The Coward’s Tale

by Vanessa Gebbie

  Then something white lands on the boy’s raincoat. Ash. He brushes it away and it leaves a streak like smoke on his sleeve. But it is joined by another and another, delicate things, almost nothing, falling out of the dark. And the night is filled with a blizzard of white above the beggar Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins’s blazing boat, a blizzard of white feathers rising and tumbling on the up-draught before landing gently and perfectly on the grass.

  The Kindly Light Generations

  The names of those killed down Kindly Light one September morning, underlined.

  Other Dramatis Personae

  Now

  Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, beggar and storyteller

  Ieuan ‘Laddy’ Merridew

  Laddy Merridew’s gran, cleaner

  Mrs Bennie Parrish, widow

  Mrs Prinny Ellis, cinema factotum

  Mrs Z. Cadwalladr, Principal Librarian

  The colliers who are no longer colliers

  Batty Annie, mother of the boy Dai

  The publican of The Cat Inn Public House

  Maggie, the publican’s wife

  At the time of the Kindly Light accident

  Hannah Jenkins, mother of Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins the beggar

  Father of Ianto Jenkins

  Ifor Jenkins (the Maggot), younger brother of Ianto

  Old Mrs Watkins

  The spinster daughters Gwendolyn and Gwynneth Watkins

  Mr Ernest Ellis

  Mrs Ellis

  Author’s Note

  The Coward’s Tale is set in a fictitious town based tenuously on Twynyrodyn, Merthyr Tydfil, in the south Wales valleys. Many places in the novel are (or were) real; this is where both my father and mother were born and brought up, went to school and had their first jobs. However, thanks to the imprecision of childhood memories and the even more imprecise wanderings of a writer’s imagination, the topography of the entire area has been changed. Streets have been realigned, renamed, as the story dictated. Buildings have been created or moved to another location, stone by stone, the stones changing colour in transit. I have moved whole mountains.

  I would love to have a drink at The Cat on the corner of Maerdy Street and walk down the road to the remains of old Kindly Light pit – but they only exist in these pages.

  Acknowledgements

  My thanks are due to the following:

  Euan Thorneycroft at AM Heath, Helen Garnons-Williams, Erica Jarnes and Holly Macdonald at Bloomsbury’s London offices, and Kathy Belden in New York.

  Tracy Chevalier and the Bridport Prize; Sam Leith, Louise Doughty and the Daily Telegraph ‘Novel in a Year’ Competition; Miriam Kotzin and Bill Turner of Per Contra: The International Journal of the Arts, Literature and Ideas; Andrew G. Marshall, Tania Hershman, Alex Keegan and Niyati Keni; Sue Booth-Forbes of Anam Cara Writers’ and Artists’ Retreat, Ireland, where The Coward’s Tale was written; the Arts Council for their support through Grants for the Arts; and Maggie Gee for her insight, guidance and generosity.

  My families, both of them, especially my mothers, who might have approved. Last but not least, my husband Chris, whose love and patience sometimes seem limitless.

  A Note on the Author

  Vanessa Gebbie is the author of two collections of stories and contributing editor of a Creative Writing text book. She has won numerous awards – including prizes at Bridport, Fish and the Willesden Herald – for her short fiction. An extract from The Coward’s Tale won the Daily Telegraph ‘Novel in a Year’ Competition. Vanessa Gebbie is Welsh and lives in Sussex.

  By the Same Author

  Storm Warning

  Words from a Glass Bubble

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and

  events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any

  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is entirely coincidental.

  First published in Great Britain 2011

  Copyright © Vanessa Gebbie 2011

  This electronic edition published 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  The right of Vanessa Gebbie to be identified as the author of this work has been

  asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise

  make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means

  (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying,

  printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable

  to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  Bloomsbury Publishing London New York Berlin Sydney

  50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 4088 2620 1

  www.bloomsbury.com/vanessagebbie

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  Table of Contents

  By the Town Statue, Outside the Public Library

  The Woodwork Teacher’s Tale i

  The Woodwork Teacher’s Tale ii

  In the Porch of Ebenezer Chapel

  The Halfwit’s Tale and the Deputy Bank Manager’s Tale i

  The Halfwit’s Tale and the Deputy Bank Manager’s Tale ii

  The Halfwit’s Tale and the Deputy Bank Manager’s Tale iii

  By the Old Sheds at the End of Maerdy Street

  The Baker’s Tale i

  The Baker’s Tale ii

  The Baker’s Tale iii

  In the Porch of Ebenezer Chapel

  The Deputy Librarian’s Tale and the Undertaker’s Tale i

  The Deputy Librarian’s Tale and the Undertaker’s Tale ii

  The Deputy Librarian’s Tale and the Undertaker’s Tale iii

  The Deputy Librarian’s Tale and the Undertaker’s Tale iv

  In the Park, on the Bench Dedicated to Miss Gwynneth Watkins

  The Piano Tuner’s Tale i

  The Piano Tuner’s Tale ii

  The Piano Tuner’s Tale iii

  On the Old Footbridge over the Taff

  The Window Cleaner’s Tale i

  The Window Cleaner’s Tale ii

  The Window Cleaner’s Tale iii

  In the Park, on the Bench Dedicated to Miss Gwynneth Watkins

  The Clerk’s Tale i

  The Clerk’s Tale ii

  The Clerk’s Tale iii

  In the Porch of Ebenezer Chapel

  The Gas Meter Emptier’s Tale i

  The Gas Meter Emptier’s Tale ii

  The Gas Meter Emptier’s Tale iii

  By the Cemetery on the Hill they Call Black Mountain

  The Collier’s Tale i

  The Collier’s Tale ii

  The Collier’s Tale iii

  At Ebenezer Chapel

  At the Top of the Last Hill

  The Kindly Light Generations

  Other Dramatis Personae

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgements

  A Note on the Author

  By the Same Author

 

 

 
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