CATRIN IN WALES

The ‘Career Novels for Girls’ were listed on the back cover of this book, Catrin in Wales, which is actually almost an anti-career book. As you will see.

Our young heroine, 18-year-old Catrin, is restless after completing her secretarial studies. Before moving to London to share a flat with her girlfriend Penelope (a high-flying PA), she wants to spread her wings. So she leaves her father, stepmother and step-sister in their suburban home and heads off to Wales. It’s the homeland of her dead mother, and she intends to stay in youth hostels and simply wander. She’s shy and nervous, but determined.

Everything changes when she decides to stay with her aunt Mair, the guardian of a remote historical site, the Priory of Nant Gwyncwfn. When her aunt breaks her leg, a few days visit turns into months as she takes on the running of the Priory, gets to know her neighbours (especially brother and sister Gwenfron and Ifor Williams) and begins to take an interest in Welsh language, culture and history. Though at first she dislikes the isolation and loneliness of the countryside, she overcomes her fears, grows in confidence and competence and comes to love North Wales and the community in the valley. The book ends with Catrin’s engagement to farmer-playwright Ifor and the excitement of the International Eisteddfod.

Though Catrin in Wales was certainly readable (well, I read it, didn’t I?) I kept thinking about what I would do with the material. The story meanders along, with any excitement fairly muted (fears and alarms in the spooky old house, attempts to drive her away by a jealous rival for Ifor’s attention, her rescue of a little boy stuck on a high rock wall, the romance with Ifor). Frustratingly, Allan briefly touches on a lot of themes I think are worth exploring. Welsh nationalism, for one. The flooding of Welsh valleys to provide water for large English cities. Catrin’s cool relationship with her stepmother. Her lack of direction. Careers for girls and women.

Even the romance is a pretty tepid affair – Catrin’s real attraction seems to be to Gwenfon, who is a couple of years older than her. The two girls quickly form a close bond. Unlike Catrin, who did her secretarial training simply because it offered a job and independence, Gwenfon has a real passion. She’s going to train as a nurse.

I gave her a wondering look and went on my way alone, wondering about the difference in people…though I admired nurses with all my heart, I was always glad to get away from the  long wards full of sufferers and bleak, bare corridors. To make it one’s life, willingly and even eagerly, was beyond me. But perhaps I would learn to understand as I got to know Gwenfon better.

Catrin makes a success of managing the Priory, and even finds she has a flair for presenting its history to tourists. Without Ifor on the scene, there could have been a satisfying story in her friendship with Gwenefon and her discovery of a vocation. But she is  happy to become a farmer’s wife in the remote Welsh valley (and a playwright’s wife in London). Nothing wrong with that! I tell myself. But at 18?

Despite the very ‘junior fiction’ cover art, the book was intended for older girls. The YA of the day? I can’t imagine any 13- or 14-year-old persevering with it now, but I could be wrong.
It’s one to file under ‘History of YA – Early Modern Era’.

And a note about the author. Mabel Esther Allan (1915-1998) published an astonishing 107 novels for children and young adults, and over 300 short stories. And if that’s not a career, I don’t know what is. And I had never heard of her.
And actually, I had. Under the pen-name of Jean Estoril, she wrote 11 books about Drina, a young ballet dancer. I think I even read Drina Dances as a girl.