A TEACHER living in Abergavenny has written the West Wales equivalent of South Wales’ How Green Was My Valley.

Jane Blank, who taught English at King Henry Vlll in the town and now teaches at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in Pontypool, has blended historical romance with gothic horror in her latest offering The Shadow of Nanteos.

The book is the first of a two-part series covering the lives and loves of the Powell family at their mansion home in 18th century Ceredigion.

It will be launched on October 2 at the reputedly haunted Nanteos on the outskirts of Aberystwyth, which has now been converted into a five-star hotel

Mystery has always surrounded Nanteos and there are even rumours that the old house still hides family treasure on the estate and it is also home to the Nanteos Cup which some maintain is the Holy Grail.

Jane, also a poet, said, “I’ve been haunted by Nanteos since visiting there as a child. I wanted to tell Elizabeth Powell’s story after reading about her in the archives at the National Library of Wales.”

She added, “I also wanted to explore the rift between the indigenous and largely monoglot Welsh people, who were exploited in the mines, and their increasingly anglicised masters and how the traditions and folk practices of the Welsh peasantry were seen as dangerous witchcraft by both the Church and the newly-emerging religious Dissenters.

“It’s a time and location that hasn’t been much explored in literary fiction.”

One appreciative early reader of the tale has been Deborah Kay Davies, winner of Wales Book of the Year.

She enthused, “Jane has done for West Wales what has been done before for South Wales. She tells the story of how the land and the people were exploited for profit.

“We’ve had How Green was my Valley for South Wales, but I’ve never read anything about the lead mines in mid-Wales at this period. It’s fascinating.

“We need The Shadow of Nanteos to put the Wild West on the map!”

Popular BBC Journalist Robert Peston is another fan and has praised Jane’s novel for its “wonderfully gothic evocation of Wild Wales.”

Welsh speaking Jane grew up in Sheffield and later studied English and Drama at the University of East Anglia before settling in Abergavenny to bring up her children.

She still works as a part-time teacher, but after doing a Creative Writing MA in Cardiff, has picked up work teaching literature and writing to adults.

The some-time actor has also written film scripts for Film Agency Wales, the environmental charity ‘Population Matters’ and has penned and directed plays which have been performed at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre.