Another themed collection of stories from the British Library, edited as always by the creative brain behind the Crime Classics collection, Martin Edwards. The theme of this one is Wales (Cymru in the Welsh language) and includes stories from either Welsh authors or from authors from elsewhere who have located their story in Wales. This means there’s a sprinkling of familiar names – Carter Dickson, Christianna Brand, Michael Gilbert – and several that were new to me and, I think, to this series of anthologies.

As always, the enjoyability varied from story to story. However, none were duds. I rated three as OK, and all the rest ranked as either good or excellent, so overall I found this a strong collection. And, the recent Scottish collection, The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales, there’s a good variety of settings – towns, villages, seashore – and plots – domestic murders, bank robberies, anarchists, etc.

Here’s a flavour of some of my favourites…

The Way Up to Heaven by Roald Dahl – an elderly woman always suffers from terrible anxiety when travelling, having a fear of missing her train, plane, etc. Her sadist of a husband, knowing this, always keeps her back in some way until she has reached near hysteria. On this occasion she is travelling to Paris to meet her little grandchildren for the first time. The husband insists on seeing her off on the plane, but then he’s not ready when the cab arrives, and then he remembers something he’s forgotten and insists the cab turns back. It’s brilliantly done and I found myself getting as tense as the woman as the lihood of her making it to the airport on time receded. I’ll simply say there’s a delicious twist in the tale and that justice works in mysterious ways sometimes! Dahl really is a master of tense, macabre short stories.

The Strong Room by Cledwyn Hughes – The narrator is a student, studying late one night in his room which overlooks the main street of the town. He hears noises and realises someone is breaking into the bank across the street. He goes out, intending to call the police from the phone-box in the street, but the robbers’ look-out man spots him and forces him into the bank at gunpoint. Another very tense story as we wait to see what the robbers will do to the student and another twist in the tail. I thought this was a great story, very well told.

Y Mynyddoed Sanctiaidd by Michael Gilbert – A very short tale (hence this very short description) of a young boy, Carwyn, who is used by a pair of crooks to get the keys to a house. Sad and dark, beautifully told.

No More A-Maying by Christianna Brand – A group of Hippies live on the edges of a rural community and are regarded with suspicion and hostility by the locals. So when they discover the drowned body of a young girl they are panicked – they know they will be accused of killing her. She had been a rather simple girl, as much child as woman, and had been hanging around one of the Hippies, Christo. So to save Christo, they decide to make it look as if she committed suicide. Lots of people in the neighbourhood were hiding their own secrets that day and Brand takes us round them, showing how all the lies people told created false alibis, and led the police towards a wrongful arrest. Another great story, showing the prejudice towards outsiders who live an alternative lifestyle.

Martin Edwards’ introductions to each story are as informative as always, with the added interest of telling us the connections the various authors had to Wales, as natives, incomers or visitors. So lots of variety and, overall, another very good addition to the many excellent anthologies the collaboration between the British Library and Martin Edwards has given us. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com 2023 crime short-stories5 s tom meadham42

3.5/5

a mixed bag really. some stories in here really got me thinking whilst others didn’t really hold my attention as well. reignited my desire to read crime and mystery stories though, thoroughly enjoy them and not sure why I ceased reading them for a while.

also definitely enjoyed reading stories about places i’ve been with my family. just needed a gower story and this would’ve been 5 stars!4 s Lynnie355 2

This book has the most beautiful cover!

A mixed bag of stories. I enjoyed the ones by Ianthe Jerrold, Ethel Lina White and Cledwyn Hughes.
Plus another clever (but sad) one by Christianna Brand.

I'm a subscriber so there was an extra one by Cledwyn Hughes too - Cockle-Gatherer. british-library-crime read-in-2023 short-stories3 s Sarah Black98

Excellent collection of mysteries. I strongly recommend it 1 Eric1,455 38

Overall, this collection of tales with Welsh connections- "some of the stories are written by Welsh-born authors; some are set in Wales; some meet both criteria." - left me with a slight feeling of dissatisfaction. This may be partly because, to my surprise, I had read some of them before, and partly because of the variation in quality.

One story, "Change", is somewhat arbitrarily included with this justification- "His Welsh background and fascination with Welsh mysticism are key elements of his work and although, if one has to label his work, it is horror rather than crime fiction, an anthology of Welsh mysteries would surely be incomplete if it excluded Machen." This strikes me as disingenuous, and its inclusion in a collection of crime fiction is not justified.

As in previous BLCC anthologies, the adherence to a chronological approach means that the reader starts off with a creaky and lengthy, rather second-rate tale, this one featuring Jules Poiret, whose five cases were republished as recently as 2020. Even more recently, the Ianthe Jerrold story, under a different title, appeared in "Bodies in the Library 5".

That said, there are a few highlights and those are mainly, but not exclusively, from lesser known authors. The final item, from Michael Gilbert, is poignant, while the Carter Dickson is too obvious, the Dahl too slick, and the Christianna Brand off-key, with a sort of cod-Welshness to it which I found irritating.

The best of the bunch were by the Coles, Berkely Mather, Cledwyn Hughes and Rhys Davies, the latter's "The Chosen One" conveying a disturbing atmosphere of eroticism and decay, as well as the tensions building up to a crime.

Martin Edwards' notes about the authors were very useful. However, there was a degree of shoe- horning stories to fit the theme. I would also suggest that an alphabetical-by-author, rather than a chronological arrangement, might be tried in future.

