Rhys Davies

What bundling was in pioneer America, courting in bed was in the not so far distant days of Wales, where some of the villages cling to primitive ways. But Ayron was beginning to be self-consciously modern, and the vicar and a divorce from England had taken in hand the case of a rich and independent young woman Olwen Powell, who hold to her rights to know a man- though not actually in the flesh- before she wed. The story starts with her trial- the village agog, though shut out. She is aquitted but certain limitations are imposed, and she continues to set her will against the town gossips, until she finds herself caught in a not of her own making. Then she marries- but not the father of her coming child- and for thirteen years keeps her mate at distance distance, until he again claims his rights to ""courting in bed"". An amusing bit of in action- original in matter and manner. But too odd to be surely popular.

It may be true that, in the words of the Bard, "Murder will out," but that doesn't mean anyone will care. This is what Rhonwen, the heroine of Rhys Davies's last novel Ram with Red Horns, discovers after she pushes her philandering husband off a cliff. So prim and proper is Rhonwen that everyone in the Welsh village where she lives assumes the death was an accident. There things might have rested if the widow, suddenly overcome with guilt, hadn't started imagining a large ram with red horns and evil eyes following her about. Leave it to Rhys Davies to eschew the obvious. Instead of constructing a dark tale of murder and gnawing guilt, he has fashioned a dark comedy. When Rhonwen finally decides that confession is good for the soul, she finds nobody in the village wants to hear about it. Apparently there's a statute of limitations on wrong deeds: after a certain amount of time, the truth becomes too inconvenient to know. A masterful mix of funny and grim, Ram with Red Horns is a fine example what the late Davies did so well.