The BURIED Book Club discussion

Stuart Evans was a Welsh novelist and poet, writing in English. Born in Swansea in 1934, he went to Oxford (where he won the Newdigate Prize for verse) and subsequently worked for BBC radio. Between 1972 and 1987, he published two volumes of poetry and eight novels, five of which form the Windmill Hill sequence. He died in 1998.

Stuart Evans' novels were well received by reviewers, but never made it into paperback and presumably didn't sell that well, although his publishers clearly stayed with him. He doesn't have a Wikipedia entry, but from what little I can gather he was a modernist (when that was no longer the flavour of the decade) and an experimentalist (which has never been the flavour of any decade). His novels are said to be more philosophical than most and certainly outside the working-class, socialist mainstream of south Wales literature. He has not been entirely forgotten, since one of his novels, The Caves of Alienation, has been reissued in paperback by Parthian Books (who have an interesting list of authors).

As far as easireads is concerned, Stuart Evans is Grade A neglected. The Caves of Alienation has a magnificent zero reviews and zero ratings. His other novels fare similarly or worse (not being listed at all).

I recently picked up a copy of The Caves of Alienation (a winning title for people who like a light read) - hence my search for more about the writer and the reason for this entry. Based on the first few dozen pages, the novel is a character study of a fictional Welsh writer (Michael Caradock) told entirely in excerpts from his (equally fictional) writings, interviews with those who knew him, academic studies, transcriptions of radio programmes about him, and so on.

Looking good so far... Anyone else come across Stuart Evans? His novels are:

Meritocrats - "witty, resourceful, and brilliant" according to The Times
The Gardens of the Casino - "an electrifying performance" according to The Sunday Times
The Caves of Alienation
Centres of Ritual
Occupational Debris
Temporary Hearths
Houses on the Site
Seasonal Tribal Feasts

Yes! I checked out his Meritocrats a few weeks ago, stylistically rich and very funny. I will be plumbing his depths further. Thanks for listing all his novels. (If you could add original publication dates, that would be even neater).

Amazing! I thought the silence would be profound...

I accidentally left off the dates, but here they are. No guarantees this list is correct. The last five novels form the Windmill Hill sequence.

1974 Meritocrats
1976 The Gardens of the Casino
1977 The Caves of Alienation
1978 Centres of Ritual
1979 Occupational Debris
1982 Temporary Hearths
1984 Houses on the Site
1987 Seasonal Tribal Feasts

Peter wrote: "Amazing! I thought the silence would be profound..."

Nope. You've got our ear.

And looks like Evans requires a bit of librarianization.

(tip!) pack in your posts with as many links as possible -- book titles, authors, etc ; links are good for building hype.

Meanwhile, where's the gr entry for that Meritocrats?

Thanks. I have done a spot of librarianizing, so now if you look for Stuart Evans the link actually leads you to some information - though it's still rather minimal.

Peter wrote: "Thanks. I have done a spot of librarianizing, so now if you look for Stuart Evans the link actually leads you to some information - though it's still rather minimal."

oh yes that looks much better.

Just accidentally ran into the fact that Evans is treated in Amongst Those Left: The British Experimental Novel 1940-1980.

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Evans is treated in Amongst Those Left: The British Experimental Novel 1940-1980."


"Stuart Evans was one of the few British novelists who could match Nicholas Mosley in both experimental form and intellectual seriousness; he was likewise not afraid to tackle the 'big questions'..... His work is not wholeheartedly experimental, though his first two novels, which are impressionistic and rather cerebral, do contain reflections both on their own status and on the nature of art in general. Evans's third novel, The Caves of Alienation, concerns the impossibility of ever adequately portraying or defining the individual; a collage of fictitious materials about an imaginary author, this can certainly be counted as an experimental novel. In his next two novels [Centres of Ritual & Occupational Debris], Evans again mixes narrative methods within a novel...." [found @amazon look=inside.]

well that has all got me very interested indeed - ordered caves and Ritual so will report back and review once I read them

Completed The Caves of Alienation and enjoyed the way it was constructed - "a collage of fictitious materials" - rather more than the novel itself. The problem I found was that the subject of the novel, the fictional author Michael Caradock, was not the literary giant he was supposed to be - a self-imposed tough task for Stuart Evans who "quotes" long passages from Caradock's novels and essays. Moreover, Caradock is a fairly priggish elitist - overly fond of Nietzschean philosophy and didactic essays - and difficult to get excited about. I started wondering how much the book might be autobiographical: both Evans and Caradoc were born in Wales, went to Oxford, moved on to London, served with the Royal Navy...in which case the book may be something of a satire at his own expense. Anyway, review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Meritocrats is a terrific novel, and happy to say I restored it to print recently via Vpress in first paparback ed. Highly recommend this novel to all, it strikes me as Evans's probably most playful and enjoyable work (the others appearing more ponderously obscure).