Flight of the Cuckoo

Reviews / Votes

Flight of the Cuckoo tells the harrowing story of the life of Catharine Griffith - essentially a journey of self-discovery that in many respects ends back where it began. The tender innocence of a childhood immersed in church, chapel and honest hard work is blighted by iniquity and tragedy, kindling in this young girl a strong sense of injustice. Seeds of revenge lie suppressed during a period of apparent resignation and contentment but finally surface when Catharine sets out to travel with a new-found companion. Catharine then turns to a life of crime, returning finally, if perhaps too late, to repentance and reconciliation with the divine and all things virtuous.

The pivotal part of the tale is the catalogue of crimes forming the return journey from the Vale of Glamorgan to London, and from there onwards to the final conclusion. The life journey contains its own inner journeys, from youth to maturity, naivete to experience, sanity to insanity, anonymity to notoriety. Our heroine constantly finds herself pulled between acquiescence and revenge, whilst the story is similarly pervaded throughout by polar opposites: justice and injustice, wealth and poverty, gentleness and brutality.

Catharine's life is chronicled mainly in straightforward fashion, but also variably through the eyes and dialogue of the central characters. Running parallel are passages of historical narrative, placing the story in its wider context. Everyday rural life and agricultural practices are lived out, and political issues of the time, such as the controversial slave trade and a seemingly unsatisfactory judicial system, are aired. Clearly much painstaking research has been carried out to produce this snapshot of social history. The story's countryside setting is ever present throughout, punctuating the storyline with the recurring changes in flora, fauna and the seasons.

Flight of the Cuckoo is very much a Welsh novel, and should appeal to readers interested in Welsh social history and all things Welsh, whatever their nationality, since translations are provided of all instances of Catharine's native tongue. Centred in the Vale of Glamorgan, the novel contains many allusions to local topography and landmarks, and certain Welsh luminaries of the day are selected for particular reference.

The author has created a colourful, credible story based on the surviving facts about Catharine Griffith, who lived in the Vale of Glamorgan in the eighteenth century. -- Yvonne Gulley @ www.gwales.com