Jack Scarrott’s Prize Fighters – Memoirs of a Welsh Boxing Booth Showman

by Lawrence Davies

ISBN : 978-0-9570342-3-5
Price £14.99
Published : 31/8/2016

451 Pages, 56 black and white photos and illustrations

This book, a continuation of the previously unrecorded Welsh boxing history covered in the book Mountain Fighters, Lost Tales of Welsh Boxing , by Lawrence Davies (Peerless Press, 2011) and explores the world of the mountain fighters and early glove fighters of South Wales in the form of an expanded commentary on the memoirs of John ('Jack') Scarrott (1870-1947) the famous boxing booth proprietor and boxing promoter who assisted such well known Welsh boxers as Jim Driscoll, Tom Thomas and Jimmy Wilde on the road to boxing glory.  Many of the first of the most famous fighting men to have emerged from South Wales are profiled within this book including:

Martin Fury and Jack Hearn- two of the most famous bare-knuckle fighters to have emerged from the gypsy camps of South Wales, and the forgotten story of their great battle.

Shoni Engineer - the one-time claimant of the Welsh middleweight title, with full accounts of his battles against 'Dublin Tom', Tom 'Books' Davies, Jem Guidrell of Bristol, John O'Brien and William Samuels.

William Samuels - the flamboyant heavyweight champion of Wales, with an expanded accounts of his rivalries with Bob Dunbar, Toff Wall, Tom Vincent, and Shoni Engineer, as well as an in-depth look at his later career and his remarkable impact on the history of Welsh boxing.

Dai St. John - The towering miner from Resolven, who whipped 'man after man' with bare knuckles as a teenager before his great rivalry with John O'Brien the Cardiff born Welsh middleweight champion, and his dramatic rise to the status of national hero in the Boer War.

Bob Dunbar - the fearsome bare-knuckle fighter and booth boxer, who went on to claim the lightweight championship of Wales, his great defeat of William Samuels in 1882, and the tragic untold story of the events following his retirement from the ring.

Dai Dollings - the bare knuckle fighter and booth boxer from Swansea who would become one of the most famous and influential boxing trainers of the early 20th century after emigrating to New York and becoming the chief trainer at the world famous Grupp's gym - where he seconded some of the most famous fighters of the squared circle, and tutored the renowned boxing trainer, Ray Arcel.

Numerous fighters who featured on Jack Scarrott's boxing booth are also fully explored within the book, along with tales of their early fights on Scarrott's 'Pavilion' including such luminaries of Welsh gloved boxing as:

Tom Thomas - The gentle farmer's son from Penygraig who would become British middleweight Champion after many battles on the travelling boxing booth of Jack Scarrott, and the tale of how the cruel lick of a gypsy's whip made him pull on the boxing gloves.

Jim Driscoll - The Cardiff boxer known as 'Peerless' Jim who was crowned British featherweight champion, and became the toast of Great Britain following his defeat of Abe Attell, the world featherweight champion.

Jimmy Wilde - the astonishing tale of Wilde's rise to fame as world flyweight champion and arguably the greatest boxer of all  time, his many knockout victories on the boxing booth, and the legendary day when he knocked out 23 seperate challengers.

Pedlar McMahon - a 'pocket Hercules' and boxing booth champion, his rise to fame on the boxing booth of William Samuels, his great rivalry with booth boxer Frank Lowry and tales from his time as a champion of Jack Scarrott's booth. 

Joe White - A Swiss-Canadian middleweight who became one of the favourites on Scarrott's boxing booth, his early contests on the boxing booths of South Wales through to his challenge to a young Freddie Welsh as a battle hardened veteran.

'Dangerous Jack' - one of Scarrott's early champions, a ferocious black fighter, known for his slashing style who put down mountain fighter after mountain fighter, and the hilarious story of his discovery by Jack Scarrott himself. 

'Yuko Sako' - The 'Japanese Strangler from Yokohama' - the strange but true story of one of Jack Scarrott's booth boxers - a compact Welshman disguised as a mysterious Japanese fighter to draw the interest of the fairground crowds. 

Details of the early careers of many Welsh champions and notable booth boxers of the period are explored within the book, including Percy Jones of Porth - the first Welsh world champion, Frank Moody of Pontypridd - British & Empire Middleweight Champion, Johny Basham of Newport - British & European Welterweight Champion, Jack Davis of Pontypridd - who once challenged for the British heavyweight title, Freddie Welsh of Pontypridd - lightweight champion of the world, Patsy Perkins - lightweight champion of Wales, Jimmy Dean - the famous 'Cast Iron Man' of Pontypridd, 'Darkey' Thomas, Frank Reed, William 'Mother' Lee, Dai 'Rush', Thomas 'Bungy' Lambert, Arthur and William Butcher of Talywain, 'Twm' Edwards of Aberdare, and 'Bullo' Rees of Aberavon.

Prior to the publication of this book, many of these men have never been recorded in any other book of Welsh boxing history, and along with Mountain Fighters, Lost Tales of Welsh Boxing by the same author, they comprise the most complete recorded history of the origins of Welsh boxing and the early Welsh glove fighters ever published.  Both books represent over fifteen years of intensive Welsh boxing research on the part of the author, and have a combined length of nearly 1,000 pages covering a century of Welsh boxing history.  Illustrated with over 50 mostly unpublished photographs and illustrations, 'Jack Scarrott’s Prize Fighters - Memoirs of a Welsh Boxing Booth Showman' is a must buy for any boxing fan who wishes to re-discover the origins of Welsh boxing, and read the astonishing story of Jack Scarrott, the acclaimed showman and boxing pioneer, who until now had been consigned to little more than a footnote in the careers of the great Welsh boxing champions. 

From the Back Cover :

‘Fifty years I’ve been in the game, mister, and all that time I’ve been right here in the mining valleys.  I know every town and village in South Wales, and I knew every boxer worth calling a fighting man they ever turned out. Dai St. John, Tom Thomas, Jim Driscoll, Freddy Welsh, Johnny Basham, Jimmy Wilde, Percy Jones, and many more that were before their time. I knew them all, and a good few started with me in my booth.  I was scrapping for a living in a boxing booth before I started a booth on my own, and I was only about twenty one when I started on my own. Believe me, the life of a booth boxer in those days was tough.  Mountain fighters! That’s what they called the miners who used to fight bare-knuckle on the mountains…’ 

Jack Scarrott was born into a family of travelling people in 1870, and travelled throughout South Wales in his youth, coming into contact with many of the bareknuckle fighters of his time before starting his own fairground boxing booth where spectators were invited to ‘step up’ and stand against his own boxing champions for a number of rounds in order to claim a cash prize.  Travelling throughout South Wales in the years that followed, Scarrott’s travelling ‘Pavilion’ would become famous for the number of boxers that it would start on the way to national acclaim.   In addition to the more familiar names of gloved boxing champions that Jack Scarrott recalls, there are also numerous tales of the early knuckle fighters of South Wales, including such notable fighters as William Samuels, Martin Fury, Shoni Engineer, Robert Dunbar, Dai St John, and John O’Brien.  Jack Scarrott’s memoirs, first printed in serialised form in 1936 have never been published in book form until now, and benefit from an expanded in-depth look at the events that comprise his recollections of nearly fifty years of boxing history, from the days of the forgotten bare-knuckle men of the mountains to the boxing champions that would start their careers under the flapping canvas of his boxing booth.  Illustrated with over 50 rare photographs and illustrations,  Jack Scarrott’s Prize Fighters- Memoirs of a Welsh Boxing Booth Showman, stands as one of very few accounts of a time long forgotten when bare-knuckle battlers and fledgling glove fighters fought for supremacy on the  fairgrounds of South Wales.

