology to the architecture of Durham Cathedral; there are also in-depth investigations of individual families and characters, including William Malet and Abbot Suger.

An examination of both the role played by Fortune in Arthurian literature and legend, and the fortunes of the legend itself. The essays in this volume offer a general overview and a number of detailed examinations of Arthur's fortunes, in two senses. First is the role of Fortune itself, often personified and consistently instrumental, in accounts of Arthur's court and reign. More generally the articles trace the trajectory of the Arthurian legend - its birth, rise and decline - through the middle ages. The final essay follows the continued turning of Fortune's wheel, emphasizingthe modern revival and flourishing of the legend. The authors, all distinguished Arthurian scholars, illustrate their arguments through studies of early Latin and Welsh sources, chronicles, romances [in English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Welsh], manuscript illustration and modern literary texts. Contributors: CHRISTOPHER A. SNYDER, SIAN ECHARD, EDWARD DONALD KENNEDY, W.R.J. BARRON, DENNIS H. GREEN, NORRIS LACY, CERIDWEN LLOYD-MORGAN, JOAN TASKER GRIMBERT, ALISON STONES, NEIL THOMAS, JANE H.M. TAYLOR, CAROLINE D. ECKHARDT, ALAN C LUPACK.

A special number devoted to Celtic material. This special number of the well-established series Arthurian Literature is devoted to Celtic material. Contributions, from leading experts in Celtic Studies, cover Welsh, Irish and Breton material, from medieval texts to oral traditions surviving into modern times. The volume reflects current trends and new approaches in this field whilst also making available in English material hitherto inaccessible to those with no reading knowledge of the Celticlanguages. CERIDWEN LLOYD-MORGAN has published widely in the field of Arthurian studies. She is currently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University.

An interesting collection of 7 studies of various aspects of the history of the visual arts in Wales by experts in the field, namely Peter Lord, Donald Moore, Megan Morgan Jones and Robyn Tomos together with the two editors. 11 black-and-white and 10 colour illustrations.