Debra Gardner, San Antonio, TX

I've read "How Green Was My Valley" several times and loved it. The two sequels I read are: "Up Into The Singing Mountain" and "And I Shall Sleep Down Where The Moon is Small". I enjoyed them, but got the feeling that they were an afterthought, like fans writing him and asking for more.

One never got the feeling that Huw was planning to leave the valley as one gets by the end of the third book. I also wondered about Huw and Bronwen and thought that if the age difference had not been so great, they may have gotten together as a couple. As it was, I think Huw was always a little in love with her, although I don't think she really was with him.

Christina Scheck Donatsch M.A., writer, poet, Swit

This is a truly remarkable book and still a favourite one of mine. I had been to Wales once, when I was very young, during the time of my studying abroad for a year...I had read the book in English during several stages of my life and have liked it better and also understood it better of course.

Described is not only a time of early industrialism in Europe and along with that the coal mining that leaves scars of a once beautiful nature up to today in many areas, it gives also a picture of how socialism started and organised unions materialized, which at that time was a necessity, considering that the men in the pits ruined not only their health, but lived in constant danger and were thoroughly underpriviledged and often badly paid.

And this leads us to the next important matter in the book. Civil courage was something that was widely known in people those days, and as it says in the book, they ruled themselves and did not need a police then, or "the law" so defined. People followed their commonsense and their natural instinct of the heart as well as ethics and morals, combined with respect for their elders. This feeling what is right and wrong, can be found in any human, whether one has had the opportunity for education or not. So it shows in the members of the working colliers of the Morgan family. The story of the family and the village as described by Huw, seen through the eyes of a child and adolescent and written down as a man of good age, shows not only the development of a child who is gaining knowledge. For one thing by putting together bits and scraps from impressions, remarks of adults, good reading etc., on the other hand losing ideals and illusions, as every grown up will, but the story is also a genre-painting of a time long gone and an early warning of the upcoming pollution by men (just read the description of the slag heap that will cover up the whole house, that was solidly built by craftsmen of their family, as was built in those days, or the dying trouts in the dirty river!).

The book is a wonder to any nature-loving person and I shall always discover new treasures in it, even if I know most of the descriptions almost by heart now. I cherish the Welsh sense of humour, the Welsh way of English in which the book is written, the flowery language the Welsh people use...I am afraid to say, that not many books that are written nowadays (and I still read a lot), can compete with this lovely tale, that is written with sentiment and respect for beloved ones, and not with a false sentimentality but often with a grim humour (we call that gallow humour) that is the essence in life to overcome also hard times.

I am confident, it would still give a lot of people strength to go on nowadays who are despairing because of the progressive egotism, materialism, selfishness, carelessness and loudmouthedness and above all, by the increasing bureaucratism everywhere, that an individual is not considered befitted to decide for himself what is good for him, but problems can only be solved by institutions. Where shall we be in a few years, when morals and ethics are not taught at home anymore in the family? And what kind of immature people will we have in top positions all over the countries, who are educated, but have no emotional intelligence?

Jason Kane Swansea
The book How Green Was My Valley was written in a back room of the Grove Bakery in New Street St. Davids. His signature was even uncoverd on a windowsill by my brother in law whilst decorating.
Mon Oct 2 12:39:01 2006

steve from swansea
this is a stunning book, as an englishmen living in wales, it gives me a great insight into how wales used too be
Mon Feb 27 02:38:41 2006

Chris from Ireland
How green is my valley was a very unique book exploring many aspects of childhood that we all go through, Welsh or otherwise. Each person can make a link to some of Huws characteristics and the constant tread of religious significance was one I loved. Richard tackles the line between scripture and life and how hard it is to have the 2 in reasonable hamony and agreement. The morals and practices examined are still relevant to this day (2005/06)
Sat Dec 31 10:20:17 2005

Adrian Glamorgan from Fremantle, Australia
As an emigre from Wales, leaving when I was 7, "How Green Was My Valley" became a family text as I was growing up after that, linking it with our homeland, a paper hiraeth. I read and reread it, and could probably benefit from reading it again now that I'm 47. (It's funny how books change, the older you get.) Nostalgia is also a hazard for some. I have come across one Welsh Australian who laments the picture of Welshness that is portrayed in Llewelyn's first book. I find it on the other hand comforting, but then, slightly discomforting. There is something about Huw's relationship with Bronwyn which is suspect; a cloying and unconsummated sentimentality that Llewelyn couldn't redeem or release in his sequels. Is there some relationship with the feminine or maternal that Welsh men have not quite managed yet? Yet, along with "Wind in the Willows", the Book of Daniel, "Tom Sawyer" and Dylan Thomas' more famous poems, "How Green..." remains a cornerstone text of my childhood, and I am grateful to have read it to keep a link with my home country, and the land of my childhood.
Thu May 5 05:50:27 2005

Marged of Liverpool
I love "How Green" and also enjoyed following books such as "Far, Far the Mountain Peak" and "Green, Green My Valley Now".
Fri Mar 4 13:31:06 2005

Bevis Young from Houston
There is no mention of Llewelyn's subsequent works which follow the hero, Huw to Patagonia, Argentina. I believe that there were two or three more books, one being Green Green my Valley Now and another being Up into The Singing Mountain.
Thu Mar 11 17:26:28 2004