Nanteos: The Dipping Pool

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Nofel hanesyddol sy'n rhagflaenydd ac yn ddilyniant i The Shadow of Nanteos . Mae'n parhau stori teulu Powelliaid drwgenwog plas Nanteos ynghyd â byd creulon a dirgel Ceredigion yn y ddeunawfed ganrif.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Historical novel Nanteos - The Dipping Pool is both prequel and sequel to The Shadow of Nanteos , continuing the story of the infamous Powell family of Nanteos mansion and of the violent, secretive world of 18th-century Cardiganshire. It is visceral and hard-hitting, exploring life in the mansions and mines of the Wild West of Wales.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Jane Blank has taught creative writing in a wide range of locations including Wales' Millenium Centre, The Hay Festival, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth University, The Hill College, Farncombe Estate Centre and spoken at numerous literary festivals including The North American Festival of Wales. Since visiting Nanteos mansion at the age of ten, Jane has been haunted by the Grade-I listed Georgian house near Aberystwyth, nowadays a five-star hotel. Her previous novel, The Shadow of Nanteos , was long-listed for the Historical Novel Society awards, was Waterstones Wales Book of the Month and a Christmas bestseller in Wales.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

Nanteos: The Dipping Pool is the follow-up to Jane Blank’s 2015 novel, The Shadow of Nanteos , which was longlisted for the Historical Novel Society Awards. It is billed as both a prequel and a sequel to the earlier novel, which I found initially somewhat puzzling – how could it be both a ‘before’ and an ‘after’? The answer is that it expands the frame, ‘zooming out’ from the focus on William and Elizabeth Powell’s early years at Nanteos to provide the bigger picture, both of the years leading up to their inheritance and of those following the events recounted in The Shadow of Nanteos . The spotlight shifts away from Elizabeth Powell to include the intertwined stories of a broader cast of characters. Blank transports us back to the time when William’s older brother, Thomas, and his heiress wife, Mary, are transforming the existing Elizabethan house on the site into the grand mansion that still stands today. Husband and wife are not always in agreement and, although Mary does not insist on having her own way as holder of the purse strings, she is not afraid to challenge Thomas when he is pushing ahead with an idea without considering its consequences. She is a calm, level-headed woman who exhibits both good sense and sensitivity, and who also has the self-confidence to embrace Thomas’s illegitimate son, Edward (also known, rather confusingly, as Cai), as part of the team – if not the family – at Nanteos. She is a wonderful, pivotal character who, although she has to leave Nanteos when her husband dies, returns later as a powerful, stabilising influence when William and Elizabeth’s family is struck by tragedy. Tragedies small and large recur throughout the book, often as a result of betrayals, misunderstandings and casual brutalities. Sweet, innocent Branwen, the miller’s daughter, is like a tragic heroine who has stepped straight out of Thomas Hardy’s world, falling in love with the wrong man when she is truly loved by another, who tries, but ultimately fails, to save her from herself. As Caroline Clark said in her review of The Shadow of Nanteos , ‘the agencies of tragedy are [often] all-too-human passions’. It is perhaps Branwen’s story that stands out here, that lingers the longest, but there are other contenders in the novel’s rich texture, including the troubled relationship between Cai and Cari. Cai’s ambiguous place in society – the illegitimate son of a wealthy man who does not seek to sweep his existence beneath the carpet – highlights the deep social divides of the time. It is as if he has a foot in both camps, yet belongs in neither. Once again, Jane Blank captures the atmosphere of eighteenth-century Cardiganshire, of a rural society turned upside down by the massive expansion of the mining industry, of old beliefs and practices being clung to in a fast-changing world. It is to be hoped that her fascination with Nanteos and the Powells will lead to another page-turning book in the series.