Ray Noyes: 7 books

The Making of Horatio Evans Ardent communist, defender of the proletariat, and bin man, Horatio is convinced he has a calling to transform the village of Abertump and wake it from its sleep. Self-appointed leader of men, his confidence knows no bounds, even when disaster stares him in the face. From...

Growing in confidence, but fed up with a lack of progress in bringing communism to Abertump, Horatio Evans decides to declare the town an independent soviet socialist republic. He, as its leader, decides to emulate Karl Marx by creating a reading room behind Jones' Emporium, (the ironmonger), in which...

Now in his middle years, Horatio Evans has been knocked back by the failure of his communist uprising. The atmosphere in the town is also depressed, because several of the mines are to close. He sees this not as a crisis, but as another opportunity for a revolution - of sorts. If the mines are closing...

The Fogle family, the rich landowners of Abertump has a strange son, Marmaduke Wellington Fogle, who has returned penniless from his grand tour of Europe. He spent most of his time and their money tobogganing in Austria and lazing around Venice, where he fell in love with gondolas. Horatio had already...

Welcome to the village of Abertump, nestling in the Swansea Valley. A village recovering from the loss of traditional industry, and coping in its own, eccentric manner. Walk the streets and meet the residents to find out some of the background to the series, The Strange Life of Horatio Evans. Horatio...

Boxset of books 1-4 of The Strange Life of Horatio Evans.  Follow Horatio's exploits in Abertump and spare a thought for Gladys, his permanently-on-the-verge-of-death wife.

A working-class district of Cardiff, the area where the author lived as a child was experienced as an island in the 1940s and 50s; a world surrounded by the noise and clamour of industry. Docks, railways, canals, foundries, gasworks, steam engines and ships all called siren-like to children eager...