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Blessed Are The Cracked This interconnected collection of five novellas and two short stories from the casebook of retired local policeman Tegwyn Prydderch, is set in the fictional West Wales farming community of Llanefa.
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These are not ''comfortable'' tales and Llanefa is no ''chocolate box'' Welsh village. Author Delphine Richards worked as a cop in rural Wales for a number of years and one can only assume that she brought her experience of real crime and real police work to the pages of this book.
From the prologue we learn that DCI Tegwyn Prydderch has retired from the force and is being urged to while away his retirement years writing his memoirs. Forced to convalesce after a hip replacement operation Tegwyn finally succumbs. As he ponders his old case files he wonders how best to put them to literary use:-
"If only the people themselves could tell the story, he thinks, a ''warts and all'' account of how it all came to be. Now, there would be a book worth buying!"
In each of the tales which follow we are treated to precisely such an account. These stories are not ''whodunnits'' but rather a blow by blow account of events as they occurred, told from the perspective of the victim or perpetrator.
In the opening tale ‘ Donald’s Cat’ , a home help becomes trapped in an abandoned explosives container while searching for a missing cat. Her fear of suffocation and dehydration are graphically described as she battles to preserve her sanity in her pitch black surroundings. She fixates on recent traumatic events and unfinished business that she has left behind outside the metal frame which confines her. Despite this claustrophobic setting the story is a masterful and fast paced thriller with an unexpected twist in it''s tail.
If you are an afficionado of the ''grittier'' school of crime writing then there is much in the pages of Delphine Richards for you to savour. Welcome to the seamier side of life in rural Wales. I for one am looking forward to the next offering from the Welsh Elmore Leonard.
About Delphine Richards
Cambria Books website:- "An experienced writer in several formats from magazine articles, short stories, to a weekly newspaper column, Delphine Richards’s new work draws on her real life experience as a member of the Welsh Police in rural Wales. In these dark tales, she brings to fictional life a new, uniquely Welsh, policeman character, Tegwyn Prydderch, from whose grisly casebook and early memories these stories are drawn."
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The Seedy Side Of Life In Rural Wales
''A friend is a good egg, even if they are slightly cracked - blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light''
Buy ''Blessed Are The Cracked'' here
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Delphine: My new book Blessed Are The Cracked is the first in a planned series of three set in the fictional west Wales farming community of Llanefa and featuring retired detective Tegwyn Prydderch. It has been described as ''dark crime'' with some disturbing scenes. A reviewer wondered if tourists would think twice about holidaying in west Wales after reading this!
AmeriCymru: 'Blessed Are The Cracked'' consists of a series of five novellas and two short stories. Why did you choose this unusual literary configuration?
Delphine: The novella is making a bit of a comeback by all accounts and this appealed to me as I have enjoyed a few ''shorter'' novels. I read somewhere that people lead such busy lives these days that they don''t want to commit themselves to a very long novel and I thought it was worth trying. However, my courage failed me when I thought about writing a single novella as I''m not convinced that such a work by an unknown writer would hit its mark. I have enjoyed books such as ''A Visit From The Goon Squad'' (Jennifer Egan) and ''Hearts In Atlantis'' (Stephen King), where a series of novellas were combined and inter-linked through characters and over several decades. The more I thought about it, the more apt this seemed for ''Blessed''. I pretty well let the stories set their own length which explains why they range from 10,000 to 22,000 words (for the novellas). Of the two short stories, ''The Family Man'' just seemed right at its length but ''The Perfect Wife'' wanted to run for longer. I decided against it because it is written entirely in dialect and, although I can hear the voice clearly in my head, I wondered if readers would find it difficult to follow if it went on for many more pages.
AmeriCymru: We know that you draw on your experience as a police officer in rural Wales for inspiration. Can we ask if there are any particular cases which are reflected in the stories in ''Blessed''? One shudders to think that the events related in ''Donald''s Cat'' for instance, might have had a basis in fact.
Delphine: Sadly, abuse is common to all police officers, so there is nothing in those stories that I have not dealt with at some time. ''Donald''s Cat'' (Donald is named after my horse, by the way!) is not based entirely on real events but I have had dealings with people becoming trapped in some way - with varying outcomes. As far as the explosives store is concerned, at one point I was involved with going to inspect explosives stores at local privately owned coal mines. They had a regular inspection by police and the security aspect was very rigorous - the earth bank for instance, as mentioned in the story, was a definite guideline. I am a bit claustrophobic and it used to make my hair stand on end every time I saw the explosives store and I used to wonder how awful it would be to become trapped in one.
The story that mimics real life the closest is ''Heatwave (Tegwyn''s Story)'' which was extremely similar to an event I remember as a young teenager. My father worked for the Electrici ty Board and he came home one day and told us about a Meter Reader who had been attacked by a hippy on drugs (though not to the extent it happens in the book). There had also been a murder there that day. It was a big wake-up call to all of us who lived in the area and had never had to lock our doors and cars.
AmeriCymru: ''Blessed Are The Cracked'' is a superb title. How did you come by it?
Delphine: Much as I would love to take the credit for this, ''Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light'' is a quote from Groucho Marx. When I was halfway through writing this book, I had a jokey email from a friend. It showed animals and people doing the daftest things. It contained that quote and then added ''A friend is a good egg, even if they are slightly cracked - blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light''. The email formed part of the story where Kay receives it from her best friend - the reasons becoming apparent as the story continues! It sort of stuck in my mind and I eventually changed the title to its present form. Strangely enough, the first thing people say is how much they love the title - it has convinced me that I made the right decision! I think it also sums up its slightly off-beat tone.
AmeriCymru: You will be visiting the US in the near future. Can you tell us more about your itinerary?
