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Iestyn Mortymer, captured during the chartist Rebellion, is tried at the
Monmouth Assizes and sentenced to twenty-one years transportation
for crimes against Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria. Torn from his
young wife Mari, he is exiled to Afghanistan - a country as violated and
outraged as his native Wales.
On all sides Iestyn witnesses signs of increasing hostility towards the
English, and of the crumbling edifice of the Empire. Involved in the appalling
'Afghan Promenade' that cost the British army 17,000 lives, caught up by
intrigue, murder and deadly deception, he cannot escape the fact that this
is a time when every white face in the country is dubbed an Unbeliever, every
redcoat a potential target of violence. Yet, despite everything, there is another
escape that he is determined to make. Back to Wales...
An epic blend of history and fiction, a swirling canvas of politics, war, servitude
and passion, BELOVED EXILE marks the glorious culmination of Alexander
Cordell's Welsh sagas.
Iestyn Mortymer was sentenced to twenty-one years transportation to the colonies
for his part in the Chartist Rebellion of 1839. But three years on, he escaped during
the massacre of the British Army in Afghanistan, and returned to Wales under a false
identity.
His beautiful Afghan lover Durrani, granddaughter of Dost Mahommed, the King of Kabul,
having been banished from her country because of her relationship with Iestyn, joins him
with their son, Suresh, to begin a new life in West Wales, farming at Cae White, near Carmarthen.
However, Durrani's grandfather has other ideas. His kingship is under threat from Akbar Khan,
his traitorous warrior son. To prevent Akbar from seizing the throne, Dost Mahommed changes
his mind about his granddaughter's banishment and now seeks to have young Suresh returned
to Kabul, in order for the child to take the throne, with his mother as Queen regent.
The Dost's insistent command finds little welcome among the residents of Cae White Farm,
however, and Iestyn prepares for battle...
Wales has reached the apex of her industrial clamour. But young Tom Mortymer,
son of rich industrialist Iestyn Mortymer, has turned his back on his inheritance,
exchanging the bell-clang and fire of his Upper Forest Tinplate Works in Morriston
for the simplicity and wanderlust of a gypsy existence with his young Romany wife,
Jen Wildflower.
In time they come to settle on Flatholm Island where they become a refuge for the
animals. Self-sufficiency is their ultimate goal; the substantial income from tinplate
is ignored.
But their simple idyll does not last. They are aware of a strange malevolence towards
them.
One frightening incident follows another until it is clear to tom and Jen that they will
have to abandon their home and return to Cefn-Ydfa, their mansion in Maesteg. Their
decision coincides with the arrival in Cardiff of Jethro Mortymer, Tom's uncle - whom
he had long believed dead. Would Jethro be able to shed any light on Tom and Jen's
continuing nightmare?