AmeriCymru: You have recently published a book entitled: Perspectives Of A Gay American Immigrant Scientist . Experiences over half a century in the United States and Britain?

Meurig: Yes, this was published by Amazon as a paperback in December, 2013. A Kindle online version is also available.

AmeriCymru: Tell us a little about your Welsh background.

Meurig: Over the generations my family members have been involved in a very wide range of occupations, including farmers, coal miners, small shopkeepers, paramedics, running a small betting organization, paratrooper who landed in Normandy on D-Day, policeman, many teachers at schools and universities, an uncle who died at the age of 107 and whose funeral was attended by many of his college students from far afield including European countries, consulting Forensic Engineer, Foreign Office professional, Chairman of British Beer festivals, human rights lawyer in Africa, Mayor of a town, County Council member, Associate Director of Education, escort for social events to an unmarried Conservative Lord Mayor of London, CEO of a chain of retirement homes, CEO of the Welsh TV station S4C, TV host (on S4C) of a Welsh cultural affairs programme together with Owen Edwards, managing directors at large banks and other companies, an MBE and a CBE. The free secondary education afforded by state-funded grammar schools, founded in the 1944 Education Act, and State Scholarships to universities which were based on merit, were strongly instrumental in the career success of recent generations. By emigrating to the United States in 1962 I lost touch with many of these interesting and colorful people so, in that sense, it was a double edged sword.

It is a matter of significance and pride to me that almost of these family members are or were fluent in the Welsh language, mostly for the purpose of everyday discourse. Others, I am proud to point out (I was not among these) are/were experts in Welsh to high academic standards. In fact, one of these, was the first woman president of the Dafydd Ap Gwilym Society at Oxford University, to which I also briefly belonged, until it quickly became evident that my ability to express thoughts beyond those required for everyday existence was just not there. In the last few decades there has been strong resurgence in Welsh pride in general, and the Welsh Assembly, created in 1998, must have contributed to this, as did the fine St David’s Hall, built in 1982, where concerts and other events of international stature are held, perhaps the most prestigious being the Cardiff “Singer of the World” competition for opera singers from all over the world. It is notable that this building was highly praised by The New York Times architectural correspondent. Ability to speak the Welsh language is a big part of this pride and today, for most public jobs in Wales, such as teaching and representation in local government, applicants are required to demonstrate their proficiency in the language, whether purely verbal or in written form. What a change from the days of “Welsh Not” when pupils were punished for speaking Welsh in schools in the late 19th and early 20 century, and this apparently persisted in some schools in North Wales until the 1940s.

AmeriCymru: How about your education?

Meurig: After Llandeilo Grammar school, I entered Jesus College, Oxford with a Meyricke Exhibition in 1955, interestingly (to me at least) the same award that was held by T E Lawrence (of Arabia). I received a first class honors degree in chemistry, followed by a DPhil (that is the Oxford fancy version of PhD) in peptide chemistry. You may have noticed that amino-acids always have the letter L preceding their names. This is because amino-acids can exist in two forms, L and D, which are identical except that they are mirror images of each other, just like our hands are. L and D stand for Laevo (left) and Dextro (right). A string of several amino-acids joined together form peptides, which constitute many naturally occurring substances in the human body, for example OXYTOCIN, a well-known pituary hormone affecting human reproduction. Proteins are simply very long strings of amino-acids joined together. One of the mysteries of nature is that almost all of the amino acids in naturally occurring peptides and proteins are of the L configuration. On account of their physiological importance, laboratory synthesis of peptides is of huge importance to pharmaceutical companies. Such synthesis is complicated by many factors, not the least being that, in most cases, some of the L form is converted to the D form during the synthesis, like an umbrella turning inside-out in the wind. The D form is then an impurity, so it is important to minimize its formation. That requires understanding how and why it occurs. Generating that understanding was my task in order to get a DPhil degree under the guidance of Dr G T Young, who had also been my undergraduate tutor. Sometimes luck does come one’s way, and I was able to solve that problem quantitativelyI was offered a Fulbright scholarship by Professor Sir Ewart Jones, a fellow Welshman who was born in the small town Rhostyllen, near to Wrexham, and was described as the most influential British scientist of his generation on account of his contributions to government committees, etc. The Fulbright would have provided very generous financial support over 2 years for continued studies at a university of my choice.

AmeriCymru: When and why did you emigrate to the United States?

Meurig: The Fulbright offer came with a caveat – I had to commit to returning to the UK after its completion. To the big surprise of Professor Jones, I declined and told him that I wanted more flexibility, but I did not tell him that the reason for that was primarily to escape from the horrendous homophobia which was prevalent in England at that time. Some will remember the notorious Lord Montagu case. Words like “monstrous perversion” were newspaper headlines for months on end. Murder was a crime against society, but homosexuality was a crime against nature.

Several times during the course of my career, I received letters from Professor Jones enquiring about my well-being and career, and mentioned that he occasionally ran into Dr Young. It was much later that it occurred to me what he may have been getting at. Dr Young’s wife had become Baroness Young of Farnworth, the Conservative leader of the House of Lords. Her main claim to fame, or should I say notoriety, was her adamant stance against giving any kind of equal rights to homosexuals. She ranted and raved on that subject as if she was in some way personally impaired, to the extent that she lost favor with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. London gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell correctly declared that “she had poisoned society with prejudice and intolerance, and future historians will rank her alongside the defenders of apartheid”. I believe that, in view of my close relationship with Baroness Young’s husband, Professor Jones had figured out the reason for my flight from the UK and was concerned about that.

I knew that I was gay from a very early age and always considered homosexuality to be a perfectly normal and healthy part of the human condition, so the opportunity to escape from that hostility was very appealing. My solution was to accept a post doctorate position that the University of California, Berkeley in 1962, where I was tasked with isolating and characterizing the world’s first plant sex hormone, Sirenin. Here is a brief description.

