Adder Stone by Clare Clark #virtualbooktour #adderstone @claresclark @wiltonsquarebooks #bookreview #northwales #trywerynvalley

 

It is 1963 and in north Wales the Jones family are being forcibly ejected from the land they have farmed for generations. Their valley is to be drowned, turned into a reservoir for the people of Liverpool.

While her husband Dai is grief-stricken, Olwen Jones privately sees it as a blessing, an unforeseen chance to escape the narrow confines of the valley. But for her teenage son Emyr, Liverpool’s careless arrogance is proof that Wales will never be free to decide its own future until, like Ireland, it breaks the shackles of English imperialism.

Based on true events, Adder Stone is an exploration of personal identity and the possibilities and limits of love. How far will we go for our child or for our country? Who are we when we lose the places and the people that define us? And how much, in the end, is it possible to forgive?

Adder Stone by Clare Clark is published today; 5 November 2026 by Wilton Square Books. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this virtual book tour 

I loved this book. Adder Stone is one of those novels that stay in your thoughts long after you've turned the final page.

I had heard about the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley in North Wales, but didn't really know much about it and  I  had never really considered what it must have meant to the families whose homes and farms and entire way of life were sacrificed to provide water for Liverpool. Clare Clark has taken this extraordinary piece of history and created something so powerful and very moving. 

At the heart of the story is the Jones family.  I was fascinated by how differently each of them react to losing the land that has been theirs for generations. Dai's grief is almost tangible, while young Emyr's anger takes him in another direction entirely. And then there's Olwen.

Oh, Olwen. What a character! I found her utterly compelling. I loved her contradictions, her private thoughts, her frustrations and the fact that she doesn't always feel what she thinks she ought to feel. I could understand her longing for something beyond the valley, even while recognising the terrible sadness of what was happening around her. She felt so real to me, and I found myself thinking about her even when I wasn't reading.

The author doesn't make anything straightforward for her characters. Love, loyalty, marriage, motherhood and belonging are all complicated, and people don't always behave as we'd like them to. I found myself sympathising with one character, then questioning them a few pages later. I love it when an author makes me do that.

The landscape is described so beautifully that I could almost feel the valley around me. Knowing what is to happen to it makes those descriptions all the more poignant.

This is a novel about so much more than a flooded village. It's about identity, family, sacrifice and the places that make us who we are.

Beautifully written, devastating and full of wonderfully believable characters. I was completely absorbed. A fabulous read.

Clare Clark is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels including The Great Stink and Savage Lands, both longlisted for the Women’s Prize. 

Her previous book, Trespass, exploring the murky world of undercover policing, was praised by the Mail on Sunday as ‘provocative, moving and timely’. 

Her books have been translated into seven languages.