'I learned what it was to love and leave a place after reading Raymond Williams.'

Originally published in 1960, Raymond Williams's novel about rural working-class life resonates with readers as much today as it did sixty years ago. For the author Lynsey Hanley, it exerts the same power whenever she re-reads it.

'Williams’ novel is a world in one book: specifically, an intimate history of 20th-century working-class rural lives. It deals with migration, borders – both geographic and psychological – and the effects of industrial change on communal life. On first reading Border Country, I felt immediately bound up and connected with this story of a society powered not by crabby disaffection, but by love, deep connection and hope.'

Border Country is published by Parthian in our Library of Wales series and you can buy a copy here. Watch this space for news of a re-issue in 2021.

You can read the full Guardian article here.