Wrath of Anwen

My story which I have named: ‘Wrath of Anwen’ took place in the period of the coalmining wildcat strikes of the late 1960s through to 1979 and is centred on a small mining community of the South Wales valleys. Anwen Pritchard was the adulterous wife of Iolo Pritchard a colliery official. The adulterous Anwen and charismatic coalminer Maldwyn Evans were lovers. Miners scoffed and winked knowingly. Iolo Pritchard had become the butt of all jokes. After being taunted by the cronies of the adulterous Maldwyn Evans he decided to get his revenge. How did Iolo Pritchard set about settling the score? THIS BOOK IS A SECOND EDITION You can find a glossary of mining terms here: welshcoalmines.co.uk/Glossary.htm Also here: sirhowy.com/phrasebook.html

From the Inside Flap

The title of this thriller refers to Anwen shewas the adulterous wife of a colliery over-man a senior official of Cwm Derw colliery.Anwen was in a loveless childless marriage, loneliness had become insufferable,and she craved attention the attention that her husband had denied her. IoloPritchard was married to his work, but he too began to suffer as the villagersand miners of cwm Derw knew only too well that Anwen Pritchard and the charismaticMaldwyn Evans were lovers. Miners scoffed and winked knowingly behind Iolo'sback he had become the butt of all jokes. After months of torment he began toplan the demise of Anwen and her lover. He successfully took their livesunmercifully, because of his senior position at the Cwm Derw Pit he had intimateknowledge of how the colliery worked and thus he smuggled the corpsesbelowground and buried them in the workings never to be discovered.Anwen refused to lie down accidents at themine began to take hold and the miners blamed a Jinx. Iolo was overwhelmed by unfortunateevents as Anwen seemed to be the cause of all things that went wrong the jinxwas at work everywhere. Iolo was caught in an explosion but he and threecomrades survived only for Iolo to be the victim of an inrush of water thatflooded the Cwm Derw mine he again survives but his weary body is now worse forwear. Others in the story are Caradog Pritchard the amiable inebriate brotherof Iolo, Fred Morgan drinking companion of Caradog, Ethel second wife of Iolo, BernardThomas pit deputy a junior official of the mine, Bill the pumps-man, Dicky Watts,big Bob and others. Read this book and find out about what miners didbelowground read of other events not told in this synopsis

From the Back Cover

I was born in 1948 just as the National Health Service came into existance. My education was at a Secondary Modern School built near the Oakdale Colliery I left school at 15years of age I applied for a couple of very scarse jobs most work in those days were in coalmining. I worked at the coalface for most of my time at Oakdale colliery,I was a district first aider for all of my 26years at the colliery.In 1975 I joined the Mines Rescue Brigade as a part-timer and was forced to retire after 12 years due to an injured back. Then in 1981 I became a pit deputy responsible for health and safety as part of teams of men working belowground.The colliery closed in 1989 and for the first time in my life I was out of work with no usefull qualifications.After the colliery came unemployment then the occasional job as a temp, I trained as a welder, I worked at the Pot Noodle factory Crumlin Gwent and as a hygene worker at a food processing factory among other short term work.Now retired I write about anything that takes my interest, my novel The Wrath of Anwen is a thriller about mining life and its disasters,tribulations.Well I hope you found my account of my early beginnings interesting and hopefully you will read my books. Thank you for your valuable time Gareth J Hughes

About the Author

My background is in coalmining my wife thought that I should write about 'what I know.' I have woven a thriller around the working lives of coalminers few people know anything about miners and how they carry out their work few understand the causes of accidents, their beliefs, and unlucky omens such as Jinx, Blackdog, number thirteen etc. I write about some of their exploits when at leisure like day-trips to the races even when they are picketing like the strikes of 1972--74, The allotments are a source of amusement read about Caradog Pritchard and his mate Fred Morgan a life-long friend.  Thank you for reading this; it's much appreciated.

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