Kissing Gate, The

Reviews / Votes

Seldom have I read a book of such uncliched poignancy. Llewellyn spares us no human emotion; it is all there - laughter, jealousy, passion, above all forgiveness, within the sanctity of childhood. The Kissing Gate proves that a contemporary author can still write with such purity, and in so doing paint a picture of innocence and youth.

Set during the Second World War in a south Wales village, the story introduces us to Geraint, his elder brother Gareth and his ever-loving family, to his great friend and mentor Walter, the maladjusted Dilwyn, and the evacuees who are readily accepted into his close community. Not yet out of short trousers, the young Geraint is floored by the beauty and sweetness of Annabel, who has been evacuated with her elder brother Ronald from Chatham in Kent.

Shortly before Annabel's return the children seal their mutual innocent affection for each other at the Kissing Gate (the place for trysts and troths).

Llewellyn draws the reader with the simplicity of his prose into a world of childhood pranks and misdemeanours in a place of refreshing morality and with a beguiling descriptive appreciation of the Welsh countryside. 'Looking back at the woodland I was enthralled by a vision of sheer beauty: in just a few minutes every twig had been transfigured by a casing of ice. A field away, Pengarth looked like a fairyland village of glass, its telegraph wires hanging down like the cables of suspension bridges. Water that had been cascading gently from roofs had become glaciated; houses were draped with huge ice curtains, fluted at the hem and tasselled with icicles. I stood there awestruck, feeling that I'd witnessed a miracle; but there was more to come.'

A superb and beautifully crafted novel with inspiring and memorable characters; need a reader say more? -- Norma Penfold @ www.gwales.com