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Wales’
answer to historical drama-queen Catherine Cookson is Alexander
Cordell – yet he wasn’t even Welsh.
Cordell was born in Sri Lanka in 1914, as George
Alexander Graber. Although his Grandmother was Welsh, his lifelong
love affair with Wales and Welsh history happened only accidentally,
when he was sent to Anglesey to recuperate during World War II.
He moved with his wife to Abergavenny, and later to North Wales.
Cordell granted fictional posterity to the South Wales valleys in
his bestseller trilogy about the Mortymer family. Set in the industrial
revolution, the stories show the struggle against poverty for normal
working class families living with the pollution belched from the
coal and iron works. The first book, Rape of the Fair Country begins
the story in 1826 in Blaenavon and is followed by The Hosts of Rebecca
about the Rebecca riots, set in rural Carmarthenshire. Song of the
Earth in the Vale of Neath, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil concludes
the saga. Yet there was more - in 1985 Cordell responded to fans
by penning a prequel to the trilogy: This Proud and Savage Land.
Other Cordell books set in Wales are: The Fire
People about Merthyr Tydfil’s 1831 uprising and Land of My
Fathers also set in Merthyr. This Sweet & Bitter Earth is played
out in the Rhondda and Aber Valleys and This Proud & Savage
Land is in Carmarthenshire and Blaenavon. Maesteg and Swansea are
the backdrop for Land of Heart's Desire and Beloved Exile is back
in Blaenavon and Carmarthenshire. Each of his books shows a different
aspect of life in South Wales, from the industrial revolution to
the turmoil of the early 20th Century.
Cordell became a writer from necessity. He said:
“Every time Rosina needed a new coat, I would sit down and
write a short story.” His wife would have plenty of coats
when Rape of The Fair Country became an international success.
Today, there is now a Cordell
Festival, a Cordell
Literature Prize, a Cordell
Museum at Blaenavon where his desk is exhibited, and even Cordell
Country. There are leaflets detailing guided walks featuring
prominent book locations. From your holiday cottage in the Swansea
valley you can tour some of the locations featured in Cordell’s
books. We are only ten minutes drive from the Vale of Neath, and
Merthyr Tydfil is a pleasant drive across the valleys.
Tour one takes the walker around Blaenavon, Blaenau
Gwent and Monmouthshire for the Rape of the Fair Country trail.
The second Song of the Earth tour is in the Vale of Neath and Aberdare,
with Rhondda and Caerphilly highlighting locations for This Sweet
and Bitter Earth in trail three. Merthyr Tydfil is the subject of
the last trail for The Fire People.
George Alexander Graber died walking near Llangollen’s
horseshoe pass in 1997. He is buried in Abergavenny.
Visit the Blaenafon Heritage
& Cordell Museum.
This article was written for welshholidaycottages.com
by Sue Bland. |
