Iris Gower was born in Swansea. A mother of four, she wrote over twenty bestselling novels. She received an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Wales Swansea in 1999 and was awarded an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cardiff. She died in 2010.
The familiar, unrefined ore: a turn-of-the-century South Wales copper-mining-village romance - complete with cottage lass, handsome mine-owner, one-shot pregnancies, upper-class scandal, and the capping mine explosion. Pretty Mali Llewelyn and her mine-worker father Davie are on the outs because Da (recently widowered) has been keeping company with flossy Rosa. But meanwhile Mali herself has been uncomfortably attracted to sterling mine-owner Sterling Richardson, who plans a new mining future by switching to zinc. . . but faces some hefty problems. First of all, unbeknownst to Sterling, his real father was mine-partner James Cardigan - so brother Rickie (a rotter) is the true Richardson heir. Furthermore, Sterling (again unbeknownst) has impregnated his half-sister Bea Cardigan - who learns the truth and has a secret, near-fatal abortion. And even more disaster looms when Mali (now office-manager for a laundry) slides into Sterling's arms like a startled faun. Her Da is critically injured with molten copper - thanks to the slimy boyfriend (errand-boy for Rickie Richardson) of Mali's chum Katie; Davie's compensation money - with which Mali had planned to buy a partnership in the laundry - is stolen by Rosa; Rickie plots against Sterling's mining ventures; lovers' misunderstandings abound. (Mali thinks Sterling was responsible for Davie's death; Sterling glowers about, believing Mali to be promiscuous.) But after a mine explosion - engineered by Rickie & Co. - the wicked (and a few of the pure) will be out of action, all secrets will be revealed. . . and Sterling and Mali meld mettles. An unseasoned serving of old chestnuts, unconvincing but serviceable. (Kirkus Reviews)