'Who made an ache under my rib?' Asks the poet on the first page of Love from Wales, and just what makes the Welsh a passionate race? This selection of poetry and prose on the theme of love by Welsh poet Tony Curtis and novelist Sian James offers some lively answers.Love from Wales features extracts from novels and short stories, as well as complete poems and letters, ranging from the eleventh century to the present. The book includes many translations from the original Welsh.We begin in the Spring section, with the shy, awkward adolescence of Dylan Thomas's 'Extraordinary Little Cough' and Dannie Abse's 'Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve', then move towards the full Summer love of Gillian Clarke's 'Choughs' who 'mate for life' and John Ormond's lovely poem to his wife, 'Design for a Quilt'. Then it's onward to Autumn where love ripens into Alun Richards's 'The Scandalous Thoughts of Elmyra Mouth'. Here we also find Caradoc Evans's sly tale of a farmer's son sent off to market to find a wife akin to 'A Heifer Without Blemish'. Finally, to Winter and Alun Lewis's poignant 'Post-script for Gweno' and R.S. Thomas's stern 'Like That', to finish with Vernon Watkin's moving 'Great Night Returning'. Other writers featured include: Jean Earle, Gwyn Thomas, David Lloyd George, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Richard Llewellyn, Edward Thomas, Emyr Humphreys, Jean Rhys, Idris Davies, John Tripp, Alexander Cordell, and many more.