Delphine: Having never been on a plane until 1998, I have found that I love travelling! A major operation prior to that date made it impossible to fly, so when that medical decision was turned around, there was no holding us back. My husband and I have been to the US twice before but I have never been to New York. So, next April, we are going to an event and meeting up with friends at Lancaster, Pennsylvania but going to New York first. I''m hoping that there will be some interest in my book and I will be able to sell/sign a few while there.
AmeriCymru: Do you read crime fiction? If so, who? What other genres or authors currently interest you?
Delphine: I have a fairly varied choice of reading. I love Nicci French, Sophie Hannah, Ruth Rendell (especially Rendell''s non-Wexford novels - she always creates some kind of weirdo that hooks me like a magnet!). I''m reading a Jodi Picoult book at the moment - I came across her books in South Africa three years ago and I am working my way through them. You will not be surprised to hear that I also like Elmore Leonard - thank you for your kind review on that topic! I am also a huge Stephen King fan - will I sound like a stalker if I say I''ve had a photo taken outside his house? (But, hey, he''s welcome to come and have a photo taken outside MY house!)
AmeriCymru: We know that you are currently working on a follow up to ''Blessed Are The Cracked". Care to tell us more?
Delphine: The follow up to Blessed is to be a complete full length novel rather than the series of novellas (unless I am convinced to do otherwise). I am already well into it though as it goes back a year or two before Blessed, I''m constantly checking the timeline - not as easy it sounds - some characters just WANT to be there but when I check, they''ve already been killed off!
The third book (optimism is a fine quality in a writer, don''t you think?), goes forward to events that Tegwyn Prydderch becomes involved with after Blessed. I''m hoping that Blessed continues to sell well enough to make these two ''new'' books a reality. So far, Blessed has reached No 36 in the Amazon Top 100 in its category, but there is a long way to go yet! Check out the link to my author page and details on Cambria Books or Literature Wales and look up Writers'' Database.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Delphine: I think it''s great that a country the size of the US has some affinity with Wales (which is only slightly bigger than New Hampshire, I believe). If American readers are supporting Welsh writers by buying their books, then I feel very humbled and grateful. I also hope that writers can give something back to those who live in the US but are ''missing'' Wales. Diolch i chi gyd.
Delphine Richards.
‘Wales means business” – Welsh First Minister’s message to Atlanta, Cincinnati and Chicago
By Ceri Shaw, 2016-09-07
Welsh Government, New York, September 6:
“Wales means business” – that’s the message the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones is bringing to America on a whistle-stop 5-day tour of Atlanta, Cincinnati and Chicago, Sep 5-8.
As part of the drive to further raise the profile of Wales in three states of key importance to Wales, First Minister Jones will meet with a number of Fortune 500 companies, political leaders including the Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, and existing investors in Wales including Valero, S&C Electric Company and Zimmer Biomet.
He will also address members of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs about the future of Wales post ‘Brexit’ in a talk entitled ‘After Brexit::Europe, the United Kingdom, and Wales.'
The five-day visit is part of the Welsh Government’s plan to increase trade and investment between Wales and the USA - an approach which will be accelerated as part of a coordinated response to Brexit.
The United States of America is one of Wales’ most important trading partners. There are over 250 US companies based in Wales – including large multinational corporations like GE, Ford, 3M, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Kimberley Clark, Honeywell and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Many Welsh companies like IQE, Tinopolis, Elephant Insurance and Creditsafe are also investing and doing business in the US.
The Welsh Government has trade and investment offices across the United States, with personnel based in the British Embassy in Washington D.C., and in the British Consulate-General offices in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Chicago
The visit comes on the back of a series of record-breaking years for inward investment to Wales. The acceleration of investment in Wales can be attributed to the proliferation of innovative and hi-tech companies in the country. A recent survey by Nockolds shows that Wales has the fastest growing digital economy in the UK outside London with the number of digital enterprises in Wales jumping by 9.2% in 2015.
Members of the Friends of Wales Caucus on Capitol Hill today wished the First Minister every success on his visit saying that ‘the people of Wales and the United States have benefited greatly from their mutual bonds of friendship which span from the founding of our nation to the present day. In light of the recent vote by the people of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, the Caucus reaffirms the importance of the economic and cultural ties between Wales and the United States of America.’
Speaking ahead of the visit, First Minister Jones said:
“We have been incredibly successful over recent years at attracting global businesses to Wales – and creating high quality jobs. With inward investment at a 30 year high, our efforts in attracting business and investment is resulting in more and better jobs being created here in Wales.
“Announcements from Aston Martin, MotoNovo, TVR, Essentra, EE and BT have demonstrated our growing reputation as the go-to country for businesses to locate to and trade from. But we need to do more to attract more investment in the future, not less. We need to take an ever more proactive approach to going out there, promoting Wales on an international stage, and reminding the world that all the things that have made Wales great, continue to make Wales great.
“Post-Brexit, we must sell Wales to the world like never before. Wales must remind the world we mean business. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing this week in the USA.”
AmeriCymru: Hi Brian, and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. You have been both a field scientist and a Geography lecturer in your time. What inspired you to write fiction?
Brian: It's a great pleasure to talk to you. I always enjoy chatting about the writing process. You should really have asked "Who inspired you to write fiction?" and the short answer to that would be "My wife Inger." I've been writing books for many years, and now have about 80 to my name, but the majority of these relate to my research specialisms of landscape evolution and the Ice Age. I have a great affection for glaciers, having studied them in Antarctica, Greenland and other parts of the north polar regions. So in my days as a lecturer in Durham University it was natural that I should write textbooks about glaciers and landscape; my big text book on that subject, written with my good friend David Sugden, remained in print for 20 years as a key university text across the world. I also wrote books on the Ice Age for a non-specialist readership, for some of the big mainstream publishers in the US and UK.
