Love can come in many forms, so in honour of Valentine’s Day, we’re highlighting a range of books which consider love in different ways. Shop here on our website or visit your local bookshop.
Things Found on the Mountain by Diana Powell
Farmer’s daughter Beth is a child of nature, utterly at one with the rugged landscape of the Black Mountains on which she tends her family’s sheep. But change is coming. The modern world arrives with the construction of a reservoir in a neighbouring valley. Part of the mountain is taken away to build the dam; there are people, machinery, noise. Then the farms are emptied of their young men by the First World War, including Beth’s beloved brother Daniel, who goes missing in action. Her mother turns to religion, her father falls silent. Beth takes to the mountain, and a solitude interrupted by the arrival of a colony of artists led by the charismatic Eric Gill. She finds solace in Gill’s apprentice, Gabriel. But when the colony decides to move on, Beth is faced with a terrible choice: can she leave the Mountain to be with the one she loves?
“When he smiled it really did feel as if the chilly Caernarfonshire wind had stopped for a few seconds and as if the place had suddenly got warmer.”
When Miriam fell in love with Padraig life seemed simple. But soon she discovered that love is a treacherous business. Everything changed when she met Daniel. She was taken down an unexpected path which would dictate and dominate the rest of her life.
Spanning three generations of a North Wales family in a Welsh-speaking community, Miriam, Daniel and Me is an absorbing and compelling story of family discord, political turmoil, poetry, jealousy… and football.
Rachael Clyne’s You’ll Never Be Anyone Else presents a direct and assured voice, demanding that we think carefully about what it takes to reconcile being different. She advises the reader to ‘Stop drinking the poison / labelled “Hate me.” / It’s that simple. I didn’t say easy.’ Clyne also has an alter-ego “Girl Golem” reminiscent of a superhero but based on the mythical man made from clay and spells to protect Jewish people from persecution. Through this empowering persona, Clyne opens up an exploration of Jewish and lesbian identity. Surveying attitudes in the present day and in the past, these poems explore migrant heritage, sexual identity, domestic violence and ageing. Treating even dark subjects with playful wit and colourful imagery, Clyne is a distinctive voice with a powerful message about self-acceptance.
When injured war hero Tom Evans returns from the slaughter of France in 1917, the west Wales family farm of Hendre Ddu seems the perfect place to find peace.
But life has moved on. Tom’s sister, Catrin, is married and pregnant; his father, Josi, remarried. Tom, too, looks for love, but domestic life runs anything but smoothly. Still struggling to face up to the horrors of war, the son who has been so critical of his father’s affair must now come to terms with his own passion.
Return to Hendre Ddu is a tumultuous sequel to Siân James’ classic novel A Small Country. Once again Siân James’ talent for character and dialogue weaves an intriguing tale of early twentieth century family life in rural Wales.
Twenty years old Fargo Hawkins dropped out of school and now works as a gardener for Harry Swaine, an abusive butcher with a chain of shops on the south coast of England. After witnessing a fight between Harry and Anne (his wife) Fargo steals a car and together he, Anne and a dog called Radar go on the run. They have £9,653, a bag of apples, a penknife and three bottles of wine. An incandescent Harry, a firm of private detectives and their emotions chase them across the country.
After a series of close calls, near misses and other adventures, Anne and Fargo pitch up at a caravan site in North Wales, where they find work and lie low. But a man as possessive as Harry is not to be denied. As their journey draws to a close, Fargo and Anne find themselves at the cottage of late poet R.S. Thomas. But what will become of Harry?
In Orbit is a deeply moving account of love, longing, and loss. On receiving news of a beloved teacher’s death, a man struggles with the loss of a relationship sustained by deep admiration and unrequited love. Memories of their shared journey are separated in three orbits where the man’s past, present, and future are punctuated by intense grief.
In Orbit not only grieves the loss of the teacher, but also toxic standards for boys and men. Beyond human connection, sustenance is found in the moon, the stars, the sky, and nature. The discovery of a badger’s track or the treasure of a bird egg reminds us how small our trajectories are in the context of the more-than-human: an answer perhaps to the grieving process.
Masque is not the story you think you know. Promising and beautiful young singer Christine is ambitious to reach new heights of excellence amid the gilt trappings of the Palais Garnier. But despite being devoted to her art, she finds herself caught between the twin evils of her dangerous and enigmatic singing master and her impetuous patron Raoul’s ‘romantic’ vision of her as a bourgeois wife. Her own desire to follow her operatic career becomes her guiding light, but none of them can control the directions in which their passions lead them. Sumptuously gothic and full of psychological insight, Masque evokes a gilded era of decadence and sensuality where love, rage and murder meet, with explosive results.
In her new collection The Turpentine Tree Lynne Hjelmgaardemploys strong, sensuous imagery to explore displacement, solitude and the search for connection. The tree of the title poem is an enduring symbol of memory, fragile but persistent against the passage of time. Drawing on her own memories from a life uprooted by time spent at sea, widowhood, and loss, Hjelmgaard conjures vivid portraits of family, friends and loved ones, including her late partner Dannie Abse.
