AmeriCymru spoke to author and freelance drama and comedy director Griff Rowland about his first book ''The Search For Mr Lloyd''. Griff has worked on shows such as Coronation Street, Wizards vs Aliens (Russell T Davies), Pobol y Cwm and Beryl, Cheryl a Meryl - isio Chwerthin with Tudur Owen. He began writing his novel in between projects. Spanning Bangor and London, the novel tells the tale of Mostyn Price, a young pigeon fancier whose prized bird goes missing during his first international race. The story is his search to find him. The Search For Mr. Lloyd

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AmeriCymru: Hi Griff and many thanks for agreeing to talk to AmeriCymru. After a distinguished career as a TV drama and comedy director what made you decide to take up writing?

Griff: I work as a freelance director and as I made the leap from documentary to drama, I had to take a risk and turn a few job offers down. Waiting for the right project to turn up meant I had to fill my time constructively. I''d been in between jobs years earlier when I was working in front of the camera (as a presenter on S4C) and when I had quiet periods, I''d either be knocking on employers doors or watching mindless daytime television programmes. This time, I thought I wouldn''t waste a day. I''d had this idea for a book and I always wanted to write but fear that I didn’t have a good enough idea, let alone be able to see it through to the end got in the way. So, one day an idea came to me when a friend of mine, who was rather a reckless driver nearly ran over a pigeon. It sounds daft, but I looked into it, and got engrossed in the research and learning about Pigeon Fancying. I became fascinated with racing pigeons and especially what became of those that never make it home. Most of them gripped by the claws of birds of prey, but others lose their unique homing instinct and if not found become undomesticated. I liked this as a metaphor and with some initial research the seeds of a novel began to germinate. I used my directing experience then to outline some structure - as I like to know where I’m going! – and began writing the story in between jobs, and I soon got lost in the world.

AmeriCymru: Your book is about one man''s search for as missing race pigeon. The birds disappearance is a defining moment in the life of the main character, Mostyn. What suggested this theme to you?

Griff: Two reasons: As a lad growing up in Bangor and who went to London as a student I had always been interested in the idea of ''gadael cartref''. Second, the idea for this book came to life when I learnt that a racing pigeon’s homing instinct can be befuddled. Mostyn’s pigeon, Mister Lloyd loses his way in life, if you like and this was an attractive metaphor for me. You see, a few years earlier Mostyn’s dad disappeared from his life. Not that he was a missing person, just that one day he walked out on them and Mostyn never sees him again. The grandfather (Taid) breeds racing pigeons and to help him focus on other things gave one to Mostyn to train. After his first international race, when Mostyn is eleven years old, the bird is a no show. Naturally this stirs in him all those unhappy memories. Not finding his missing racing pigeon is not an option and he refuses to believe it has been killed. And yet how do you go looking for a bird so undistinguishable as a pigeon? It’s an absurd idea, but Mostyn is determined. And eventually when school holidays allow, Mostyn Price sets off from his home in Bangor, Wales to go and find him.

AmeriCymru: We learn from the initial press release that the book was written "in between projects". How easy/difficult has it been to find time to work on a novel whilst maintaining your other career commitments?

Griff: It was fine when I was not working, hours would fly by and it gave me a working structure to my days. But when working on directing projects, It’d be nigh on impossible to do the two. Directing is all consuming and you live and breath it day and night. But I carried around with me a little notebook that I would use to jot anything down. I think going out to earn a living while you’re writing naturally slows down the timescale from start to finish. But if it’s something dear to you heart, you find the time!

AmeriCymru: How do you think your career in television has affected and influenced your writing?

Griff: It has been a great influence. I was definitely writing as if I was editing my own pitures in my head. I’d plan things out as if, I need to here next, there after that. In TV I tell stories through words and pictures. I have to paint pictures in my head to tell the crew what we ant to capture in order to tell the story to the audience. Obviously I found it physically different when writing, but you’re still painting a picture and telling a story with words. The other thing my experience in TV has taught me is to not be scared of being ruthless. When you’re in the cutting room, you have to let go of things, shots you loved are maybe not needed when viewing a show in its entirety. Things you’ve filmed are not needed in the flow of the story. So you have to learn to say, get rid of it! It’s taught me not to be so precious and so, on each reading of the manuscript I didn’t mind cutting things. In a way you had to still write it to be able to say you didn’t need it. It helped me think that deleting chapters was not a big deal. And as Mostyn Price ultimately has to learn to let go, so did I. Gone!

AmeriCymru: Are you planning to write more? Any new titles in the pipeline?

Griff: I would like to write more. I loved writing The Search for Mister Lloyd. I’m looking for my next idea, but until that comes, maybe I will start adapting the book into a script. Seems obvious, really!

AmeriCymru: Where can our readers go to purchase the book online?

Griff: The book can be downloaded on Kindle.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Griff: Not that this is a message - as such - but I may have come across some of your readers when I travelled around the States for a month filming a documentary series for BBC Wales called Star Spangled Dragon which traced the Welsh influence on the shaping of America. this wqas in 2002 and I met so many wonderful people; it was a trip ‘na’i byth anghofio! Diolch am y croeso! And of course when working on it I learned the George Washington quote, Good Welshmen make good Americans’. Fair point!

Interview by Ceri Shaw Email