The Journeying Boy: Scenes from a Welsh Childhood

"The Journeying Boy" is a beautifully crafted travelogue, a charming history of Wales, and a nostalgic look back at one man's varied and interesting life. Jon Manchip White returns to his native Wales for the first time in twenty years and discovers that time has wrought immense change to this unusual and mysterious little country in the United Kingdom. While touring the country, White recounts his childhood in Cardiff, where his fore bears had lived since Norman times, spawning an entertaining crew of rich men and ne'er-do-wells, shipowners, sea captains, buccaneers, and murderers. From Cardiff, White travels to the coal country of Glamorgan and the Black Mountains, introducing an amazing panoply of odd Welsh characters, past and present: from kings and queens, poets and writers, to warriors, coal miners, and seamen. At the heart of the story in the singular and tragic nature of the Welash race--their language, their religion, their passion for music and literature, their love of life, and their obsession with death.