Announcement: the new web site is live!

At last, our new web site, timed to coincide with the new logo and with Martha Morgan's 21st anniversary, is published and is live on the web.  It contains information on all 8 of the books (including the audiobooks) and some of the background to the stories.   But we have deliberately kept it clean and rather sparse.  There are also links to our associated web sites.  Enjoy!  And please share.......

https://www.angelmountainsaga.com

 

Alternative logo

 

Here is the new cover design for "Flying with Angels",  created by my son Martin as a replacement for the old jacket, which was looking seriously dated.  It's also a homage to the Bolinda audiobooks which are coming along steadily, on schedule. (One of their jackets has the same female image featured on it........)   In the background is the REAL Carningli, and I like the flock of ravens.  So all 8 of the novels now use the same house style, apart from "Sacrifice" which is a one-off.

 

New cover for "Dark Angel"

 

This is the new jacket for "Dark Angel", recently designed by my son Martin.  It's quite a powerful and mysterious image -- as befites the contents of the book!   And it fits the "house style" very well indeed.  So this will replace the old jacket next time a reprint is due, and it will be used very soon for  the Kindle edition of the book.

Guardian Angel Audiobook published

 To celebrate the publication of the new Bolinda audiobook, here is a review that appeared when the paperback was published:

This is the sixth novel in the hugely popular Martha Morgan series. It begins with Martha’s death, but if you are a fan of the character, don’t be put off, as I'm sure you'll like the new heroine just as much.
As a prologue to the main story, there is a very entertaining chapter of how a long forgotten manuscript is found in offices of the London publishers Pickersniff and Jebson. This script is by a Susanna Ravenhill, and it is set in Newport and on Carningli or ‘Angel Mountain’, the setting of the other novels. Susanna Ravenhill is an assumed name, but who is the attractive older woman determined to protect the mountain at all costs?

It is hard to describe the main plot without giving away the first big surprise of the novel. The book is as warm-hearted and heartfelt as all of Brian John’s series. It is at its best on the mountain and in the tight knot of Martha Morgan’s family and community. It is a little less convincing when it leaves there, but there is also a good sequence in Paris and an excellent section where Susanna goes to live in the poorest community of Merthyr Tydfil, a slum area called ‘China’, trying to help the desperate people living there. John really brings to life the hell on earth of the Victorian industrial revolution for the poor fighting to survive.

If you are new to the Carningli series, I would definitely recommend beginning with the first On Angel Mountain. I’m sure it will make you want to read the rest. Guardian Angel is an entertaining addition to the series for fans and I hope it won’t be the last.

Janet Thomas

A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

New logo for the Saga

This is our new logo for the Angel Mountain Saga. A lot of thought has gone into it, including consultations........ with the help of Steve and Martin, we played about with various concepts, and out of that Martin came up with something that was almost there. So we employed a logo designer for the final tweaking -- and this is the result. We are delighted with it -- it's visually attractive and sophisticated, and suggests some sort of narrative. The raven is in there, to induce a spirit of enquiry on the part of the observer, and the shapes of the letters suggest a mountainous terrain, with sweeping curves going up to heaven and down into the lowlands. Very stylish lettering too.


So this will now be used all over the place........

The old Garfeth Road

 

Red line:  the old Garfeth Road and the old farm lane leading to Cilwen. 

Blue circles: cottage locations.  Green line: old edge of the common.  The cottages 

on the Garfeth Road are not named on the old maps -- so I have used the Isaf, 

Ganol and Uchaf convention.

The old trackway that runs up the side of the hill from the Cilgwyn clapper bridge towards Cnwc yr Hydd and Banc Du is so substantial that it might well have been the key roadway running southwards from Newport towards Haverfordwest.  Indeed, it looks that way from some of the oldest maps, which show this lane but not the other road that runs up past Ysgarwen and Cilgwyn Mawr to the junction with the Brynberian road.  This idea of "the old road" and "the new road" is supported by the fact that until quite recently the existing farm track leading to Cilwen did not exist at all; that farm was served by another farm track leading from near Cilgwyn Church and along through the woods on the eastern side of the stream, through the woodland of Allt Ysgarwen.

Side by Side, old six-inch map (pre-1913) and the modern satellite image.  

The Cilwen farm track is prominent, but only on the photo!  The old track ran down 

the valley towards St Mary's Church, Cilgwyn.

The old roadway was clearly capable of taking wheeled traffic at one time, but it has deteriorated a lot in recent years, and is now deeply rutted.  But the interesting thing is the presence of four ruined cottages along its length -- or rather three cottages and one substantial farmhouse, which is still listed as Garfeth on the large-scale maps. To the est of the track, Cilwen is still inhabited, and Fagwyr (or Fagwr) Lwyd is a much decayed ruin which was used as an overnight stop by Henry Tudor on 8 August 1485, on his way to Bosworth field.

The old Garfeth track --used as a routeway for many centuries, but now deteriorating fast......

