SCRIBBLE
The Lost Voices of Welsh Women’s Writing by Alex Hale
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Honno Welsh Women’s Press was established in 1986 with the twin aims of increasing publication opportunities for Welsh women and expanding the audience for Welsh women’s writing.
None of the publishing houses in Wales were particularly interested in promoting women’s literature or writers, especially not in English. The influence of Virago and The Women’s Press led the way. But of course, Wales was different from England and there was a gap in the market in Wales for books which were relevant to the women of Wales, in both languages.” Rosanne Reeves, Honno founder member.
In the late 1990s the Honno Welsh Women’s Classics series was created to bring the lost voices of Welsh women writers to a new generation of readers. The success of the project has led to other publishing houses reprinting works by Welsh women writers. The first Honno Classic title to be reprinted was Queen of the Rushes: A Tale of the Welsh Revival by Allen Raine (1836-1908). Originally published in 1906 and set against the backdrop of the 1904 Welsh Christian Revival, the novel begins with the sinking of a small boat in a west Wales fishing village resulting in the deaths of several agricultural labourers. The incident orphans two of the main characters, forcing their lives to become intertwined. Part tragic love story and part social commentary, Queen of the Rushes remains an eminently readable novel. Queen of the Rushes was Raine’s eighth novel and sold over 300,000 copies on release. Raine was an incredibly popular author in the early 1900s with her novels selling two million copies worldwide. Several of her novels were made into some of the very first British silent films. All were filmed on location in west Wales, though unfortunately have since all been lost. One of these films, A Welsh Singer (1915), starred Hollywood’s Florence
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