Author Bridget Ashton is preparing for the launch of her latest book ‘My Mother and the Curate,’ an interesting look into two diaries of life in Hay-on-Wye from 1953 and 1870, from Bridget’s mother, Mrs Eileen Ashton, and Revd Francis Kilvert.

The book alternates chapter by chapter with the diarists’ daily lives in 1953 and 1870, revealing intimate personal details and stories of the rich and the poor around them. It contains over seventy historic photos and illustrations, many being published for the first time.

The reader is exposed to the unedited struggles of a hard-up mother of six in post-war Hay, who wrote every night in her Boots Scribbling diary, and in contrast with selections from the Revd Francis Kilvert’s well-known diaries for ten months during 1870.

They reveal their private emotions as they wrote of visits to rich and poor, daily meals, their sometimes-ambivalent feelings to children and young women, his Anglicanism and her devotion to the small Roman Catholic church in Hay-on-Wye, and their walks in the countryside.

The book ends dramatically with the unforeseen sorrows of both diarists.

The author’s mother, Mrs Eileen Ashton, and Revd Francis Kilvert both lived in and near the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye, eighty years apart.

The book plunges right in with Mrs Ashton: Thursday 1 January 1953.

O dear, what a terrible day! It started with the children’s bickerings before seven am and seemed to go on all day. Spent the morning scrubbing. John vexed, so crying again. However, calmed down and set off for the party at the convent in Brecon in fairly good form. Nuns very nice and interested and kept telling me how wonderful I was which restored my flagging spirits a little.

The next chapter is from the diary of the Revd Francis Kilvert: Wednesday 9 February 1870.

Old Sarah Probert groaning and rolling about in bed. Hannah Jones smoking a short black pipe by the fire, and her daughter, a young mother with dark eyes and her hair hanging loose, nursing her baby and displaying her charms liberally.

A special event to launch Bridget’s new book will take place at Hay Library on Friday, 21 November at 2.30pm in collaboration with the Brecon & Radnor Express.

The event will be a special opportunity for the public to hear from author Bridget Ashton, how she came to write the book, and also a reading from the book.

Come on the day and meet special guests. Signed copies £15 only on the day. The normal price of the book is £20, plus £4 postage, or alternatively it will be available in your local book shop.

There will also be a special offer for Brecon & Radnor Express readers who can’t come on the day, of £18 with free postage. All you will have to do is email [email protected] to purchase the book and say that you are a Brecon & Radnor Express reader.

A two copies special offer to B&R readers is also available at £34 with free postage, also by emailing: [email protected]