Celebrating universal themes of love, loss and letting go, this tender collection is a reminder of how it feels to be alive. An essential addition to Lynne Hjelmgaard’s compelling body of work.
In honour of Valentine’s Day on 14th February, this week’s Friday Poem is the opening page of ‘Last Poem for Sarah’, a long poem by John Powell Ward from his pamphlet Last Poem for Sarah & Other Poems.
This week’s Friday Poem is ‘The River People’ by Cath Drake from her collection The Shaking City. Cath is running an online Dive into Poetry workshop on the theme of River Muses on Sunday 18th February for poets and writers of all levels. Find out more on her website cathdrake.com.
This week’s Friday Poem is ‘And the Soul’ by Kim Moore from her first collection The Art of Falling. Kim will be joining us online on Thursday 1st February to read alongside Polly Atkin at First Thursday. Stock up for the event by treating yourself to 50% off any of her books between now and 31st January 2024 in our January Sale.
We’re excited to announce the return of our half-price January Sale! From Friday 26th – Wednesday 31st January 2024, use the code JanSale24 to claim 50% off orders on the Seren website (excluding pre-orders and subscriptions).
Now is the perfect time to bag a bargain and beat those January blues. With all the bad weather recently, there’s no better time to hunker down in the warm with a good book. Whether it’s poetry, fiction or non-fiction you’re looking for, we’ve got books to suit all tastes.
Fiction
Explore gripping crime drama unfolding on the streets of Victorian Pontypridd with the Inspector Chard Mysteries by Leslie Scase. Read Sophie Buchaillard’s Wales Book of the Year shortlisted debut novel This is Not Who We Are, or Hammad Rind’s Four Dervishes hailed “…the most remarkable work of fiction to come out of Wales in a thousand moons.” by Jon Gower. There are also plenty of commute-friendly short story collections such as Scar Tissue by Clare Morgan and A City Burning by Angela Graham.
Stock up for International Women’s Day with inspiring non-fiction titles by Nula Suchet, Lucy Gannon, Julie Brominicks and Kim Moore. The best-sellingBar 44 Tapas y Copas cookbook (as featured on Saturday Kitchen) is only £12.50! And with spring on the way, now’s the perfect time to pick up both of Iolo Williams’ Wild Places books.
If you haven’t already read Paul Henry’s Poetry Category, Wales Book of the Year winning collection As If To Sing, it’s one of a great selection of critically-acclaimed poetry books available in the sale. You can also stock up on poetry featured on The Seren Poetry Podcast to read whilst catching up with series 2, such as Goliat by Rhiannon Hooson and In Orbit by Glyn Edwards!
We’ll be highlighting lots more great titles throughout the sale on our social media channels but for now, happy browsing and thank you for continuing to support Seren and our authors.
This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Heron/Snow’ by Polly Atkin from her first collection Basic Nest Architecture. Join us online on Thursday 1st February to hear Polly read alongside Kim Moore at Virtual First Thursday.
We’re looking forward to welcoming Polly Atkin and Kim Moore to Zoom on the 1st February to read from their latest books Some of Us Just Fall and Are You Judging Me Yet?. Tickets are £2 plus Eventbrite admin fee. Find out more below.
If you missed it, catch up with Rachael’s episode of The Seren Poetry Podcast Series 2 where she discusses You’ll Never Be Anyone Else in detail with our Deputy Publisher Sarah Johnson. Search for The Seren Poetry Podcast on your favourite podcast app to listen now.
This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Rememory’ by Nerys Williams from her third collection Republic. You can listen to our in depth interview with Nerys about Republic in episode 6 of The Seren Poetry Podcast Series 2.
The full box set of The Seren Poetry Podcast Series 2 is now available to listen to on your favourite podcast app. Search for The Seren Poetry Podcast and click like, follow or subscribe to have all future episodes delivered straight to your podcast feed.
Seren’s poetry list continues to go from strength to strength under the careful guidance of our poetry editors Rhian Edwards and Zoë Brigley. As 2023 draws to a close, we’re delighted to announce the full list of fantastic collections we’ll be publishing between April 2024 and March 2025.
Our poetry list continues to champion new and established authors from both Wales and beyond. Popular Seren authors such as Tony Curtis, Carrie Etter, Grahame Davies, Katrina Naomi, Kathryn Bevis, and Maggie Harris are on the list alongside voices new to Seren such as Lorcán Black, Betty Doyle, Wendy Allen, Emily Cotterill and Bethany Handley.
Keep an eye on our website and social media channels in the new year for more information about each of these exciting collections.
Don’t forget we also have two great collections publishing in February 2024. Cormorant by Elizabeth Parker and East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Taz Rahman. Keep an eye out for more information about each of these in the new year.