On moving back to Wales in 1976, I started my own small publishing business called Greencroft Books, and since then I have written and published one or two books a year, aimed at the Welsh market in general and the Pembrokeshire tourist trade in particular -- with titles on folk tales, joke books, guide books, local history and traditions, walking trails and so forth. But no fiction. I thought that the writing of fiction was something for which I was not suited, given my "academic" background. My wife thought otherwise, and was convinced that I could and should write fiction. And then, in 1999, Mistress Martha Morgan walked into my life, and along came the Angel Mountain Saga. It's difficult enough to resist one strong woman, and quite impossible to resist two!
AmeriCymru: The Angel Mountain novels have been a major critical and commercial success. Care to tell our readers a little more about what inspired them?
The story -- and the inspiration -- continued over the writing of the first five novels. When "On Angel Mountain" was published ten years ago, there was such an incredible response from readers that I just had to keep going -- especially since I had only covered a year or so of her life in that first story, and the rest of it was still in my head! So I did not have to "invent" a storyline -- that was there already -- and was able to concentrate on the technicalities of storytelling to the best of my ability. So I wrote and published the other novels very quickly, at the rate of one per year for five years. Since then I have written two further books in the series, one called "Guardian Angel" and the other called "Sacrifice". Very soon sales for the whole series will hit 65,000 copies, so I have to be satisfied with that.
AmeriCymru: The novels are set on and around Carn Ingli. What role does the atmosphere of this unique Welsh landscape play in your creative process?
Brian: The sense of place is hugely important in all of the novels, as it is in most Welsh fiction. We do after all have this wonderful word "hiraeth" which encompasses both longing and belonging -- and ties Welsh people to both a place and a community. Carningli, the little mountain which stands sentinel above the town of Newport in Pembrokeshire, is so important in the stories that it becomes almost a character in its own right. Mistress Martha has a mystical relationship with it, feeling that the mountain is a part of her, and that she is a part of the mountain.
As a geographer by training, I suppose that I feel a sense of place very strongly indeed, and I think that the success of the novels is at least in part related to the fact that readers can also identify very strongly with the little details of the mountain, the cwm, and even the woodlands and streams that are prime locations in one story after another. So they share in Martha's own intimate knowledge of the landscape in which she and her family, friends and enemies live, and love, and die.
AmeriCymru: Iolo Morgannwg, who is something of a hero to many of our readers, makes an appearance in the most recent instalment of the Angel Mountain series ( 'Sacrifice' ). Without giving too much away , can you tell us what role he plays in the novel?
AmeriCymru: In 'Rebecca And The Angels' Martha becomes involved in the Rebecca Riots. Care to tell our readers a little about the historical background to this episode?
So the riots started with the destruction of a tollgate at Efailwen in Pembrokeshire, and then spread all over West Wales. But the riots were actually quite sophisticated, as riots go! The men who took part in them tried to avoid harm to human life, although they had no qualms about smashing up and burning tollgates and tollgate-keepers' houses. In all the riots they dressed in womens' clothes and blackened their faces, and prior to the destruction of each tollgate they enacted a little charade involving Rebecca and her daughters, based on the Biblical story. They used trumpets and drums, and there was a strong theatrical element in the riots, based upon the old "folk justice" traditions of the "Ceffyl Pren." The army was sent in to quell the riots, but because they were so dispersed, and because the rioters had such an effective underground communications network, the dragoons were made to look stupid and ineffectual. Thanks in part to the extensive coverage of the riots in the Times newspaper, the protestors were ultimately successful, and the Turnpike Trust laws were changed by Act of Parliament, addressing most of the grievances of the rioters.
This was such a colourful -- and important -- episode, involving spies, betrayals and secret meetings (not to mention summary justice) that it was inevitable that Mistress Martha would get sucked into the riots, given her propensity for getting involved in any good cause that might help her to make the world a better place!
AmeriCymru: Will we be hearing more from Martha Morgan? Is there any chance of a television adaptation?
Brian: You will certainly be hearing more from Martha Morgan. She hasn't finished sorting the world out just yet. There's another volume in the pipeline, which will hopefully be published in the spring of 2012. Many of my faithful readers from all over the world have said that there MUST be aTV series or films featuring the different phases of Martha's life and following her battles with a number of seriously unpleasant individuals who lust after her and her little estate on the side of the mountain. The books are action-packed, and I think they have very strong characters, and all of my readers refer to the strong "visual qualities" of the stories.
But as we all know, film and TV adaptations are hugely expensive, and in the field of historical fiction producers and directors are notoriously risk-averse. Sadly, they prefer to make yet another version of "Pride and Prejudice" or "Wuthering Heights" rather than to take a chance on something new. But I live in hope. Everybody to whom I have spoken within the TV and film industry says that there is a powerful "random" element in adaptations for the screen. All it needs is for one influential person from within the industry to fall in love with Mistress Martha as a character, to see the potential of the stories, and to act as an advocate for a film project in the offices of those who make the key decisions. So if anybody out there knows a Hollywood director, feel free to tell him or her that the film rights are still available!
AmeriCymru: You are also a writer of non-fiction. Care to tell us a little about The Bluestone Enigma ?
Brian: Sure. This book arose out of a long-standing interest in the mythology surrounding Stonehenge, and particularly the "mystical" link with the bluestones that have come from the Preseli area of North Pembrokeshire. Since 1921, the myth of long-distance human transport of the bluestones has been promoted by one generation of archaeologists after another, to the extent that it has become one of the favourite tales of the world! We all know and love the story, whether or not we have actually visited Stonehenge. It underpins the nation's tourist promotion work, and it adds huge value to Stonehenge as an iconic structure. The trouble is that there was no evidence to support the human transport myth in 1921, and there is still no evidence today.
