Hen Bethau Anghofiedig

Hen Bethau Anghofiedig

Shortlisted for the 2018 Wales Book of the Year Award

When he meets an old schoolfriend by chance on the train to west Wales, Merfyn takes advantage of a seemingly endless train journey through the dark to unburden himself of an unsettling story, beginning when his aunt Mona, an acclaimed writer and academic, dies, leaving him her house in an isolated, long abandoned former mining hamlet. Now a successful London-based interior designer, Merfyn is persuaded by his partner, Harri, to modernise the house and use it as a country retreat, but when the pair move in, the house is invaded by inexplicable sounds and a terrifyingly baleful atmosphere. As Merfyn begins to immerse himself in local history, his rediscovery of his Welsh identity as well as the increasing conviction that the house is haunted drive a wedge between him and Harri, until Merfyn is left alone to discover the secrets of the past. But when he finally discovers Mona’s tale, he too finds he cannot entirely escape from the dark legacy.

Taking the conventions of the classic ghost story and giving them a new twist, leading novelist Mihangel Morgan builds up a menacing atmosphere periodically undercut by the listener-narrator’s wry remarks, while obliquely exploring pressing contemporary questions of linguistic, cultural and economic colonisation and their expression through sexual and emotional abuse.

Videos

Reviews

‘Mihangel Morgan at his best. Atmospheric, griping, strange, excellent.’ Bethan Mair