Publisher Description

Jane Williams (Ysgafell) was a writer with a long and varied list of publications: poetry, fiction, a riposte to the 1847 Blue Books, the "autobiography" of Betsi Cadwaladr, a history of Wales, a biography of the historian and patriot Carnhuanawc, and a history of women's writing in English. In her writing and her life she crossed and re-crossed boundaries—national, social, literary, linguistic, and cultural—and carved out her own path. As a nineteenth-century woman whose writing career spanned fifty years and many genres, including serious nonfiction and texts in English on Wales and Welsh matters, Williams is unique. This book is the first full-length study of her life and work, built on detailed original research from which Gwyneth Tyson Roberts has drawn a picture of a remarkable and impressive woman writer.
 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Becoming a WriterChapter 2 - Responses to the Blue BooksChapter 3 - Varieties of Life WritingChapter 4 - Decisions and DirectionsChapter 5 -The Writing of HistoryAppendix 1Appendix 2NotesBibliography

Review

"This elegantly written study is as engrossing as it is revealing of the life and impressive work of a sadly neglected woman writer of some importance in Welsh cultural history. Williams excelled as a redoubtable polemicist, a sophisticated biographer, a pioneering historian and a cunning ghost writer of Betsi Cadwaladr's colorful memoirs." -- M. Wynn Thomas, Swansea University
"Ysgafell has at last been granted what she deserves in this finely detailed and highly readable critical biography, which rescues from oblivion an accomplished and versatile writer, and rediscovers for a new generation of readers a markedly intelligent and unconventional Welsh Victorian." -- Jane Aaron, University of South Wales

Promotional

*The first full account of the life and work of a nineteenth-century woman who carved out a unique career as an important writer in English on Welsh subjects.*It is a major contribution to history of women's writing in English.*It is also a major contribution to knowledge of Welsh Writing in English in the nineteenth century.

Review Text

The first full account of the life and work of a nineteenth-century woman who carved out a unique career as an important writer in English on Welsh subjects. It is a major contribution to history of womens writing in English. It is also a major contribution to knowledge of Welsh Writing in English in the nineteenth century.

Review Quote

"Ysgafell has at last been granted what she deserves in this finely detailed and highly readable critical biography, which rescues from oblivion an accomplished and versatile writer, and rediscovers for a new generation of readers a markedly intelligent and unconventional Welsh Victorian."

Author Comments

Gwyneth Tyson Roberts is an independent scholar.

Details