In the book I take a hard look at where the evidence (rather than the mythology) leads us -- and this means looking at evidence in the fields of glaciology, geology and geomorphology. Inexorably the evidence leads us to the conclusion that the bluestones (which have come from maybe 30 different sources) are glacial erratics, carried from Pembrokeshire towards Salisbury Plain by a vast glacier known as the Irish sea glacier, maybe 450,000 years ago. i think that the stones were dumped by this glacier not far from Stonehenge, and that in due course they were found by Neolithic tribal groups and built into the Stonehenge monument. Maybe the location of the monument was determined above all else by the accessibility of these stones.
Needless to say, many senior archaeologists (who have based their reputations on variations on the "human transport" theme) are furious about this development. I think it's fair to say that they wish that the book would go away -- but it's been reprinted already, and it's good to know that it has sparked a good debate!
AmeriCymru: What do you read for pleasure? Any recommendations?
Brian: I'm not a great reader of fiction -- my bed-time reading normally consists of background material for whatever I am currently writing. So just now I am scanning the pages of various books on the dress and customs of high society in the Regency Period. In the next novel Martha has to learn how to cope with a number of characters who are insufferably grand!
As for my favourite fiction, up there in my top ten would be Peter Carey's "True History of the Kelly Gang", "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx, Wilkie Collins's "Woman in White" and "A Scots Quire" by Grassic Gibbons. (By the way, I am quite convinced that Dylan Thomas got his idea for "Under Milk Wood" from Grassic Gibbons........ but that's another story.) As far as Welsh fiction is concerned, my favourite is probably Bruce Chatwin's "On the Black Hill", which is dark, claustrophobic and wonderfully evocative. Then I would have to put in the novels of Alexander Cordell. They are not particularly subtle, but Cordell has a fantastic and unique "voice" -- his tales are told in a style that has guts and grime, bravado and anger, and I think he really gets into the soul of Wales.
AmeriCymru: What's next for Brian John?
Brian: I shall continue to write both fiction and non-fiction for as long as I am enjoying myself! When it ceases to be fun, I'll stop and spend more time in the garden. I'm still enjoying the creative process of publishing as well, and the marketing and distribution work that every small publisher has to take seriously. In some ways that's the least enjoyable part of my job as a publisher, but I do value the contacts with the book trade and the feedback from traders and members of the public. I'll continue to work on the sale of film and TV rights for the Angel Mountain tales. And I would love to see my novels take off in the United States and Canada, since i'm convinced that within the Welsh expatriate community there are many folks who have still not even heard of the books. But Mistress Martha is really Mother Wales, or so I am informed by my readers! So maybe that's a line I need to follow as I seek to reach wider markets.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Brian: First of all, thank you to Ceri and his colleagues for the warm welcome to the site! It's colourful, cheerful and friendly -- and as far as I can see it does a great job in explaining what "Welshness" means and in bringing together ex-pats and the descendents of Welsh settlers from across North America! So well done -- keep up the good work!
And for readers who look at the site, please don't forget your roots. It is a sense of belonging that makes us who we are -- and whether we belong to one community or several, we draw our strength and our individuality from the mutual support mechanisms sustained by those around us. It's that "spirit of belonging" which I have tried to capture in the stories of my very imperfect heroine Martha Morgan. She falls from grace over and again, but always her angels pick her up again and reestablish her at the centre of her little world. May the angels of Americymru continue to thrive!
Some links:
About Stonehenge and the bluestones: http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/
The Angel Mountain Saga: http://www.angel-mountain.info/
Americymru: Hi Maggie and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. You were born in Wales. Care to tell us a little more about your Welsh background and how you came to the States?
Maggie: I was dragged kicking and screaming into this world in my grandparent’s terraced house in the Ryhmney Valley coal-mining town of Ystrad Mynach in what is now the county of Mid Glamorgan. My maternal and paternal grandfathers were coal miners. My maternal grandmother’s mother tongue was Welsh, which colored her English, often amusingly so. My father was the first in his family to go to college, and I was the first female in the family to throw myself into the academic melee. I have fond memories of Bangor University, which was Bangor College, University of Wales, when I graduated. I’m even nostalgic about the gales that blew—seemingly continuously—from across the Irish Sea, pouring cold water into my wellies and darkening the Gothic college buildings until they resembled something Sauron would have enjoyed living in.
After graduation, I stumbled through a motley slew of jobs from unofficial spy (for the Brits, in case you’re worried) to musicologist (I studied piano and music theory) to orchestral manager to law-firm media relations consultant to academic editor, in the UK, Romania, and—when the glitter of the gold-paved streets beckoned—the USA. I even tried my hand at teaching English to recalcitrant schoolgirls in France. Well, they were recalcitrant until I switched from grammar to medieval history—there’s nothing like castles, dungeons, and torture chambers for winning friends and influencing minds.
I was recruited in London for a job at the World Bank, Washington, DC as a trilingual secretary, but that changed quickly once I discovered the thrills—and spills—of writing program notes for National Symphony Orchestra audiences who would rather search for their names in the donors’ lists than learn what Beethoven had for breakfast. And I went downhill from there …
Americymru: We learn from your biography that after arriving in the US you "... gravitated to Virginia where I threw myself—not literally of course—into editing and writing nonfiction, mostly for adults." Can you tell us more? How would you describe your writing background?
Maggie: That motley slew of jobs in the business sector all had one thing in common—writing/editing, writing/editing, and more writing/editing—on everything from astronomy to Zen Buddhism. I’ve always loved words, and I’ve always loved research. In fact, I was often so absorbed by the research that I put off getting around to the writing. That still happens.
Americymru: Dewi is not your first venture in the area of childrens writing. Can you tell us a little more about your previous work for children?