3.5 stars.1 Julie762 16

I have a particular ancestral love of Wales, so when I saw this collection of Welsh crime stories, I was delighted to have the opportunity to read and review this book. As is often the case with these collections of short stories superbly chosen, introduced and with notes by Martin Edwards, I knew that there would be some treats.
This selection of fourteen stories is made up of tales from 1909 until one written in the mid 1980s, but they all share indefinable elements of mystery and a certain lyrical mood. Not that they are at all fanciful; each tale in its way has a resolution, some element of a down to earth solution, even if it is not always spelt out. The romanticism in the tales often come from the descriptions of settings, the Welsh countryside, the rural descriptions of people in places. The very place names are memorable, and not always unpronounceable; the only author who gives a Welsh title is the well known Michael Gilbert in the sad “Y Mynyddoed Sanctiadd” or the Holy Mountains – all the other stories are definitely in English. As may be expected these stories are all perfectly understandable to anyone, even if they have unfortunately never set foot in Wales, but just occasionally there is a piece of dialogue, a phrase, a description, that could only have emerged from either a Welsh author or someone who is significantly connected to the small country. This book is an excellent edition in the fantastic British Library Crime Classics series.
As always, this book contains stories by well-known authors such as Carter Dickson (who is probably better known as John Dickson Carr) whose contribution is based in a particular geographical feature which isolates the victim. Ethel Lina White’s contribution is typical of her “domestic suspense” in which a seemingly small drama contributes to a significant event. Christianna Brand, whose novels have been recently republished with great success in this series, produces a story written with real feeling for those involved. Ianthe Jeffold’s unsettling story is of family feeling in a certain landscape. The earliest story by Frank Howel Evans introduces a French detective in an urban setting before Christie had Poirot detecting impossible crimes. Cardiff – born Roald Dahl is represented here in a suspenseful tale which represents the unexpected in a domestic setting. The Welsh border setting of “Murder in Church” by the crime writing couple G.D.H and M. Cole contributes to an unsettling and memorable crime detailed with some brutality. Jack Griffith may have been an obscure Welsh writer, but his perfect 1962 short story “Mamba” is succinct but so effective. In contrast, another Welsh writer, Rhys Davies, writes at some length in “The Chosen One” of the rural tensions of life in an idyllic cottage and a great house where lifestyles differ. Berkely Mather writes another short and effective story of personalities in a particular setting.
This is a book which works on many levels which reflect the variety of stories it contains. Some stories are curiosities, others are solid mysteries, all are worthwhile and very readable. I recommend this collection of stories for all who enjoy mystery stories, there is much to interest, fascinate and engage any reader.
Phil389 1 follower

As a general book of short stories, I would probably have given this 3 stars but it gets two because it is meant to be 'Classic Mystery Tales of Wales' and it isn't. Many of the stories have a connection with Wales that is tenuous to non-existent! It seems that it is enough for the author to have been born in Wales, to have lived in Wales for a time or even to have lived NEAR Wales...

I was slightly suspicious when I read the forward - it's never a good start when a compiler starts justifying their choices even though they don't appear to fulfil the brief of the anthology...

We had supernatural stories. We had stories set in London and Paris. We had some very weak crime stories which only seem to have been worth including because they had some vague Welsh link. And out of the tales with genuine Welsh settings, most leaned far too heavily on popular Welsh stereotypes. (Look you, boyo!) If Edwards genuinely can't come up with a handful of decent Welsh crime stories, then maybe he should have skipped doing a Welsh story collection. This one is heading straight back to the charity shop! Anna81

I really enjoyed these short stories. I was pleasantly surprised how much crime amd mystery you can get in so few words. The fact they were written between 1900 and 1970 gives the an old fashioned air that I found engaging and a refreshing change to modern crime.
The short bios for each writer are helpful.
It's good to celebrate Welsh authors and the country. I just wished more were set in Wales.crime wales Johan D'Haenen1,090 8

Martin Edwards levert hier nog maar eens een zeer mooie bijdrage aan de interessante reeks British Library Crime Classics.
Bekende en minder bekende schrijvers uit Wales leveren verhalen die zich uitstrekken over een tijdsspanne van zo'n 100 jaar. En ja, die bijdragen kunnen en zullen aanleiding geven tot een verdere verkenning van het genre uit dit deel van Groot-Brittannië. Ian Howells86 1 follower

Gentle, variable quality, some pretty loose Welsh links John28

The standouts for me, in this collection, were: The Way Up to Heaven (Roald Dahl), The Chosen One (Rhys Davies), and The Strong Room (Cledwyn Hughes).british-crime-classic-collections Tim Robinson819 54

This collection is full of family murders, mostly out of spite.

I never thought of Roald Dahl as a Welshman.

The ghost story lacks sufficient depth. Christine324 42

Most recent collection of crime short stories from the British Library collection, this time either set in Wales or written by authors with a Welsh connection. A pleasant collection, although I had read a couple of the stories before, which is unusual in these volumesgolden-age purchased-hard-copy rc-20231 Zoe Radley1,289 19

An intriguing and delightful collection of mysteries, murders and crime all set in the mysterious and atmospheric land of that magical and ethereal place called Wales. Some of the authors here collected I haven’t heard of and some are quite famous, especially Roald Dahl being a bit hit. This is a good collection, some were and felt a bit heavy handed and others are just as gripping as when they first came to print. Would definitely recommend. Paul165 5

A really mixed bag of short stories some with a very tenuous link to Wales. I really enjoyed Carter Dickson, Dahl and Cole but sadly it doesn't merit more than 3 stars. Kate1,205 57

For my full review click on the links below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...crime-fiction2 s Kay Robart1,954 10

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023... Jamie Bowen917 27

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