Sirenin was the first fungal sex hormone to have its structure determined. It is produced by female gametangia and gametes of the chytridiomycete genus Allomyces and attracts male gametes of the genus. It was discovered in 1958 by Leonard Machlis and, with the help of organic chemists, was purified and had its structure determined by 1968. Machlis's success is attributable to his association at Berkeley with the world authority on the genus, Ralph Emerson, to his meticulous physiological work on the genus in the 1950s, to his skill in devising bioassays and to his organising ability and drive.

Put simply, Allomyces is a filament-like water-mold plant. Female parts discharge tiny amounts of a chemical substance to which the sperm generated by the male parts is attracted, and this results in fusion. I was presented with a large jar of brown water and told that this contains minute amounts of Sirenin. Using standard chemistry techniques, combined with a very clever method developed by Professor Machlis to assay its concentration, I was able to isolate it in pure form and start the complex process of structure determination (1). This was completed a few years later by a successor of mine.

AmeriCymru: How did your career develop after that?

Meurig: I joined the DuPont Corporation in Wilmington Delaware and stayed for 5 years in spite of a high degree of incompatibility. I will pass over this experience here in order to describe my later experiences at Xerox where the events which led to my recent book originated.

I joined the Xerox Webster Research Center in suburban Rochester, New York in 1970. Its appeal to me was twofold. It was a rapidly growing company with an exciting new product, the copier, which was of surging demand, and also that copier technology was based on sciences that were not well understood, which provided an opportunity for leading edge research. The success of Xerox represents one of the greatest technological triumphs in history, on account of the extraordinary complexity of the process combined with that lack of scientific foundation in two areas. One of these is called triboelectricity or simply contact charging. Whenever two materials touch and separate, an electric charge is generated. Buildup of such electrical potential can lead to electrostatic discharge with consequences that can range from discomfort, such as the mild jolt we experience by touching a doorknob after walking across a carpet, to disaster such as the fiery crash of the Hindenburg. Until recently, there was extremely little understanding of how and why such charges are generated, one of the main reasons for this being the assumption that it was a physics problem. I pointed this out in a cover page article in the July-August 2012 issue of The American Scientist, entitled: “What Creates Static Electricity? Traditionally considered a physics problem, the answer is beginning to emerge from chemistry and other sciences" (2). In addition, I published a detailed review of this subject in AIP (American Institute of Physics) Advances in February, 2012 (3), so I am well positioned to provide the following elementary explanation of this phenomenon.

When two metals touch and separate, it is well established that it results from the simple exchange of electrons from one to the other, a straightforward phenomenon in physics. When both materials are electrical insulators, such as most polymers, the mechanism is complex and is currently being unravelled in brilliant research by two groups, headed respectively by Professors Grzybowski at Northwestern University and Galembeck, Director of the National Nanotechnology Laboratory, Brazil. When two polymers make contact, some degree of entanglement occurs between the polymer chains at the surfaces, so that separation is accompanied by polymer chain scission and the transfer of material of nanoscopic dimensions between the surfaces. This chain scission is accompanied by the formation of free radicals at the ends of each chain. As is well known, free radicals are highly reactive and are converted to positive and negative ionic charges either by reaction with ambient water or exchange of electrons. Use of advanced high resolution analytical techniques revealed that each surface, after separation, supports a random mosaic of oppositely charged regions of nanoscopic dimensions, and the net charge on each surface is the arithmetic sum of the individual domain charges. So it is the mechanical forces causing bond cleavage of the polymers that is the driving force for charge generation, and this takes future studies into the realm of mechanochemistry, an obscure and complicated field. Grzybowski et al took this understanding a step further by explaining that the surface charges are stabilized by intimate association between the polymer radicals and the ionic charges. They pointed out in a recent paper in SCIENCE that, if the polymers contain materials that act as radical scavengers, the stability of the surface charges is lost and the charges fail to build up or dissipate rapidly. I explain this here on account of its extraordinary importance to the electronics industry. Damage to electronic equipment by static discharges accounts for the loss of billions of dollars each year. And the continued miniaturization of electronic equipment renders it even more susceptible to low voltage discharges. Gross reduction or elimination of such discharges by the above process discovered by Grzybowski et al would go a long way to the prevention of such losses. It is my opinion that this work by Grzybowski et al may well result in a Nobel Prize on account of its combination of scientific brilliance and enormous economic importance.

The third case, of course, is contact between a metal and a polymer, and it is believed that both of the above mechanisms, electron and material exchange, occur. I have been the first to recently propose an approach for determining the degree to which each occurs in any given contact event (4).

AmeriCymru: How is this related to your book?

Meurig: My book was not originally a planned event. I have now been retired for 13 years, and is not uncommon to reflect upon the past in retirement! Such reflections on my early career led to a discovery only a few years ago of some shockingly unprofessional behavior by my colleagues at Xerox several decades ago. I thought that a description of these events, together with an analysis of cultural factors pertaining to them, made a good story that would be of interest to some readers.

It was my response to that shocking discovery that led to a process of self-reinvention resulting in my book. I described this process in the following comments I recently contributed to an article “American Voices on Reinvention” in The Huffington Post (5):

"The driving force for self-reinvention can evolve and change as the process takes place, so that one reinvention leads to another. Well into retirement, I recently discovered that my scientific publications from 35 years ago had been treated by corporate colleagues in ways that could be considered misrepresentation and plagiarism. Addressing those injustices after such a long time required a reinvention of myself by returning to the world of scientific journals and research after an absence of over 30 years. Thanks to the online availability of scientific journals, I brought myself up to date on the recent developments in the field, and integrated them with my early work. This resulted in a series of successes - several publications in peer-reviewed journals, a cover page article in The American Scientist in 2012, an invitation to be a keynote speaker at a major conference hosted by NASA in 2013, and a job offer. On further reflection, I wondered if there could have been a connection between the way I was treated and the corporate culture of those times. Being both a relatively openly gay man and an immigrant (from the UK) was a combination which made me a socially acceptable target for homophobic and other forms of abuse. Such thoughts propelled me into a second reinvention. I wrote a book entitled "Perspectives of a Gay American Immigrant Scientist," which explored and expanded upon these considerations, including a discussion of experiences and cultures at Oxford University, UC Berkeley, DuPont, and Xerox.

AmeriCymru: Do you think homophobia is any more or less prevalent then it was half a century ago?

Meurig: In general, homophobia in most developed countries is far less than half a century ago, but there is still a very long way to go before we are well integrated into society. The clearest indicator of progress is the advances made in legalization of gay marriage. The most pronounced generalization remains the correlation between progressive attitudes on homosexuality and the general standard of living in a country. Scandinavia and Holland have long been at the leading edge, and African and some Caribbean countries at the other. I have not yet heard an explanation for Putin’s retrogressive attitude.

