Who writes history?
I ask this question after reading Jan Morris book:”The Matter of Wales”.
I do not recognise this country she portrays which is described as a “magnificent celebration of Wales and all things Welsh”, a country drenched in druids, mystic folk tales, grand houses and endless battles with the world I am writing about in “The Children of Craig-y-nos”.
On closer reading it is a book sourced on secondary or tertiary material – she has read extensively on Welsh literature cultures, history,likewise she has travelled widely throughout in Wales.
But has she spoken to the people?
There are a few paragraph eulogising the Welsh sheepdog. Fair enough.
She has watched some farmers are work.
But there is no mention of the poverty stricken disease riddled world of the Welsh valleys in South Wales during the industrial revolution and even up to the 20th century, a world where women who had TB were forced to have abortions part of a unspoken programme of unspoken eugenics (“ we were told not to have children…if we did we were forced to have an abortion.,..they said it was for our own good”) and how this shaped the lives of men and women who were little more than serfs owned by rich English mine owners.
Not even one sentence.
No, this is the comfortable history of Wales.
This is the official side of Wales: cultured in a quaint, charming, folksy kind of way produced from secondary and tertiary source material.
It has nothing to do with raw world of primary source material- ( oral history) the voices' of people from 50 60 even 90 years ago that’s the basis of ”The Children of Craig-y-nos”.
I am disappointed for Jan Morris is a travel writer I much admire.
