Jane Austin was born in Liverpool, has a degree in French and lives
with her husband in York. She has worked in a number of settings,
including schools, adult education and at the University of
York.
News from Nowhere is a debut novel inspired by a collection of
letters from three of her family as they served on the Western
Front. Jane first read this remarkable collection in 1983, when her
grandmother, Elizabeth Dewi Roberts, published them in a slim
volume, entitled Witness These Letters. Written to the family in
Bangor, North Wales, from 1915 to 1918, the letters vividly
describe the torments of the trenches and the battlefield, and life
as a prisoner-of-war.
It is 1914 in Bangor, North Wales. Bronwyn is sixteen and her three
brothers, Huw, Glyn and Aubrey, and Tada, her Methodist Minister
father, will leave for the Western Front. Bangor, a quiet
backwater, sees the arrival of destitute Belgians, men coming home
wounded, and women in leading roles. Bronwyn takes on
responsibility at the Methodist Book Room as well as helping Mam
send endless parcels to the front. The war is brought home in her
brothers’ letters, by turn light-hearted and searingly honest.
As the family copes with uncertainty and loss, Bronwyn finds first
love and becomes involved in political activism, going on to
volunteer at a London Military hospital run by suffragists and
travelling to France. Bronwyn knows that one day she will write
about the aftermath of war, but when the war ends its toll on her
family continues and Bronwyn faces new losses and challenges before
she can move on with her life.
Poignant, authentic and gripping, this is a debut novel from an
author to watch for.
“News From Nowhere does vividly what historical novels can do
better than history books – offering the reader an imagined window
onto one particular field in the vast landscape of the past.
This is a moving depiction of the Roberts family – their love of
each other and of their piece of North Wales and its landscape,
their fierce and particular Methodism – and of the terrible impact
of World War I and their battle with War itself.
I enjoyed Bronwyn’s independent spirit and developing sense of
self, fostered by her family, and her feminism.”
Fiona Shaw
*Cyhoeddwr: Cinnamon Press*
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