A very important development for scientists and engineers was the establishment in 1983 of the major and thriving organization NOGLSTP (National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, Inc.), based in Pasadena, CA. This is a non-profit organization that educates and advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

In addition, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) announced in January 2014 a change to their code of ethics to include language prohibiting discrimination on account of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. The importance of these changes cannot be overstated. With nearly 400,000 members in 160 countries, the IEEE is the world's largest professional organization. Now, electrical engineers and computer scientists around the world, including those in countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, know that their professional organization stands for non-discrimination against LGBT individuals both as practice and as rule.

A very surprising event was the recent position taken by Pope Francis that he would not pass judgment on gay people. Whether this is true leadership or political positioning remains to be seen. Wouldn’t it now be time for the British Royal family to show leadership on this issue? Are we to believe that they are the only family in Britain not to have any gay members? We know better of course and, the Queen being the head of the Church of England makes it a bit sticky for them. Both the Church of England and the Catholic Church have in common large numbers of gay clerics as most people know, but this still needs to be unspoken. A prominent gay Welsh Bishop was a personal friend of mine at Oxford, as was the chaplain of one of the older colleges.

Several gay athletes are now coming out of the closet, as they say, and this is clearly just the beginning of a trend. Very recently, 24 year old University of Missouri's star football player Michael Sam announced that he is gay. Unlike many athletes, Sam chose to come out at the start of his career, which will represent a test for the readiness of the NFL (National Football League) which he is expected to join later this year. His name is added to the growing list of prominent sportsmen and women who have come out: Gareth Thomas, Wales's former rugby union captain; retired Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger; Surrey cricketer Steven Davies; Orlando Cruz, the Puerto Rican featherweight boxer; and basketball star Jason Collins. Sam was personally congratulated by President Obama and his wife Michelle. Sam’s timing is also opportune. With gay rights issues overshadowing the Sochi Winter Olympics and Casey Stoney, the captain of England's women's football team, declaring herself gay, the sports world has found it can no longer confine the debate about the sexuality of its stars to the margins.

AmeriCymru: Where do you go from here?

Meurig: I am considering writing another book. Now why would I want to do that? The process of writing is addictive and it is a satisfying experience when one can put forth thoughts and ideas hopefully in a clear and logical manner. Then, my published book could have been a bit less terse, and I could have smoothly elaborated on many of my points. But above all, it is this. In the book I have made comparisons between Britain and the United States and Scandinavia, but none between England and Wales. And yet, I have long been of the opinion that the acceptance of homosexuals was very different in these countries. I have described that “of all of the world’s developed nations, Britain stood alone in its extreme attitudes towards, and heavy penalties for, homosexual acts”. I used the word Britain loosely here when I should have used the word England. I do have some ideas on why Wales was far kinder to homosexuals than England several decades ago and, if I am able to research and develop a persuasive case for this, then another book will be in order.

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

Meurig: Whereas I state that “my purpose in writing this (book) is to make a small contribution to the furtherance of progress by throwing light on some personal experiences”, I have also introduced some provocative ideas and hypotheses which may be debatable. It is my hope that a discussion on these can be stimulated.

References

1. Production, Isolation and Characterization of Sirenin, L. Machlis, W H Nutting, M W Williams and H Rapoport, Biochemistry, Vol 5, No 7, July 11, 1966

2. What Creates Static Electricity? Traditionally considered a physics problem, the answer is beginning to emerge from chemistry and other sciences. Meurig W Williams, The American Scientist, July-August 2012

3. Triboelectric Charging of Insulating Polymers, Meurig W Williams, AIP Advances, Feb 8, 2012

4. Triboelectric charging in metal-polymer contacts – How to distinguish between electron and material transfer mechanisms, Meurig W Williams, Journal Electrostatics, Feb 1, 2013

5. American Voices on Reinvention, The Huffington Post 2/12/2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-c-smith/american-voices-on-reinve_1_b_4777992.html

Julie McGowan is a Welsh writer, living in Usk, south Wales. Her first novel, ''The Mountains Between'' was a regional best-seller on its first release and is now in its third edition, having received much acclaim in Wales (including promotion on BBC Wales radio). ''Don''t Pass Me By'' is also set in S. Wales. It was released a month ago and is already achieving great sales and reviews.'' Buy ''Don''t Pass Me By'' here

Read Julie''s guest article here:- What''s In A Name?

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AmeriCymru: Hi Julie and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed.‭ ‬You were born in Blaenavon and lived there for‭ ‬12‭ ‬years.‭ ‬Can you describe the town for our American readers‭? ‬What effect did your upbringing have on your writing‭?

Julie: Thank you very much for interviewing me.‭

Blaenavon is a small town in the Eastern Valley of S.‭ ‬Wales,‭ ‬sprawled across the lower slopes of the Blorenge mountain which separates it from the market town of Abergavenny,‭ ‬gateway to the Black mountains and the Brecon Beacons.‭ ‬Facing the town rises the Coity mountain,‭ ‬where major coal mining took place.‭ ‬Blaenavon grew substantially in the industrial revolution,‭ ‬when coal began to be mined there and an iron foundry was developed.‭ ‬It is of sufficient historical importance that it is now a world heritage site,‭ ‬although the iron and coal are long finished.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬the mine‭ – ‬Big Pit‭ – ‬is now a national museum.

Row upon row of terraced houses were built during the industrial time when the town prospered,‭ ‬to house the miners and their families,‭ ‬and most of those terraces are still lived in today,‭ ‬although they have been modernised.‭ ‬I grew up in one such house,‭ ‬but at that time we had no central heating‭ – ‬just coal fires in the downstairs rooms‭ – ‬and no running hot water.‭ ‬There was a cold water tap in the kitchen,‭ ‬no bathroom‭ (‬we bathed in a tin bath in the kitchen,‭ ‬which was filled with water heated by a small electric boiler‭) ‬and there was one toilet outside in the yard.‭ ‬But there was no sense of deprivation because everyone else lived in similar houses‭ – ‬we were all in the same boat.

‭ ‬Social activities also took place in the‭ ‬Workman’s Hall‭ – ‬a wonderful Victorian building built from the penny subscriptions of the miners,‭ ‬which housed a library and a cinema for everyone,‭ ‬and billiard rooms used only by the men and from which children would be chased away.

The Workman’s Hall Blaenavon

So it was a very close-knit community,‭ ‬and,‭ ‬as families rarely moved away,‭ ‬one had relatives in every street‭ – ‬and even those adults who were neighbours rather than actual family were referred to as‭ ‘‬auntie‭’ ‬and‭ ‘‬uncle‭’‬.

The cliché‭ ‘‬we were poor but we were happy‭’ ‬really applied during my childhood there‭ – ‬particularly as we weren’t aware of our level of poverty because it was all we knew.‭ ‬Winters were cold and harsh,‭ ‬with biting winds coming off the mountains,‭ ‬often bringing snow with them,‭ ‬but summers,‭ ‬even though not particularly hot,‭ ‬were times of freedom,‭ ‬when we would go out to play all day,‭ ‬roaming throughout the town and the mountainside,‭ ‬secure in the knowledge that we knew everyone and everywhere was safe,‭ ‬and with very little traffic around to worry about.‭ ‬We would only come home when we were hungry or when our inbuilt clocks told us it was nearly a mealtime.

