Bright Bewildering Green

By John Hughes

Bright Bewildering Green is a vivid, harrowing tale - told from the emotional security of middle age - of an impoverished childhood in rural Northern Ireland during the 1950s and early '60s. In its detailed evocation of the realities of life for an orphan family on an Armagh hill-farm, the sentimentality of the family pig is bled to death. William vents his frustrations on John, his sensitive youngest brother, and severe beatings lead to the boy's collapse and treatment for epilepsy until he escapes to Coventry. Inherited pluck and fortitude sustain him in a strange city, and from an achieved tranquillity the author allows himself to reflect upon the horrors, and occasional joys, endured as a child, and faces them with dispassion. This compelling narrative is the record of a survivor. 'A story remarkable because commonplace in rural Ireland - the surplus child, the tragedy of the extra mouth.' - from the Foreword by John Stalker 'A heartening, eloquent but dispassionate testimony to the triumph of determination over adversity. Hughes shows himself to be a writer of unusual talent, clarity and perception.' - Albert Smith, Irish Independent 'Powerfully written, with the vivid clarity of a naive painting.' - Roy Foster, Book of the Year, The Irish Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Lilliput Press
• Release date: Jan 1, 1991
• ISBN: 9781843513452

John Hughes

John Hughes was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, Great Britain in 1970.He has worked as a milkman, landscape gardener, newspaper photographer,occasional proof reader and a fish terminal goods inspector. He currentlylives in Oslo, Norway. His other works are listed as follows: POETRYAphelion (1992),Recuillément (1993)Black Tin Deed Box (1996)PrestonZeitgeist (1994) Money & Make-Believe (1994)Room Twelve (1995)The Fiend that He Became (1995) Poetry from Beyond the Dashboard(1996) Touché (1997) The Night is Young (1997) 58th Parallel (1998)The Plant Collector (1998) O Livro das Letras Casa (1999) Replica (1999)Passports for the Journey to the Mad Dam (2000) Flowering Off the Chrome(2000) Rolling Over the Bones & the Running Through Poems (2002) WhenHope Can Kill & the Midnight Sun Poems (2005) Orpheus’ Loot (2007) Death Rattle (2009)Skin of Teeth (2010) Singeing of Beard (2012)FICTION Aphrodisiacs’ Spaghetti (2001) The Wondrous Adventures of Dip& Dab (2002) Deeper Tangled Grass (2005)The Bloody Shoots Burst Out of Uswith Love & Bullets at their Roots (2010)