Kate Roberts (1891-1985) was the towering figure of Welsh-language fiction in the twentieth century. Feet in Chains is her masterpiece and it is here presented in a new and vibrant English translation by Katie Gramich, which does justice to the austere beauty of Roberts’s style and takes the reader into the heart of a different culture, a different world. Prof. Katie Gramich is a Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. A specialist in the literature of modern Wales and in rediscovering neglected Welsh women writers. She has served as Chair of the Association for Welsh Writing in English and edits the Almanac series.

Spanning the next forty years, the novel traces the contours not only of one vividly evoked Welsh family but of a nation coming to self-consciousness; it begins in the heyday of Methodist fervour and ends in the carnage and disillusionment of the First World War. Through it all, Jane survives, the centre of her world and the inspiration for her children who will grow up determined to change the conditions of these poor people’s lives, to release them forever from their chains.