Maggie: I’ve always been fascinated by children’s literature from the time I was small and my parents read me bedtime stories to becoming a mother myself and reading my own child stories, sometimes the same ones I enjoyed as a child. When my son grew too old for stories, I needed an excuse to borrow books from the children’s library. Declaring myself to be a children’s writer did the trick. Studying the work of great children’s writers gives me the chance to indulge my love of that enchanting mix of innocence, escapism, imagination, and humor that bubbles out of children’s literature. My first efforts at writing were articles and poetry written for the online Stories for Children Magazine, and knowonder! magazine published my first novella, Dewi, the Red Dragon. My adventure story Vin and the Dorky Duet for middle-grade readers was published this past summer.
Americymru: What can you tell us about Dewi and the seeds of Doom? What inspired it? Where can readers buy it online?
Maggie: When I first created my character Dewi, a young and nosy Welsh dragon, I wanted to spread the word, in my very small way, about the land of my birth—its gorgeous countryside, its inspiring history, its fascinating legends, its impossible language. I don’t see why Wales can’t enjoy the kind of global awareness that Scotland and Ireland do. Dewi and the Seeds of Doom combines fantasy—the setting is a historically dubious Wales—with a contemporary problem: genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs in the human food chain are very scary—much scarier than any horror movie could ever be. They are now to be found in 80 to 90 percent of all processed foods in the USA. I have enormous respect and admiration for those courageous folks who are trying to educate the public about them and get them removed from our food supply. I hope children who read Dewi and the Seeds of Doom will enjoy a romp with a feisty little Welsh dragon turned amateur detective. I hope their parents will subscribe to the underlying message about GMOs.
Dewi and the Seeds of Doom is available most places where books are sold, including Amazon and Kindle, and the publishers’ bookstores: for the e-book, MuseItUp Publishing and for the paperback, Halo Publishing International at and of course through Americymru’s bookstore. For more information, check my website at Maggie Lyons Children''s Books
Here’s a brief description of the story:
When Dewi is clobbered by a falling rat, the nosy Welsh dragon snoops his way into a challenging predicament. Helped by a toad with a passion for chemical wart cures, Dewi discovers that a megalomaniac baron is secretly breeding mutant corn at an unfriendly castle. To thwart the genetically modified-corn baron’s sickening plan, he must use moxie and firepower in a series of catastrophe-skirting capers.
Americymru: What''s next for Maggie Lyons?
Maggie: I’m working on a sequel to my children’s adventure story Vin and the Dorky Duet and I’m also chewing on an idea for a sequel to Dewi and the Seeds of Doom, this time inspired by the history of the National Eisteddfod, in which, as a very young pianist, I once competed.
Americymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Maggie: A very heartfelt diolch yn fawr for reading this far.
Interview by Ceri Shaw
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AmeriCymru: What inspired the concept for “The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum?”
Penny: It began with a footnote in a biography about the writer Bertolt Brecht, relating to his grandmother Karoline. She caused uproar when she struck up a friendship with a young woman cook and went off to the races with her. It was 1917 and she was behaving in a way that turned the strict social conventions of that time on their head. Karoline was 78 and she decided to party. I liked that. I’d already been thinking about the character of an anorexic chef and had written a short story about a clockmaker, inspired by some wonderful old clocks I’d seen in a museum. I began to wonder if these different elements could come together in some way.
AmeriCymru: What made you choose this period and place for your novel?
Penny: They chose me! When I was at art college I’d come across the work of German artists of the early 20th century and was quite simply inspired – artists like Kirchner, Dix and the brilliant satirist Grosz. The Dadaists in Berlin were amazing – their experimental approach to art, their creative panache and combative way with the world and its failings had me hooked from the off. I hardly needed an excuse to go back into the future, if you like. Look at Grosz’s satirical drawings condemning the fat cats of industry, or corrupt military leaders, of Dix’s powerful prints exposing the horrors of war and it’s hard to imagine you’re not looking at something still relevant and contemporary.
A statistic I’d read about life in Berlin in 1923 – the year of a terrible inflation which wrecked the lives of people from all walks of life – helped me find my starting point. This statistic claimed “less than 10% of Berlin’s families earned enough to maintain a decent standard of living.” What this meant in reality was terrible poverty, contrasting with conspicuous consumption by the few – a surprisingly familiar story if you look at news headlines today. I was also intrigued by the landmark buildings of the period, such as House of Aschinger, a four-storey restaurant which was open all hours. The management offered free bread rolls with bowls of pea soup to bring in the artists who provided colour and scandal. The pea soup was legendary – apparently, it was created by a Nobel Prize-winning chemist. In my story, it has a very different creator, or course.
AmeriCymru: You’ve discussed the role of food in this story, the importance it would have had for people in Germany at the time, was that concept the inspiration for your setting and how much did it affect your development of your characters and their relationships?
Penny: Originally my novel was going to interweave the stories of three different women, my chef Esther Rosenbaum, and two others, based on real people: actress Carola Neher, originally cast in Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, and playwright Marieluise Fleisser. Food was part of the storyline, but not the only ingredient. I was also interested in the theatre world of that time, and the dilemmas facing a young woman playwright and actress, both of whom were lovers of Brecht in the 1920s. It took a long while to work out the story I really wanted to write. The novelist Celia Brayfield helped me get on track when I went to Ty Newydd, the writer’s centre in North Wales, to work on an early draft. She asked me which of the three characters I really wanted to write about and it was, of course, Esther. I tore up a lot of pages (not for the first time!) and began all over again. The idea of the story recipes came along quite late in the process.
AmeriCymru: Esther cooks fantastic and marvellous food for other characters and starves herself. What inspired that in her character, did you create her whole with this in mind or did it develop with the story?
