Nanteos: The Dipping Pool
A companion to Blank’s The Shadow of Nanteos (2015), set in 1750s Cardiganshire, this novel tells the story not only of Thomas and Mary Powell and their plans for the house which gives the book its name, but also the interwoven lives of their bailiff Cai Gruffydd (Thomas’s natural son), and the servants, lead miners, and Gypsies of the community beyond its gates – plans baulked by tragedy both natural and manmade.
This is not just a portrait of a time and the people who inhabit it, but also of the landscape of Wales. Captivating imagery reflects that setting, as in ‘the sun sets behind the bald hills below Devil’s Bridge, the sky thin and purple as the skin under an old man’s eye.’ The ravages made by mankind, from the felling of the ancient oak to permit the extension of Nanteos to the impact of lead mining are vividly drawn: ‘for mile on mile the land has a crumpled, sickly look, the colours wrong, the curve of the surface ridged, wrinkled and puckered by the hollows and tips of mines.’
Dialogue is similarly fluent, though sometimes more signposting was needed, given the range of characters. The book opens with a Calan Mai ritual with overtones of sacrifice, echoed by the later appearance of Ranter evangelists, with tragic consequences. Life is sometimes brutal, from a kitchen-table Caesarean section to a hanging, yet told not salaciously but with redeeming empathy. This is a book that will echo long in the memory.
