Ram in the Well (Paperback, New ed)

'Access is difficult but the views are panoramic' claimed the brochure, and so it was. Living in God's Pocket was the Welsh expression for Hafod's idyllic seclusion halfway up the Denbighshire mountainside. It was here amid fields with ancient names like 'Place of the She-Bear' or 'Graves of the Warriors' and near the ruins of Vale Crucis Abbey and the castle of Dinas Bran, that June Knox-Mawer set about replanting her roots. While facing unexpected hazards; a ram in the well, a swarm of bees in the bedroom chimney, and an owl delivered by the postman; she knew that friendships were to become the key. There was Will who braved the snow at Christmas to carry a freshly plucked turkey up to Hafod on his pitchfork; Megan, an avid collector of local lore, who knew the way to remote haunted barns and long-lost witches' cottages; and her 90 year old mother, matriarch of the valley, confiding her gossip of chapel scandals and courtship rituals. Here is a vivid picture of a way of life fast disappearing, even in a country that cherishes the past as dearly as Wales