Cottages of Stack Square,‭  the oldest in Blaenavon,‭ ‬built alongside the‭ ‭ ‬derelict but preserved‭ ‬Iron Works.

Blaenavon is still a close-knit community of people who have lived there all their lives,‭ ‬brought their children up who have also stayed and married within the town,‭ ‬and so on.‭ ‬But it has suffered in recent decades from the loss of the mines and a big downturn economically that even the world heritage status has failed to alleviate.

Thus,‭ ‬my upbringing gave me a huge sense of the importance of family and community,‭ ‬and a need to belong.‭ ‬The feeling that Wales is home never left me because we always came back.‭ ‬Although we moved to England for my father’s work,‭ ‬every holiday we‭ ‘‬went home‭’ ‬to visit the vast network of family and friends,‭ ‬and,‭ ‬after‭ ‬20‭ ‬years back in Wales,‭ ‬I still get a thrill when driving through the spectacular countryside and the little streets and lanes of my childhood,‭ ‬that I am‭ ‘‬home‭’ ‬again.

The chapel side of my upbringing also gave me a sense of duty‭ (‬without meaning to sound pious‭) ‬and a continuing faith,‭ ‬and,‭ ‬being part of a community where it was important to stop and chat to your neighbours and friends whenever you met them,‭ ‬I have an abiding interest in the lives of others‭!!

AmeriCymru: When did you first become aware that you wanted to write‭?

Julie: I had always loved English literature lessons at school,‭ ‬and went through the common habit of writing poetry‭ (‬seen by no-one‭) ‬to describe my teenage angst.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬the desire to write properly came about when we were living at a private school where my husband was headmaster.‭ ‬As the headmaster’s wife in such a school it was always one’s fate to be roped into something that no-one else wanted to do.‭ ‬I had been a keen participant of amateur dramatics since a child,‭ ‬so when there was no-one to run the school annual drama performance,‭ ‬that task fell to me.‭ ‬I then discovered that it was nearly impossible to find a script that had sufficient parts for all the children‭ ‬I‭ ‬needed to get on stage.‭ ‬So,‭ ‬in my rather typical‭ ‘‬gung-ho‭’ ‬fashion,‭ ‬I decided to write one,‭ ‬and that was my first foray into writing.‭ ‬Not only was it well-received,‭ ‬but I found myself enjoying it enormously and decided that I would embark on writing as a part-time career.‭ ‬I felt that I had at least one novel in me,‭ ‬but,‭ ‬given the work ethic that a Welsh chapel upbringing had impressed upon me,‭ ‬I couldn’t justify writing as an indulgence if it wasn’t going to pay.‭ ‬So I started writing commercial short stories,‭ ‬and only when they were being bought and published did I feel that I could also give novel-writing a go.

AmeriCymru: Your first novel‭ The Mountains Between ‬enjoyed considerable success.‭ ‬Care to describe it for our readers‭?

Julie: ‘The Mountains Between‎’ ‏is set in my favourite part of the world‭ – ‬Blaenavon and Abergavenny‭ – ‬between the years of‭ ‬1929‭ ‬and‭ ‬1949‭ ‬and follows the fortunes of Jennie,‭ ‬youngest daughter of a prosperous farming family who live just outside Abergavenny,‭ ‬and of Harry,‭ ‬youngest son of a family living just the other side of the Blorenge mountain in Blaenavon‭; ‬a very different existence marked by poverty and unemployment.

Jennie is just‭ ‬8‭ ‬years old,‭ ‬living a difficult,‭ ‬though comfortable life,‭ ‬under the critical eye of her harsh,‭ ‬autocratic mother,‭ ‬Katharine.‭ ‬At the start of the book Katharine has just told Jennie that she was never wanted.‭ ‬This rejection haunts Jennie throughout her childhood and,‭ ‬ten years later,‭ ‬spins her into a hasty marriage as World War‭ ‬2‭ ‬breaks out.‭ ‬The malign influence of Katharine continues to spoil her life and ultimately she has to make the decision to take charge of her life if she is ever to overcome her sense of unworthiness.

Harry,‭ ‬meanwhile,‭ ‬although poor,‭ ‬is surrounded by people he loves and who love him.‭ ‬At the start of the book he is‭ ‬15,‭ ‬desperate to be a man and go down the pit,‭ ‬but ends up working in the local co-operative‭ ‬store.‭ ‬He is also desperate to find a girlfriend,‭ ‬and the first section of the book follows his fortunes in this department.‭ ‬But life grows harsher still as the Depression hits the community hard,‭ ‬and by the outbreak of the Second World War Harry is already a young man who has known much sadness and heartbreak.

Do Jennie and Harry ever meet‭? ‬Do they each find someone to love‭? ‬You have to read the book to find out‭!

‘The Mountains Between‎’ ‏came about after I started recording the memoirs of my parents and realised that not only did they give a fantastic insight into life in the early part of the‭ ‬20th century,‭ ‬but also that they had had such different upbringings that it was a wonder they ever got together‭ – ‬and so the idea for a novel was sparked.‭ ‬All of the places and big events that happen in the book are real,‭ ‬only the story is fictionalised.

AmeriCymru: Your second novel is set in Cornwall.‭ ‬What can you tell us about‭ Just One More Summer ‭ ?

Julie: ‘Just One More Summer‎’ ‏is a modern novel which came about while I was trying to get‭ ‘‬The Mountains Between‭’ ‬published.‭ ‬I entered a‭ ‘‬start of a novel‭’ ‬competition,‭ ‬where you had to write the‭ ‬1st‭ ‬1,000‭ ‬words‭ – ‬so that’s what I did.‭ ‬The competition was judged by well-known British writer Katie Fforde,‭ ‬who gave my story‭ ‬1st prize,‭ ‬and commented that she would love to know what happens to the main character Allie.‭ ‬At that point I didn’t really know,‭ ‬as I had simply written the required‭ ‬1,000‭ ‬words.

However,‭ ‬the premise of the book is that Allie,‭ ‬at nearly‭ ‬30,‭ ‬is recovering from a broken marriage and decides to spend the summer in Cornwall,‭ ‬the place of long-remembered childhood happiness,‭ ‬in order to lick her wounds.‭ ‬She herself is the product of a broken marriage and had vowed that when her turn came she would have a long and happy partnership,‭ ‬so she was devastated when her husband left her.‭ ‬In Cornwall she strikes up a friendship with an unlikely group of young people who appear to be led by an ageing hippy-type of woman,‭ ‬Marsha.‭ ‬Allie discovers that the other members of the group have all been‭ ‘‬rescued‭’ ‬at one time or another by Marsha,‭ ‬who helps Allie to find her own hidden strength.‭ ‬But as Allie finds herself falling for one of the young men,‭ ‬Adam,‭ ‬she also discovers that Marsha has secrets of her own,‭ ‬that Allie’s idyllic memories of childhood are flawed,‭ ‬and that back in London family issues have become ever more complicated.‭ ‬And at this point her husband,‭ ‬Will,‭ ‬decides that he wants to give their marriage a second chance.

