Catrin in Wales by Mabel Esther Allan – Reading Wales 2025

The sun was shining brilliantly and the hedgerows in the lane I had just left had been covered with half-open hawthorn. It was the third of May and I was in Wales, my mother’s country. Wales! I, Catrin Drury, aged just eighteen, was alone and entirely free for the first time ever, with a map in my hand, a few necessities on my back, and the future somehow fluid and unseeable.

What an appealing way to start this story! Even I, who prefer to be indoors with a book, would almost be tempted to join Catrin on her walking holiday in Wales. Having finished school and done a year of secretarial training, she is planning to get a job and share an apartment with a friend in London. First, however, is her determination to see where her deceased mother came from, so without writing first, she turns up on the doorstep of her aunt Mair, caretaker of a ruined Priory in the heart of North Wales.

Dee Valley

As Catrin walks from Llangollen to the valley where her aunt lives, she encounters a young Welshman and tactlessly asks him how people live in such an isolated area. He responds quietly and disappears; she is abashed. Mair is delighted to meet her niece for the first time. As she is showing Catrin the former Prior’s lodging where she lives, she trips on the narrow, winding steps of the tower and breaks her hip. Aunt Mair lands in the hospital and begs Catrin to tend the Priory in her absence. Catrin is wary of staying alone in the isolated Priory but doesn’t want to let her aunt down. And the locals rally around: Mr. Jones who runs the local inn, and a friendly girl her age, Gwenfron Williams, from a nearby farm who plans to be a nurse, are instant friends. Gwenfron’s brother Ifor is (you guessed it) the handsome young farmer Catrin met in the woods and he turns out to be a gifted playwright celebrating Welsh nationalism. That helps Catrin get over her negative reaction to him.

UK edition:
Margery Gill?

This is a coming of age story that takes place in a beautiful yet isolated setting. Catrin was not wrong to recognize that rural life isn’t for everyone but she comes to love this part of Wales and begins to grow up as she temporarily takes over her aunt’s responsibilities. Allen doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of mid-20th century Welsh life – four of Gwenfron’s brothers have emigrated to Canada and Ifor has a hard time getting help with the farm. The innkeeper’s daughter yearns for a more sophisticated venue but city-girl Catrin masters an oil stove, charms her aunt’s collie, learns the history of the Priory so she can inform visitors (a shilling per person!), and is encouraged by the Williams family to live up to her heritage by joining the local choir. Catrin even faces down possible danger when mysterious lights and noises appear in the Priory ruins.

I like the way Catrin is welcomed by her new neighbors, including - of course - Ifor, but 18 seems very young to fall in love and get married! This always startled me when I read Allan’s books from my library as a preteen because American girls of this age and era are usually heading to university. However, when Catrin’s stepmother comes to Wales make sure she is all right, they are able to connect almost as adults, despite not having got on all that well in the past. So although not all that much actually happens to Catrin, there is a satisfying arc of accomplishment and growth.

I read this for Reading Wales Month 2025, which used to be hosted by Paula at Book Jotter and is now hosted by Booker Talk. Some of my previous reviews are here.  I've only been to Cardiff and Penarth but this book made me want to take a longer trip (but not hiking).

Title: Catrin in Wales
Author: Mabel Esther Allan
Publication: The Vanguard Press, hardcover, originally published in 1959
Genre: YA fiction
Source: Personal copy