"How Green Was My Valley" is a novel by Richard Llewellyn, published by Michael Joseph Publishing Ltd. It's about a Welsh family and the mining community in which they live.
It was turned into a Hollywood film, two BBC TV series, a Broadway musical and a theatre play.
Valle de Fuente de la Higuera, Ronda [Trip Advisor]
The Book
This historical novel is set in South Wales during the reign
s of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. It tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family of the South Wales Valleys, through the eyes of the youngest son, Huw Morgan.
Huw's academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from the dangerous coal mines. His five brothers and his father are all miners.
After his eldest brother, Ivor, is killed in a mining accident, Huw moves in with Ivor's young widow, Bronwen, with whom he has always secretly been in love.
Huw's father is later killed in a mine disaster. After everyone Huw has known either dies or moves away, and the village is reduced to a contaminated shell, and the house is being destroyed by a slag heap, he too decides to leave, and tells the story of his life just before going away.
Book cover courtesy of Iberlibro
The first edition was published in 1939 by Michael Joseph Ltd, London.
In the United States, Llewellyn won the National Book Award for favourite novel of 1940, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association.
The Film
The 1941 Hollywood film adaptation of "How Green Was My Valley" was highly successful, with a cast that included Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Roddy McDowall (as Huw), Donald Crisp, and Barry Fitzgerald.
None of the leading players was Welsh.
Film poster courtesy of WordPress
Directed by John Ford, "How Green Was My Valley" was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five, famously beating "Citizen Kane", "Sergeant York" and "The Maltese Falcon" for Best Picture, while Ford won for Best Director, Donald Crisp for Best Supporting Actor, Arthur Miller for Best Cinematography, and Richard Day, Nathan H. Juran and Thomas Little for Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration.
In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The Academy Film Archive preserved "How Green Was My Valley" in 1998.
TV Series
The book has twice been adapted by the BBC for television, in 1960 and 1975.
The 1960 adaptation featured Eynon Evans, Rachel Thomas and Glyn Houston.
The 1975 production starred Stanley Baker, (Dame) Siân Phillips, and Nerys Hughes. Phillips won a BAFTA award for best actress in 1976 for her portrayal of Beth Morgan.
Baker and Phillips [Photo: Historic Images]
Musical and Theatre
The novel was adapted as a Broadway musical, called "A Time for Singing", which opened at the Broadway Theatre, New York, on 21 May 1966.
The play starred Ivor Emmanuel, Tessie O'Shea, Shani Wallis, and Laurence Naismith.
A stage version, adapted by Shaun McKenna was performed at the Theatre Royal in Northampton in 1990. It marked the stage debut of Aled Jones as the teenage Huw.
[Courtesy of Spotify]
A Personal Viewpoint
I was struck the other day by how green was my valley. Much greener than normal. But we've had a load of rain. I live in the Valle de Fuente de la Higuera just outside Ronda (Malaga).
My Welsh dad's background was not dissimilar to that of Huw, the protagonist of the novel (see above). John Albert was the second youngest of five boys born into a South Wales mining family. His older brothers all went down the pit but my dad was deemed to be bright, so his dad, who had been invalided out of the pit following an injury, sent him to England. And there he stayed.
He met and married Vera Valerie, in Barnstaple (Devon), and they had me in 1950 and my brother Simon three years later.
[Photo courtesy of the BBC]
How Green is my valley?
As I indicated earlier, I've never seen it so green at this time of year, the start of Spring. And I've lived round here for over 16 years.
Valle de Fuente de la Higuera, Ronda [Photos: Paul Whitelock]
After all the rain we've had since before Christmas, it's no wonder. But at last buds are appearing on bushes, shrubs and trees, and vegetables are poking through the earth in my huerto. The ground is so wet we should get a bumper crop this year.
"How Green Was My Valley" and I
The amateur drama group I was a member of in the 1980s put on the play. I wasn't in it, but I enjoyed the production. The group was known as S.P.A.D.E.S. based in Swinton & Pendlebury (Greater Manchester).
I also saw the film on TV, although it was a bit too "Hollywood" for my taste.
And I remember watching the 1975 TV series with Stanley Baker and Sian Phillips (see above).
S.P.A.D.E.S. in Swinton & Pendlebury [Facebook]
© The Culture Vulture (alias Paul Whitelock)
Acknowledgements:
Amazon, Paul Whitelock, SPADES, Wikipedia
Photos and images:
BBC, Facebook, Historic Images, Iberlibro, Paul Whitelock, Spotify, Trip Advisor, WordPress
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