Again,‭ ‬to find out what happens to Allie,‭ ‬you will have to read the book‭!

AmeriCymru: Your third novel‭ Don''t Pass Me By ‭ ‬is about a group of children evacuated to rural Wales from wartime London.‭ ‬Care to tell us more‭?

Julie: When I was researching World War‭ ‬2‭ ‬for my first book,‭ ‬I read a lot of accounts from people who were evacuated during the Blitz to South Wales.‭ ‬It struck me that these days we tend to look back on this mass evacuation of children with nostalgic rose-coloured glasses,‭ ‬but,‭ ‬in reality,‭ ‬whilst some children were very well cared-for,‭ ‬others had a really bad time with their‭ ‘‬foster‭’ ‬parents.‭ ‬At the same time I was writing features for magazines about how we agonise these days when our children leave home to go to college‭; ‬will they be safe,‭ ‬will they be happy,‭ ‬will they manage‭? ‬And these are‭ ‬18-year-olds‭! ‬Yet,‭ ‬in the Blitz,‭ ‬these small children of‭ ‬5‭ ‬years upwards were sent across the country to goodness-knew-where to live with complete strangers.

So I increasingly felt I wanted to write a book which reflected some of the things that evacuee children encountered.

‎‘‏Don’t Pass Me By‭’ ‬has three main characters:

Lydia is a young woman who is desperate to escape from her violent husband,‭ ‬and joins an evacuee train with her young baby in order to get away.‭ ‬Once in the tiny village of Penfawr,‭ ‬near Swansea,‭ ‬the billeting officer has no idea what to do with her,‭ ‬as she‭’‬s not on his list,‭ ‬so she is foisted onto the unwelcoming local doctor,‭ ‬to act as his housekeeper.

Arthur is a young lad from the East End who just wants to go back to the life he led with his mother‭ – ‬who‭ ‬leads a rackety sort of existence,‭ ‬the immorality of which Arthur is only vaguely aware of.‭ ‬He loses contact with his mother during his time‭ ‬in Penfawr and subsequently causes a lot of headaches for the kind family who have taken him in.

Amy is also from the East End,‭ ‬a timid child who is scared of the dark.‭ ‬She is placed with the bitter,‭ ‬God-fearing widow,‭ ‬Mrs Preece,‭ ‬and her strange son,‭ ‬Edwin.‭ ‬Amy suffers terribly during her time in this household and doesn’t know who to turn to.

The stories of these‭ ‬3‭ ‬characters intertwine throughout the book and,‭ ‬ultimately,‭ ‬none of them can help themselves without helping each other.‭

AmeriCymru: You have also been involved with local theatre in your home town of Usk.‭ ‬Is theatrical writing something that you might explore in the future‭?

Julie: I run the local theatrical group with my husband,‭ ‬and write all the scripts for our shows and our annual pantomime‭ – ‬a strange,‭ ‬very British concept‭ – ‬and sell these scripts via my website.‭( ‬ www.juliemcgowan.com ‭)‬ I really enjoy this work,‭ ‬especially as most of it is humorous,‭ ‬so is very different from much of my other writing,‭ ‬but I don’t have a burning ambition to write for the theatre in any other way.‭ ‬I think my scriptwriting is too light-hearted for modern theatre which seems to need a lot of depth and angst and to be more obscure.

‎ AmeriCymru: What are you reading currently‭? ‬Any recommendations‭?

Julie: I’ve just finished reading‭ ‘‬All Change‭’‬,‭ ‬the‭ ‬5th and final volume of the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.‭ ‬The books are a wonderful evocation of English upper middle class life and I’ve enjoyed them enormously.‭ ‬Each volume can stand alone,‭ ‬but I would recommend that anyone who is interested should really start with volume one‭ ‘‬The Light Years‭’ ‬and work their way through the whole series.

I’ve also just read‭ ‘‬The Testament of Mary‭’ ‬by Colm Toibin,‭ ‬which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.‭ ‬It’s Mary’s account of what happened at the crucifixion‭ – ‬beautifully written,‭ ‬but I’m going to read it again as I’ve been discussing it with a friend and we’ve come away from it with completely different views‭!

One of my favourites from last year was‭ ‘‬Me Before You‭’ ‬by Jojo Moyes‭ – ‬a brilliant book which took me by surprise with its depth and emotion when I thought it was going to be quite light and frothy.

AmeriCymru: ‎ ‏What''s next for Julie McGowan‭? ‬Are you working on another book at the moment‭?

Julie: Yes,‭ ‬I am working on another book,‭ ‬but it’s slow going when I have to currently spend a lot of time promoting‭ ‘‬Don’t Pass Me By‭’! ‬The working title of this next one is‭ ‘‬Yes I’m gonna be a star‭’ ‬and it’s the story of a teenage girl in‭ ‬1971,‭ ‬who decides that she wants to be a famous singer,‭ ‬and goes off to London to do just that.‭ ‬She succeeds,‭ ‬but there are dreadful costs to pay along the way.

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

Julie: I am very grateful for the opportunity to promote my books with you.‭ ‬I sincerely hope that‭ ‘‬The Mountains Between‭’ ‬and‭ ‘‬Don’t Pass Me By‭’ ‬fill readers with nostalgia and love for‭ ‘‬the old country‭’ ‬and that they enjoy reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.‭ ‬I would love some reviews‭ (‬good or bad,‭ ‬but hopefully good‭!) ‬on Amazon,‭ ‬Goodreads,‭ ‬and any other book-based sites,‭ ‬and welcome emails from readers‭ ( ‬juliemcgowanusk@live.co.uk ‭)‬ And finally,‭ ‬congratulations to all at AmeriCymru for the work you do in promoting all things Welsh‭ – ‬if any of your members are ever in this part of S.‭ ‬Wales I would happily give them a guided tour of my little part of it.

Product Details

"The novel is set in the south west of Wales, in northern Pembrokeshire, where I live now. Even today, it’s isolated, west of the mountains, with poor road and rail links. In the nineteenth century it was one of the few areas where the population remained static or fell, while everywhere else it was exploding."

BOOKS BY THORNE MOORE

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AmeriCymru: Hi Thorne and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Care to introduce your new book ''Time For Silence'' for our readers?

