All Shall be Well : 25 at 25: A quarter of a century's great writing from the women of Wales

If youre not familiar with the Honno Welsh Womens Press output then you are in for a treat with this beautiful anthology of short stories and non-fiction in celebration of Honnos twenty-fifth anniversary. I heartily corroborate the headline from the Honno website: ‘great books, great writing, great women!’ Glenys Kinnock and novelists Sarah Waters and Molly Parkin are only three of the many supporters of Honno who agree. The aim of the Honno Press is to give the women of Wales a voice. This collection brings together a selection of the best of Welsh Women’s writing taken from commissioned anthologies from every decade of Honno’s working life. All Shall be Well is an illuminating guide to the recorded and creative lives of the nation’s women. This collection includes wonderful short stories from anthologies on the subject of wicked women, the turning point, the other woman, clothes and crime. The selection of non-fiction makes fascinating reading in areas such as nature, motherhood, personal and political autobiography, World War II, travel and sex. There is a huge range of work represented here from new and established writers. They all share the skill of story-telling, use of language and the talent for drawing the reader into an experience, or the ability to create a sense of time or place. Many different voices tell these stories: a nurse at Belsen following the declaration of peace in 1945, a young girl with Downs Syndrome, a lonely cleaner, the lesbian lovers driven to planning murder by the venom of a demented elderly mother. My favourite is the oldest story of them all: The Madness of Winifred Owen by Bertha Thomas (1845-1918) in which a fictional woman, desperate to avoid an unwanted marriage, gambles with her sanity and is rewarded with happiness. Every age of woman is represented from childhood reminiscence, to the challenges faced by working mothers, through to the viewpoint, problems and limitations of old age. These stories illustrate how women’s social and political experiences in Wales have changed over the past century and a half. But, while much has changed these accounts are easy to relate to as one realises how much has stayed the same. Catriona Jackson It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. — Welsh Books Council