Penny: I’d had an idea of using an anorexic chef in a short story, before starting on this novel. So, yes, Esther was always going to have a problematic relationship with food. What interested me was the idea of a young woman using her appetite as her only means of exerting control over outside circumstances threatening her. That is a trait found in many anorexics. I’ve not been a full blown anorexic, but like many women I’ve had issues around food and eating. And yes, I have in the past controlled my eating to feel like I’m in control of something. Food is also a currency in this novel – it is Esther’s gift, and her way of forging connections and relationships. That is never lost, even when she gets ill.
AmeriCymru: Some of the book’s characters are historical figures, people who lived, some of them your own. How was it to write them and was there a difference? How much of how you wrote your characters was based on people you knew and how much was out of your imagination?
Penny: Historical figures are interesting to write about. They are “real” in the sense that they once lived, but without having ever met them – and all the historical characters in my novel died long before I was born – I had to imagine them anyway. I did do a lot of research over the 10 years it took me to write Banquet, but the trick I found with my historical characters was to try and bring them to life using a few telling details, rather than laboriously list all the known facts (or even sticking to them rigidly). For example, Thomas Tucholski is based on the real life kabarett artist Klabund, who was prosecuted for blasphemy and jailed in 1918. Klabund was “fiery and thin” – so is my character Thomas. But what gave me the real inspiration for creating his character was something I’d read by Kurt Tucholsky, a left wing journalist and a contemporary of Klabund: “Nothing is more difficult and nothing demands more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one’s time and to say loudly: no.” That, in essence, sums up Thomas Tucholski, a fervent anti-war campaigner. And that’s where I got his surname from – but I realised I had misspelt it when I went back over my research notes for this Q&A!
Grandmother Brecht is based (very loosely) on Karoline Brecht. Whilst researching in Germany, I ran out of money and was unable to go to see where she lived in the Black Forest. So, I moved her to Augsburg (where her grandson was brought up) and turned her into a sympathiser for the Spartacist movement. Bearing in mind her habit of ignoring social convention and the proprieties of the time, I felt that wasn’t such a huge step out of character.
I feel in many ways the city of Berlin is also a character in this book and I adopted a similar approach in trying to convey its atmosphere and appeal. House of Clocks is one of the few real places I found – in reality though it’s an art auctioneer’s called Villa Grisebach. Walking around Berlin in the late 1990s, I soon realised I wouldn’t succeed in finding concrete information of most of my settings, but would have to rely instead on suggestion and echo to suggest what once was. In the end, different scents and tastes became as important as bricks and mortar.
AmeriCymru: How much of Esther is you – your own feelings or realisations of coming on age?
Penny: I think all writing is autobiographical in the sense that you’re drawn to write about things that influence you, affect you, make you think, and so on. That doesn’t mean it’s a straight lift from life at all. As I said earlier, Banquet was a long time in the writing. It really began to come together the year several people I was close to died in quick succession. Rather than a rites of passage novel, shaped by my pre-adolescent experiences, it’s one influenced by months of grieving in my early thirties. It’s no coincidence Esther is an orphan. Losing someone you’ve been close to changes you in ways you can barely comprehend at the time. When I read Banquet, I see very clearly things that happened to me during that time of mourning, but of course filtered through another’s eyes and set in another period of time. It’s not a deliberate distancing on my part, or a cunning way of slotting me in to the book, but something I think is a lot more subtle and rewarding. I grew up a lot at that time, but I also spent a lot of time angry, drunk and behaving impossibly. It’s all there, and so are the good bits, like the lifeline suddenly held out by people I barely knew, or I knew but failed to understand in time could support me.
AmeriCymru: You’ve said in other interviews that particular artists and music inspired you writing this; did you immerse yourself in the art and music and everything else of that place and period to write?
Penny: Absolutely. Recordings of Lotte Lenya singing Kurt Weill; Pabst’s film of Pandora’s Box; photos of Jewish life by Roman Vishniac I came across unexpectedly in a London gallery one winter morning. But there were a lot of contemporary influences too, such as Tacita Dean’s Berlin Works and street graffiti in Berlin. And I ate a lot of fantastic cakes when I was there, all for the sake of research!
AmeriCymru: The real and the fantastical or magical elements in this narrative are so skilfully and subtly interwoven that the reader sometimes forgets that this is not a straightforward biographical narrative. There is no noisy crunching and grinding of gears as we change between registers. Did you aim for this “hypnotic” effect, or did it just emerge as the story developed?
Penny: If I’d aimed for the “hypnotic” effect you describe, I’d still be staring at a blank page! Seriously, I think the characters and the events that happen do help create that seamless tradition. I love books that nudge you into a surreal world, without losing sight of what is familiar, or maybe known historical fact. Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum springs to mind, so does Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, or Patrick Suskind’s Perfume.
AmeriCymru: What are your future plans? Are you working on another novel at the moment?
Penny: Alcemi are publishing my second novel in 2010. The Deer Wedding is a novel set in Croatia, spanning two generations, two brutal wars and the controversial histories of two very special works of art. The main character is an artist called Antun Fiskovic who experiences a sea-change in his fortunes as occupying forces take over the government of his country. Fifty years later, a young woman called Dagmar Petric begins a search for answers to her father’s suicide, a disgraced journalist in Tito’s Yugoslavia. I was in Croatia just after the 1990s war ended, working with a theatre company who were staging a version of The Tempest on an island beach. That partly provided the inspiration for the book, the rest came from meetings with extraordinary people I met out there and visiting evocative settings such as the Jewish Cemetery in Split and the Croatian sculptor Mestrovic’s gallery-home and chapel in Split.
AmeriCymru: The Welsh independent presses are proving very successful at supporting a new generation of writers. What is it like as a writer at the moment, living and working in Wales?