Thorne: A Time For Silence tells of a girl, Sarah, a one-time singer, from the home counties, near London. She’s going through numerous crises, including an impending marriage to an up and coming company lawyer and a career in advertising that she got into by mistake, and she’s feeling trapped. Returning from a visit to her mother in Ireland, she’s passing through Wales when she chances upon the ruined cottage, Cwmderwen, where her grandparents had lived, and it prompts her to enquire a little more about that side of her family.

When she discovers that her grandfather, John Owen, did not simply die there, but was murdered – a small matter that no one has ever thought to mention, she starts to escape into an obsession with the place, buying the cottage, and embarking on a determined investigation of a crime that happened in 1948. She’s hampered by the fact that the few people still alive who remember it are unwilling or unable to talk about it. Worse, she is a successful English career-girl, living in the twenty-first century, divorced from her grandparents’ world by time, economics, education, language, religion and attitudes. As a result, she misinterprets most of what she is told. But finally, she does come to realise what happened back in 1948.

The reader is there before her, because interwoven with Sarah’s tale is the story of her grandmother, Gwen Owen, from the day of her marriage to John Owen in 1933, through the war years, with a POW camp down the valley, to the aftermath of his death in 1948, and to the reader it is very quickly clear that life in the little cottage of Cwmderwen bore no resemblance whatsoever to the rural idyll, with roses round the door and songs around the piano that Sarah has imagined. It’s a life of grinding poverty and increasing oppression that is doomed from the start.

Once Sarah learns the truth, she realises the pain and trauma that went into ensuring that one good thing emerged from the tragedy, and it’s up to her, now, to make it worth while.

Frenni Fawr, Pembrokeshire From geograph.org.uk Author Dylan Moore Creative Commons Licence

AmeriCymru: Can you describe the area of Wales in which the novel is set for the benefit of our American readers?

Thorne: The novel is set in the south west of Wales, in northern Pembrokeshire, where I live now. Even today, it’s isolated, west of the mountains, with poor road and rail links. In the nineteenth century it was one of the few areas where the population remained static or fell, while everywhere else it was exploding. While the south of the county, known as

Little England, is rolling open farm-land, and almost exclusively English speaking, the northern area of Cemaes, bordering on Ceredigion, is a little lost kingdom all of its own, very wooded, very wild, with tiny bronze-age fields and hills littered with prehistoric monuments and hut circles. It’s the area from which the blue stones of Stonehenge were dragged. In fact, across the road from me is a hilltop circle that has been suggested as the original site of the bluestone circle. The area is still very Welsh: my niece was educated in Welsh before disappearing to the far end of England for university.

There are a lot of images of the area on my website at http://www.thornemoore.co.uk/gallery.html

AmeriCymru: Much of the story is set in in pre-war rural Wales. How did you research the period? What are the most significant ways that rural Welsh lifestyles have changed since those days?

Thorne: I moved to this area 30 years ago, from industrial Luton, and it’s changed a lot in those thirty years of course, but I was startled, when I first arrived, by how different it was to the world I knew. I ran a tea shop in a village where some elderly and talkative customers had memories stretching back to the start of the century, and they used to tell me stories about life in earlier years, as servants in big mansions, or working in the local quarries (long greened over now).

When I moved to my present home, a few miles from the village, I was told of an old cottage nearby where… something had happened (read the book) and everyone knew about it but no one, including the police, had said anything.

I was intrigued, because I could not imagine a situation back in the area where I’d grown up, where it would be possible for secrets to be maintained in this way; someone would have said something. So on a visit to the National Library in Aberystwyth, I took a look at some old copies of the local newspaper, in the vague (and utterly forlorn) hope of finding a mention of the story.

What I did find was a wealth of information about the area in the 1930s and 40s, which painted a very vivid picture of it, including health reports detailing just how poor and malnourished life could be out on the tiny farms. I was particularly struck by a story of a village eisteddfod, just after the war, being won by a German prisoner of war from the local camp. I met several former POWs, who decided to stay on after the war and marry local girls. They were fluent in Italian or German and Welsh, but not so strong on English.

The story that had most effect on me however was a report from a magistrate’s court, in which a young girl was charged with a ‘wicked’ crime that wouldn’t be considered a crime today. The way it was dealt with made a huge impression on me, and I determined to write about it. It has changed, in my book, but the essentials are there. If I am not being explicit, it’s because I don’t want to give the plot away.

Welsh was another matter I had to research, while tearing out my hair. I speak some theoretical Welsh, but in real life every valley seems to have its own dialect, and the Pembrokeshire dialect (probably died out by now) was odder than most. I needed a perfect translation of a couple of phrases, so I sought help from my neighbours, a very local couple and their daughter who chairs the Welsh Language Society: surely they would provide me with the definitive answer. For one three-word sentence they came up with four possible options. I took a deep breath and chose one. I am still waiting for an angry email telling me I got it WRONG!!!

North Pembrokeshire has changed a lot since the time described in the story. It’s changed a lot since I first moved here. Despite Welsh-speaking schools, it’s probably a lot less Welsh-speaking, thanks to an influx of English, retiring here or buying holiday cottages. What industry there was, like quarrying, and even the Ministry of Defense, has more or less vanished, and even farming is on the back foot, but the industry that now overwhelmingly dominates is tourism (please come). We have the most spectacular coast in the country. The world. The universe.

AmeriCymru: Where can people buy the book online?

Thorne: It’s available in print and as an e-book through Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble and probably many other places.

AmeriCymru: What''s next for Thorne Moore? Are you working on anything at the moment?

Thorne: My second book, Motherlove, which is also set partly in Pembrokeshire, is due to be published some time in the next 12 months (I haven’t been given a date yet) and I am working on polishing a third book, set very much in Pembrokeshire, which is called Shadows at the moment, although the title may change.

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

Thorne: Come to Pembrokeshire. Just remember to bring hiking boots and waterproofs.

Christian Saunders is an author from New Tredegar in South Wales. He has worked as a freelance writer contributing to several international publications and a regular column to the Western Mail newspaper.

His short stories have been anthologised in numerous horror publications and his latest novel is: Sker House and a definitive account of the history of Cardiff City Football Club: From The Ashes: The Real Story Of Cardiff City FC

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AmeriCymru: Hi Christian and many thanks for agreeing to talk to AmeriCymru. When and why did you decide to become a writer? What was the first work you submitted for publication?

Christian: I guess I always wanted to be a writer, but to be perfectly honest I wasn’t the brightest at school, so most people thought it was beyond my capabilities. I wasn’t stupid, exactly. I just had no interest in the things I was meant to be learning at school. I much preferred reading books by myself. I always remember being 16 and the deputy head asking me what I was going to do with my life. I said I wanted to be a writer, and he laughed out loud. Well, the joke’s on you now, Mr Richards!