Garfeth Isaf

The old dwelling house or cottage (which might have been known by another name) is to the east of the track, approached through a gate.  On the west side of the track there is a substantial animal house with some retaining walls, and the layout can be made out from the old 6" maps.  The cottage is so ruinous that it looks as if it was abandoned a long time ago, maybe before 1900.  Its dimensions are c 15m x 5m.  The front door was on the eastern wall, looking over the valley.  The characteristic internal "buttress" in the gable end wall -- showing where the simnai fawr (inglenook fireplace) was located -- is at the north end of the house.  There is no sign of the elongated pantry which we find in the larger dwellings in this area.  On the west side of the track there are the remains of two buildings joined together, one about 5m x 5m and the other about 4m x 4m.  Cowshed and pigsty?  Again they are very ruinous.

All that's left of the cottage.  The gable ends have not yet quite collapsed......

The remains of the cowshed (?).   On the other side of this wall is the pigsty (?) built against the bank, with a fine protective wall projecting northwards.

Garfeth Ganol

Again, another name might have been used.  The pathway beyond the end of the lane goes straight past the eastern gable end of what must have been a substantial dwelling in a commanding position.  It looks as if it was quite independent of the long farmhouse of Garfeth, which is over a fence on private land. The stonework is very rough, but some massive coin stones have been used on the corners.  The easternmost part of the building is a small (4m x 4m) self-contained shed or pigsty, joined to a small dwelling with dimensions 7m x 5m.  There were two doors, one facing south and the other facing north. The simnai fawr end was towards the west. There is no trace of a pantry, but there was a pleasant yard or terrace on the southern flank of the building, with a walled lane.

Garfeth Uchaf

This is a substantial ruin, on private land. It was occupied in 1778 and 1874, and it would be interesting to do a census search to see whether it was also inhabited in the 1900's.   In its heyday it was the largest of all the buildings in this group, a longhouse about 20m long and 5m wide. It's aligned more or less N-S, with the dwelling at the southern end.  The main fireplace and chimney were at the southern gable end.  There was an elongated pantry attached to the dwelling, making the dimensions of the footprint c 9m x 7m.  The middle section of the building was probably a cowshed, maybe with two doorways facing west.  At the northern end there were two small attached buildings separated by a dividing wall -- maybe intended for poultry and dogs.  Across a passageway on the east side there were two further buildings, one about 2m x 3m, and the other 3m x 3m.  About 25m away, along the lane leading to Fawyr Lwyd,  there was another small building -- maybe a pigsty.

 Satellite image of the old Garfeth farm and surrounding walls.

Garfeth ruins with Carningli in the distance

Looking downslope.  On the left, the cowshed.  On the right, the pantry and the dwelling house. 

Fagwyr Lwyd

The place where Henry VII (Henry Tudor) is reputed to have slept on August 8th 1485, while his army camped nearby, on his way from Dale to Bosworth Field.  So it is a very old building, presumably with a reasonably sized estate around it.  It was still being farmed in 1734 and 1762.  It means "grey wall"  and was alternatively spelt "Vagwrllwyd".  It's an enclosure that now appears to be in the middle of a field, following the removal of two long hedges, with the ruinous old walls now hosting a cluster of mature and rather magnificent beech trees.  On the satellite images, the buildings cannot be seen at all.  There are traces of at least five separate buildings.  Highest up the slope are two small farm buildings, each about 5m x 5m square.  Then, looking northwards (downslope) there was a substantaial farmhouse on the west side with dimensions 15m x 5m and across a yard (on its eastern side) another large building -- probably a barn or cowshed, with dimensions c10m x 5m.  The old maps show TWO buildings here, but they cannot now be traced.  There was a lean-to shed on the downslope gable end of the dwelling house.  Across a paddock to the east, there was a substantial lane running approx SE - NW, and further downslope, about 80m away, there is a pile of rubble that might well have been yet another building.

Somewhere in there are the ruins of Fagwyr Lwyd, among the trees

The undulating pile of stones and rubble which is all that now remains of the original dwelling house at Fagwyr Lwyd.  View from the northern edge of the enclosure, looking south.

One of the two small outbuildings at the upslope (southern) end of the Fagwyr Lwyd settlement site.

Penlan-Oleu

This is the highest of the buildings in the group, in a very exposed location.  It was still inhabited around 1947, and our old postman Derek told us that he was born there.  Probably when it was built it was on the edge of the common, and thus it may qualify for the "ty unnos" label.  It's another longhouse, measuring c 37m x 5m.  The cowshed is at the northern (downslope) end, with the dwelling with simnai fawr and the cwtch against the southern gable.  The dwelling was quite small -- only about 6m x 5m.  The door appears to have been on the eastern (lee) side.  At the northern end there was a small (4m x 5m) shed, and there were two sheds attached at the southern end.  Water supply clearly came from a spring just a few metres from the SE corner of the building.  There were several substantial walls containing paddocks and maybe providing windbreaks, and there were two small yards or gardens on the west side; the layout of these features is quite visible on the satellite imagery.

Satellite image of Penlan-oleu, showing the layout of banks and walls.  The old trackway is off the photo, to the right (east).  There is a tradition that this was once a shop, but maybe we should take that with a pinch of salt........

The dwelling house section of Penlan-oleu, looking downslope towards the north.

View of Penlan-oleu from the west,  The dwelling is on the right, and the cowshed to the left.

If we include Cilwen and Fagwyr Lwyd, that means there were six families in residence in the Garfeth area, all served by the Garfeth trackway.  Quite a little community, which was probably in its prime in the period 1810 - 1850.........