Morgi

About the Book

The setting for the story is the local pub of a small isolated village hamlet in West Wales.  The story line revolves around the villagers opposition, ably led by the principal character Morgi, to a take-over attempt by an ´outsider´, Trotter, who has ambitions to redevelop the local pub and adjacent land into a more profitable enterprise which the villagers feel would despoil both their lifestyle and the beauty and serenity of the village.

The main character, Morgi, a Welshman, is the only child of Mr.& Mrs.Morgan, Mam and Daa as they are affectionately remembered by him.  He lives in a small unspoilt Welsh village in West Wales, nestling alongside a river estuary.

The main supporting character is a Yorkshireman by the name of Carmichael Proudfoot, otherwise known as ´Michael to his friends.  ´Michael is the landlord of the local pub, The Ferryman Inn, and he and Morgi are lifelong friends.  After  Mam and Daa passed away, Morgi moved into a room in the pub which is alongside the old railway station.  All of the action, interspersed with much humor and a few hilarious incidents  takes place in and around the pub and the village.

Morgi is an ex-railway worker, forced into early retirement by the closure of the local branch-line of the railway and has a need to find a new direction to his life.  The closure of the railway line has also created serious economic effects on the viability of the pub.  Proudfoot was just about making ends meet prior to the railway closing down, but the loss of the customers that were regular passengers on the railway, and who used to drop in for a pint and a chat after work have made it difficult for him.  The survival of the pub business is at stake and is critical to the quality of life of the villagers.  Landlord Proudfoot is under pressure from the bank.  He has to sell something in order to raise money.

No longer having a need for them, the Railway Board puts its old property, the station, yard, buildings, railway sidings and land which adjoins the pub, up for auction.  Proudfoot seizes the opportunity in order to tide things over with the bank, to sell his prized Shire Horses and Brewers Dray, and arranges to do so at the same auction.

The railway property attracts the attention of an out of town developer called Trotter, who sees a golden opportunity to make money at the expense of the village environment.  Morgi, a traditionalist in every sense of the word, intervenes to try to prevent inappropriate development from despoiling the area.  In the process he makes an enemy of Trotter who makes trouble for him, and then, in addition sets out to ruin the remnants of the pub trade so that he can take it over for further development after the bank forecloses.

The story evolves around Morgi´s lifestyle in heading off Trotter´s planned takeover.

About the Author

Author Cyril Morris was born and educated in West Wales in the early 1940_s giving him a unique insight into rural life in an area of natural beauty. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 as an Apprentice Aircraft Sheetmetal Worker and rose through the ranks to become a Helicopter Test Pilot. Since leaving the service in 1977 he has travelled the world as an expatriate and seen how others live, always returning from time to time to his native village of Saundersfoot. His interest in writing developed over the past 25 years during which time he served a new apprenticeship, experiencing the trials and tribulations of would be authorship. He has watched with misgivings the effects of inappropriate development on small communities, not only in Wales but globally. He dedicates this book to those who stayed behind and tried to arrest the power of modern progress.