"A world of green: a new and weird world of grim, dark shadows and frenzied activity; of conflicting sounds varying from the roar and the thunder of overhead gantries, the sharp, shrill staccato beat of automatic hammers, to the echoing ring of steel upon steel, and the hollow wheezing and thumping of the hydraulic moulding machines".
Starting as an apprentice at Bevan's foundry, Ieuan Morgan enters a new and testing world. His colleagues soon turn out to be his tormentors while life at home is not without its challenges. It is hard for the young man to sustain his dreams of one day being a writer, and of a better world. Things have to get worse before getting better so unemployment casts its long shadow over the town. But the lay-offs give the gifted Ieuan time to read and think and on a visit to the fair to meet Sally, a gentle, consumptive young woman from the wrong side of the tracks. With this, his destiny changes course.
Written with a deep authenticity born from bitter experience, William Glynne-Jones depicts life in the ficitional town of Abermôr and especially the daily grind of foundry life, in a workplace fraught with dangers. Farewell Innocence is a heartfelt and affecting account of a young man's rites of passage in hard times.
William Glynne-Jones (1907-1977) was a Welsh novelist, short story writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was born and grew up in Llanelli. When he was 16, he started working at the Glanmor Foundry as a steel foundry 'moulder', but was released at the age of 36 on medical grounds. Soon, he moved to London with his family and started his career as a writer. Many of his works have been published, including four novels, several children's books and short story anthologies.