Book review: Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif by Robat Gruffudd

Ant Evans

In this, his latest novel, Robat Gruffudd takes the reader back in time to the Cardiff of 2008. Immediately, we are introduced to the novel’s protagonist, Menna Beynon, the head of Corff yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Body), who’s decided to go for a dip in the swimming pool of her Whitchurch home to relax after having chaperoned two visitors from the Basque Country that day. One of whom, Romiro, is an editor of a Basque language newspaper in Bilbao. It’s made clear to the reader that Menna would have enjoyed getting to spend more time with him.

Alas that wasn’t to be, as Menna had promised her friend, actress Haf Alaw, that she would attend the BAFTA ceremony to be held that evening in St David’s Hall. Haf and her husband, twice divorced solicitor Hywel James, had then been invited back to the home Menna shares with her husband Richie, one of the directors of Mansel Allen Estate Agents, to continue the evening’s celebrations.

Who’s who

As well as attending the ceremony as a favour to her friend, Menna has another reason for wanting to go that evening. It’s made clear to the reader from the get go that Menna is very image and PR conscious, never attending events merely for their own sake, but so that she can be seen, in her role as head of Corff yr Iaith Gymraeg, to be attending them. Especially as in this case, the attendees will include the who’s who of Welsh language media.

As the evening goes on, Menna notices that Richie is increasingly distracted by his phone, much to her annoyance. Gruffudd’s choice to set Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif in 2008 is no accident. The looming Global Financial Crisis plays on Richie’s mind increasingly during the course of the novel, as he keeps an eye on financial news to assess the situation at every opportunity. This is despite the fact that he mentions quite casually to Hywel during a break in proceedings that he’s not overly concerned about the prospect of the Bank of Scotland failing, as it’s too big to fail, leading Menna to make a quip about the Titanic.

Ruin

However, by the end of the ceremony, upon turning her phone back on, Menna is greeted by worries of her own. Trystan Dafydd, an ex boyfriend from her time at Aberystwyth University twenty five years ago, has sent a message out of the blue threatening to ruin her career unless she hands over £20,000. Back at home in Whitchurch, as the four friends discuss the matter, Menna reveals that, while a member of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, she’d pulled out of a protest campaigning for Welsh medium education, for which she’d never been forgiven. Following the protest, Trystan had been arrested and imprisoned for a period of four months.

The question is raised as to whether, from Trystan’s point of view, Menna’s job exists ultimately as a result of him having been in jail, therefore Menna owes him for her professional success, where he has struggled since being locked up.

Indeed, much of the novel hinges on the contrasting lives of the haves, such as Menna, who’s climbed the career ladder with ease and has never faced homeless, to those of Trystan, who’s faced professional difficulties and housing issues, such as when his partner Beca reminds him of his time in the gutter in Blackburn.

Consequences

Tensions are present throughout the course of the plot from Trystan sending his initial message onwards. Indeed the way those tensions are presented and the potential consequences of them (such as Richie threatening to divorce Menna at one point unless she sorts things out) are a strength of the author.

Likewise, each of the characters are portrayed in such a way as, while you can sympathise with them to an extent, they are flawed in their own ways. While Menna being blackmailed is far from pleasant and the reader does feel for her, the fact that she’s revealed to have had an affair prior to the events of the novel make the reader wonder whether that will come back to bite her at some stage. And whilst Richie’s professional worries are understandable (though the land deal for a housing development in Newport he’s involved with is revealed in the press to be decidedly dodgy) the way he reacts in the present day to Menna’s student activities in the eighties and her apparent political leanings, at least at the time, make Richie appear a less than sympathetic character to say the least.

Decisions

Nostalgia is a powerful force during the course of the novel. From Trystan’s memories of his time with Menna at university, to a hotel room in Porthcawl which looks reminiscent of Menna’s student digs at Neuadd Pantycelyn all those years ago, it has the potential to influence character’s decisions. Even the title “Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif” (Big Hope of the Century) is taken from Geraint Jarman’s first album of the same name, released in 1976. The reader is told the track which the album’s name shares was something of a student anthem during Trystan and Menna’s time studying at Aberystwyth.

Pressure mounts for Menna Beynon, on personal and professional fronts, throughout the course of the novel. Not only does she have blackmail and the resulting strain on her marriage to deal with, but also professional concerns, such as an overdue business expenses report and whether or not to accept an offer of an MBE, which the head of the board of Corff yr Iaith tells Menna could open yet more doors for her in her career, should she accept.

Indeed, Menna has to keep quite a few plates spinning during the course of the novel, which left this reader with one question in the run up to the conclusion; will she succeed? Or will those plates come crashing down around her?

Returning to Caernarfon in the present day from Cardiff in 2008, it’s safe to say that Welsh language literature very much alive and kicking in 2024. Not a novel to miss!

Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif by Robat Gruffudd is published by Y Lolfa and is available from all good bookshops