The Mortymer Trilogy
3 total works 3 total works planned
Mostyn Evan and his family, miners turned bargees, wage a glorious
but hopeless struggle against rapacious coalmasters, Irish navvies,
the ravages of cholera, and the bullying illegal Unions.
As they ply their trade between the furnaces of Cyfarthfa and the lush
beauty of the Neath Valley, they pray and fight, sing and love, and face
each obstacle undaunted with all the stubbornness and exuberance
of Wales itself.
This is the third instalment in Alexander Cordell's magnificent saga of
nineteenth century Wales that began with classic bestseller The Rape
of the Fair Country.
It is the time of the Rebecca Riots when economic turmoil and unjust taxes have left
the communities of south Wales in dire poverty with many on the brink of starvation. A
time when young men ride through the night smashing and burning the symbols
of their oppression.
The Mortymer family have left their home in the iron-making country of Blaenafon to seek
work in the coal mines of the south. Young Jethro Mortymer decides that he must join the
rioters in their bitter struggle even as he is tortured by his own struggle to conceal the love
he has for the beautiful Mari, his brother's wife.
THE HOSTS OF REBECCA is a brilliant continuation of Alexander Cordell's classic
story of mid-nineteenth century Wales which began with THE RAPE OF THE FAIR
COUNTRY.
The first volume in Alexander Cordell's classic trilogy of mid-nineteenth century Wales.
Set in the grim valleys of the Welsh iron country during the turbulent times of the Industrial Revolution, this unforgettable novel begins the saga of the Mortymer family - a family of hard men and beautiful women, all forced into a bitter struggle with their harsh environment, as they slave and starve for the cruel English ironmasters.
But adversity could never still the free spirit of Wales, or quiet its soaring voice, and the Mortymers struggle on even as the iron foundries ravish their homeland and cripple their people.
Rape of the Fair Country launched the bestselling career of Alexander Cordell in 1959 and went on to sell millions of copies in seventeen languages throughout the world.