Penny: Would I be published, if I didn’t live in Wales? I have a feeling that the answer is probably a resounding “no.” I’d been approached by a few editors and agents from London before Banquet properly got underway, but nothing bore fruit until I met Welsh-based editor Gwen Davies. Gwen really helped me get the whole thing into something resembling a publishable manuscript. It’s rare to find someone prepared to commit to your work and to help you develop; so many larger publishers are either not taking on new writers, or you have to fit a certain mould, or genre. I can see why Banquet (and me) don’t really fit the bill, but that’s fine when you have a thriving independent sector. Just look at how many bands are coming through the web and social networking sites these days, rather than the big recording labels. I like that DIY approach. Over the past few years, I’ve also been supported by several writing awards made by organisations such as Academi and my “day job” at Welsh National Opera. It was a writing class run at Cardiff Library by my friend Jackie Aplin in the early 1990s that gave me the confidence to start writing. I think living in a bi-lingual country helps give a different perspective too. If you like words, you like languages. Wales has many interesting writers working in both languages; it’s also welcoming of “outsiders” like me trying to find their feet.
AmeriCymru: Any other message you’d like to pass on to AmeriCymru readers?
Penny: An invitation to take part in an event like Left Coast Eisteddfod is fantastic. The writing process is isolating, so the opportunity to meet readers (or potential readers) is always welcome. I’ve not been to the States before, so I’m really intrigued what to expect. It’s already surprised me to discover there’s a strong Welsh contingent in Portland (and further afield) which means I have no excuses not to practise my Welsh!
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Originally published in Welsh, Evacuee – From the Liverpool Blitz to Wales is the remarkable story of Barbara Warlow Davies, an English-speaking four year old, who was evacuated from Liverpool to Talgarreg in Cardiganshire during the Second World War.
The memoir recieved wide acclaim with former politican Cynog Dafis praising the volume and saying, ‘I don’t believe I have ever read such wonderful, moving and appreciative tributes that are yet so real and sincere than the ones Barbara pays to her aunt and uncle.’
‘If you feel the need to restore your faith in humanity, I urge you to read this book.’ he added.
Born in Liverpool three years before the outbreak of the Second World War, Barbara had already experienced the Blitz of May 1941 in Liverpool when thousands died at the hands of the Luftwaffe before her arrival in Wales.
Here she recounts her life story, from losing her Mum six weeks before her third birthday, to being rescued from an explosion which killed 164 people at the Ernest Brown School before her move to live in rural Wales.
She had such a great welcome in Talgarreg that she decided to stay there after the war at the home of John and Rachel Davies in Pantglas who were like parents to her.
‘I am deeply indebted to Talgarreg School: to the two teachers, Miss Watson from New Quay and Miss Elen Thomas of Green Grove, Talgarreg, and especially Mr Tom Stephens, the headmaster, for the care, kindness and education I received,’ says Barbara,
‘Tom Stephens’ love for the Welsh language soon became ingrained in me, and I still have a great love for all things Welsh.’ she added.
Barbara recalls her wartime experiences and remembers Rural Cardiganshire after the war, with descriptions of farming customs, such as the day when the pig was killed, and how everyone coped with rationing.
The book contains moving portraits of some of the characters of the area; penned by a woman who is forever grateful for the warm welcome she received in the community of Talgarreg.
Evacuee by Barbara Davies (£7.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.
AmeriCymru: Hi Norma and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you first discover your passion for writing and literature?
Norma: I have always had a passion for writing, but could never devote enough time to it, because of pressure of work. As a child I loved writing essays and stories. My professional career as a teacher, specialising in English Literature, nurtured my love of good books. I wrote a number of academic articles for journals such ''Management in Education'' and I also wrote an article for a book called ''Take Care Mr. Blunkett'' about curriculum issues. However, at the back of my mind there was always a hankering to write fiction. When I took up writing full-time I decided to write about my experiences as a child growing up in the Welsh valleys, but I was really interested in creative wrting. I enjoy writing fiction. For me it is a pleasure, not a hardship.
AmeriCymru: Season of The Long Grass is a true story of a childhood spent in the Cynon Valley in the fifties. Care to tell us a little more about the book and how life in he valleys has changed since that time?
Norma: My first book ''Season of the Long Grass'' is a journey through childhood to adolescence and the realisation that everything changes. It depicts the importance and strength of family life in the Welsh Valleys in the 1950s. A mining village wasn''t just a community, it was almost an extended family where people looked out for each other. Front doors were never locked during the day, the pubs closed at ten o'' clock and were shut on Sundays. Families sat around the table to eat and talk about their day. Television didn''t invade households until the late 1950s so entertainment was mostly board games and family activities.
Children could play ball on the main highway, because there was very little traffic compared with the present day, and vehicles were much slower. Whole streets went to the seaside together and the generations mixed together, unlike today. After ten o''clock the local dance hall was full of all ages from teenagers to grannies. Alcohol wasn''t served in the dance hall, only soft drinks and snacks, but it didn''t matter. Teenagers didn''t go into local pubs, because they knew they would be seen by somebody who would report back to their parents.
Discipline in schools was much stricter and the cane was administered just for being late on a few successive days. I remember being told that if a strand of hair was placed across the palm of the hand the pain of the cane wouldn''t hurt. They were wrong! There was more respect for the police. Children were not afraid to approach a policeman if they needed help. Conversely, most misdemeanors were dealt with by dragging the miscreants home to be punished by their parents. Going to Sunday School was positively encouraged and being drunk was frowned upon. It was altogether a gentler way of life where people looked out for each other.
