W Ambrose Bebb, (grandfather of Aberconwy Tory candidate Guto Bebb), was a prolific writer in the Welsh language in the period before and after the 2nd World war, being the author of two dozen or so books and a countless number of articles.
Although the first of his books was written eighty years ago and the last almost 50 years ago much of his work has stood the test of time and is still very readable to the modern reader.
Some of Bebbs works are now being published in English translation by AuthorHouse, the first in the series being A Welsh Hundred:
A Welsh Hundred combines in one volume and for the first time in English two of Bebb’s most popular works originally published in Welsh in 1941. These two newly translated works Y Baradwys Bell (The Faraway Paradise) and 1940: Lloffion o ddyddiadur (1940:Gleanings from a Diary) introduce English-language readers to one of 20th-century Wales most colourful and provocative personalities for the very first time. Bracketing an important century in the life of Wales, A Welsh Hundred opens with the 1841 diary of Montgomeryshire farmer and church deacon William Bebb, as conceived and imaginatively reconstructed by his great-great-nephew W. Ambrose Bebb. By 1940, it’s the turn of Ambrose Bebb himself to document touchingly, enthusiastically, sometimes starkly the daily rhythms of life in and around the college town of Bangor, North Wales, on the eve of Europe’s second all-consuming world war.
A Welsh Hundred [ISBN 9781434359919] is published by AuthorHouse both in the United Kingdom and in North America. Direct orders (priced £6.80/$9.90 per copy) may be placed with the publisher online it also available via major online retailers, including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Borders.com (priced £8.95/$14.49 per copy).
The translator also has a Welsh Hundred blog, which he uses to promote the book.
It has been some years since I first read these books in Welsh and I look forward to obtaining a copy of the translation, which I sincerely hope lives up to the great man’s original masterpieces.
Well done MOF for finding this and Marc Stengel for the translations.
ReplyDeleteIn the same vein, I am looking for an English-language translation of Islwyn Ffowc Elis' "Wythnos Yng Nghymru Fydd". A Norwegian site claims there is one but I can't find it. Any help, please?
Cysgod y Cryman and Yn nol i Leifior were translated in the late 1980’s by Meic Stephens. There is an abridged and simplified version of Wythnos yng Nghymru Fydd by Basil Davies published in 1993 for the use of those learning Welsh.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can see there is no available translation into English, or into any other language of Wythnos. I have checked the British Library Catalogue the National Library of Wales Catalogue and Linc y Gogledd (a catalogue of all the public libraries in north Wales) , none of them have the translation you want – if it existed they would have it.
Thank you so much for bringing this translation to my attention. What a fantastic read, an insight into Guto and his ancestors, and a view on Welsh Social History that I had not been taught. It also places into context Guto's familial association with Plaid Cymru and a greater understanding of the original aims and aspirations of Plaid and the links with Breton independence.
ReplyDeleteAre there any more of his works that are going to be translated?