Family Bible inspires Vale of Glamorgan family saga
A new novel by
Welsh author Sam Adams was inspired by a family Bible. The novel called In the Vale, published by Y Lolfa, is a
family saga that takes the reader from
Author Sam Adams said:
“To be in possession of only half a story is frustrating – you want to know the whole thing!
George was an impoverished
curate when he married, and was gifted the rectory, the land and income that
went with it as a result of the marriage, which (very oddly) was announced in
the Gentleman's Magazine in
How did this union come about? Why isn't the name of their first child, George, recorded in the Family Bible? These were among the earliest puzzles that tormented me.”
This led to
much research in libraries and on-line searches for any information linked with
George Williams and his family. Successes included the discovery in a library
at Saint Fagans of a diary kept by John Perkins, a gentleman farmer of
Llantrithyd – and a friend of the
“The story of
the Williams family was unfolding during one of the most turbulent periods in
European history – the French Revolution and the
“I have tried to recapture, through choice of vocabulary and cadence of expression in dialogue, narrative and description, the tone of the period, while seeking to fill imaginatively the many gaps in a story of real people against a background of bloody turmoil.”