Unlike today children were free to play and roam the mountains without fear. No problems with health and safety when climbling trees, playing conkers or building bonfires for Guy Fawkes night. Children ate what they were given, because they had been brought up on war rations which didn''t completely end until about 1953/1954. Designer clothes and trainers didn''t exist for children. They were expected to dress like children and wear what they were given to wear. Sex was only spoken about in hushed tones and never in front of the youngsters. There was no sex education in schools other than human biology. Most information was acquired behind the bike shed or from older siblings.
Even though there was pressure to do well in school and pass the ''scholarship'' to get into grammar school, there were fewer pressures on young people than today. Nowadays children want the latest fashion, indulge in anorexic diet fads and can''t wait to become fully-fledged adults. In the 1950s children were content to be children until ''teenage culture'' became fashionable.
AmeriCymru: Your second novel The Regis Connection is set in Berlin and Russia. What inspired you to write a thriller set in the WWII and cold war eras?
Norma: Your second novel ''The Regis Connection'' is set in Berlin and Russia. What inspired you to write a thriller set in the WWII and cold war eras? ''The Regis Connection'' was inspired by my time living in Berlin during the Cold War. I had many conversations with Berliners who had experienced the Soviets marching into Berlin at the end of the Second World War. They related what happened and the differences in how they were treated by the Soviets and the Allies. I also met people who had been involved with resisting Hitler. One woman told how soldiers broke into her house and shot her husband, because he refused to join the Nazi Party. Subsequently, she was forced to become part of the Lebensborn, a programme that used blonde, blue-eyed women to increase the population of Aryan children often fathered by SS officers.
I lived in the British Sector about two hundred yards from the Wall and close to Gleinicke Bridge where spies were exchanged, as depicted in Hollywood films. Travelling into Charlottenberg, on the top deck of a double decker bus, it was quite normal to see armed Grepos manning the Goon Towers. Gunshots and minor explosions from the East German side were commonplace. Military personnel families lived on constant alert in case the Soviets came over the Wall to invade West Berlin. I actually travelled on the military train through East Germany and experienced the precautions put in place by the British Forces and also visited the Russian War Memorial in Treptower Park in East Berlin. Visits were only allowed with the military and were closely supervised. Compared with the thriving, cosmoplitan atmosphere in theWest, East Berlin looked shabby and poor. Many bombed out buildings were still in existence.
I was so intrigued by events and stories I heard that I decided to write a fictional story based on what I had heard and experienced.
AmeriCymru: You are currently working on your third novel. Care to tell us more about that?
Norma: My latest novel is also a thriller set in present times. Currently, it has the provisional title ''Until Tomorrow Comes''. It is now with the publisher. Below is a brief synopsis of the book.
Chief Inspector Brian Wallace is called in to investigate the murder of a naked victim, wrapped in a blanket, found at the bottom of an old engineering shaft in Shropshire. A local reporter informs him that another naked body was washed up on the beach near Portsmouth suspected of being thrown from a cross channel ferry. The murder had been swiftly hushed up leaving no record of the incident. Wallace is furious when he is warned against pursuing his investigation by the top brass.
Determined to find out if there is a link with the murder in Shropshire he contacts Ernst Dreher, his counterpart in Geneva, who has links with Interpol. Subsequently, he and his pathologist girlfriend, Jo Barnett, fly to Geneva to discuss the case. Unknown to Wallace, Jack Conrad, a former colleague in British Military Intelligence, is also in Switzerland investigating the disappearance of two British army officers, Bruce Foley, working for MI6, and Robert Macaleer of British Military Intelligence. Gradually, Conrad and Wallace uncover a sinister connection between the murders of the two military men, the brutal murder of a young woman in Shropshire, who is connected to Colin Lynes, a Russian ‘sleeper’, and an American senator found dead in a hotel room in Paris.
Their search for the two missing military men sets off a trail of events that leads them to a covert organisation, known as the Black Militia, hidden away in the Swiss Alps. It is headed by a man known only as the Generalissimo. Wallace infiltrates the facility and discovers the full extent of the Generalissimo’s plans before escaping with Conrad. When they return to capture him they find that the entire organisation has decamped. They recover a disk from the Militia’s crashed helicopter containing precise information about the organisation and the Generalissimo''s plans; information that makes their blood run cold. The plot is full of intricate twists and turns. The action takes place in England, Switzerland, Paris and the United States of America.
AmeriCymru: Where can we go to purchase your books online? Are they available on Kindle?
Norma: Both ''Season of the Long Grass'' and ''The Regis Connection'' can be purchased on Amazon.com/ Amazon.co.uk, the Welsh Books Council, Waterstones and other good book stores. Both have five star reviews on Amazon.
''The Regis Connection'' is now available on Kindle
''Season of the Long Grass'' will be on Kindle very shortly.
My new novel ''Until Tomorrow Comes'' will also be available on Amazon and Kindle.
AmeriCymru: What are you currently reading? Any recommendations?
Norma: I have recently read some good historical novels such as C.S. Sansom''s Shardlake series, ''The Revenge of Captain Paine'' and ''Last Days of Newgate'' by Andrew Pepper; also Philippa Gregory''s ''The Other Queen'', ''The Queen''s Fool'' and ''The Red Queen''. I also enjoyed Bernard Knight''s books.
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Norma Lloyd-Nesling?
Norma: I am not a single genre writer. After writing two thrillers I am now researching for a novel with an historical twist that moves from the 16th century to the present day. I am also writing a chic lit novel under a pen name. A little note for readers and members of AmeriCymru - my new novel, and any future books, will be published under the name Lloyd Nesling cutting out my first name and the hyphen.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Norma: Getting published is extremely difficult on both sides of the Atlantic. It is hard to know what publishers want other than chic lit, celebrity autobiographies, and what I term ''doom and gloom'' books. Keep at it! You never know when you''ll hit the jackpot. In the meantime write for pure pleasure. Enjoy!