I didn’t have much confidence in my ability at that stage, though. I left school with no qualifications, went to work in a local factory in the south Wales valleys, and wrote stories in my spare time for my own amusement. When I was in my early twenties I thought it wouldn’t hurt to send a few stories out, just to see if they were as bad as I thought they were. This was the late 1990’s, pre-internet, and the small press was flourishing. There were thousands of genre magazines on the market. One, called Cambrensis, specialised in Welsh fiction written in English and was run by a sweet old guy called Arthur Smith, who sadly isn’t with us anymore. By some unimaginable stroke of luck he accepted the very first short story I sent out, which was called Monkeyman.

Looking back, I think I got the sympathy vote from dear old Arthur. I submitted the entire story in BLOCK CAPITALS! But he would do anything he could to give writers a start. He saw it as his life’s work. He re-typed the whole thing, and sent me a few encouraging letters. The payment was a subscription to the magazine.

AmeriCymru:   You write mainly horror fiction. What attracted you to the genre?

Christian: It’s just what comes naturally to me, I guess. For me it’s by far the easiest genre to work in. I wouldn’t know where to start with a love story! I’ve always been a fan of horror movies and books, though ‘horror’ is a very broad genre and can encompass most things.

I’m a jack-of-all-trades, really. I’ve also written non-fiction about the unexplained and supernatural, some music journalism, I do a lot for men’s lifestyle magazines, now I write mainly about sport. It’s strange, though. People only ever notice my fiction! 

AmeriCymru:   Can you tell us which anthologies your work appears in and where they can be purchased online?

Christian:   So far, I’ve been lucky enough to have had stories published in nine or ten anthologies. The most recent was The Delectable Hearts in Legends of Urban Horror on Siren’s Call.

Legends Of Urban Horror

I have stories in two other anthologies, which will be available in the coming months. The Elementals & I in Dark Visions 2 on Grey Matter Press.

Dark Visions 2

And Altitude Sickness in the first anthology by DeadPixel Publications, which is basically a collective of independent writers.

Dead Pixel Publications

When I write fiction, I use the pseudonym CM Saunders.

AmeriCymru:   Is there a horror fiction writer that you particularly admire or would like to recommend? Are there any that strongly influenced your writing?

Christian:   Sorry I can’t give a more original answer, but I love Stephen King. He’s a master storyteller, and his story is inspirational. He used to work in laundry in the days and write in the nights. Apart from SK its good to see his son Joe Hill continue in the same vein. He’s a great writer. Credit to him for not taking his dad’s name for the commercial value attached to it, but if anything he’s trying a bit too hard. Let it go, dude. Just write. I also like Dean Koontz (though he’s been wheeling out the same formula time after time for the past fifteen years or so, some of his earlier works are stone-cold classics), Richard Matheson, Graham Masterton, Richard Laymon, Ramsey Campbell, and Joe Lansdale. I’m more of a contemporary horror fan, though I did read and enjoy a lot of Poe, Lovecraft, M.R. James, Jules Verne and Robert Loius Stevenson when I was younger.

I think everything you read, and everything you see and hear, influences your writing to an extent. As I get older I find myself reading more autobiographies. I am currently reading American Sniper by Chris Kyle and Waiting to be Heard by Amanda Knox.

AmeriCymru:   We learn from your bio that you are are currently living and teaching in China. Is this a permanent relocation and how are you enjoying your experience there?

Christian:   Actually, I’m back in the UK now! Maybe I need to update that bio. I came back in January to work for a magazine in London. I eventually went to uni as a mature student, after that 9-year factory stint, then when I graduated I went freelance. I was living in Southampton at the time, and I just had the urge to travel. I’d always been drawn to Asia, and China in particular. It’s a vast, mysterious country. The kind of place you can get lost in. I taught English to university students there in Beijing, Tianjin, Changsha and Xiangtan, and stayed for five years altogether. It can be a bit surreal but all-in-all, it’s a great life. I had a lot of time to travel, think and write. I did very little journalism out there (you need special accreditation from the government, and a license) so that was when I went back to writing fiction after a long gap. I was never a teacher. I was always a writer in disguise!

Looking back, I’m glad I had the experience, and I feel lucky. It’s important to explore other cultures. I’m from a very small village in the Rhymney valley called New Tredegar, which has a large percentage of narrow-minded people who very rarely (if ever) leave the place. I didn’t want to be one of those.

AmeriCymru:   You have also recently published a novel Rainbow''s End Would I be right in saying that it is partly ''autobiographical''?

Christian: Yes indeed! I would say it’s around 90% autobiographical. I made up the other 10%. But of course, I would never tell anyone which 10% I made up! It’s about a young guy growing up in south Wales who wants to be a writer and travel, but various things hold him back. Until, eventually, he finds a way out.

AmeriCymru:   Which brings us to From The Ashes How did you come to write it and how long have you been a Cardiff City fan?

Christian:   I’ve been a Cardiff fan for about 25 years, I guess. The first game I ever went to was a 1-1 draw with Barnet when we were in the old fourth division. Every club has a lot of history, but the Bluebirds have more than most. We remain the only club to take the FA Cup out of England, and won the Welsh Cup that same year, making us the only club in history (as far as I could tell) to hold the national cups of two different countries simultaneously. That FA Cup was the first to be broadcast on live radio, and the Radio Times published a numbered grid to help listeners follow the game. That, allegedly, gave rise to the popular saying ‘back to square one.’

I started writing the book about ten years ago, using mainly the microfilm newspaper archives at Cardiff library. I got a publisher interested in the book, but they pulled out saying, basically, that the club wasn’t big enough to justify costs. After that I moved on to other things, and only when it looked like we might win promotion last season did I start offering it around. Luckily, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch expressed an interest so then it was a mad rush to bring the book up to date, which I managed in just a month or so. The hardest thing was sourcing the pictures. I contacted the club, who were no help at all, and ended up buying a load from Getty.

So far the book is doing very well!

AmeriCymru:   OK I have to ask...can Cardiff City cut it in the Premier League and where do you think the Bluebirds will be in the League table at the end of the season?

Christian:   Sure, I think we are more than capable of staying up. Malky Mackay has made a couple of great signings this summer. Both Gary Medel and Steven Caulker were wanted by much bigger clubs and ended up buying into the dream and moving to the CCS. There are much worse teams than us in the Premier League! I’m under no illusions, I don’t think we’ll qualify for Europe, but we won’t finish in the bottom three, either. Somewhere in-between, I’d say. After the move from Ninian Park, last season we turned CCS into a bit of a fortress. If we can continue that home form, and it’s looking good so far with that win against Man City and the draw against Everton, two of the better clubs in the league, we have every chance of staying up. The win against Man City, when we came from behind to win 3-2, gave the players, fans and the local media a massive confidence boost and hopefully we can build on that.

AmeriCymru:   What''s next for Christian Saunders? Do you have any new publications planned?

Christian:   At the moment I’m working full time for Sports Direct magazine, so any new fiction will have to take a backseat for a while. Saying that, I’m always working on something, and I have lots of projects at various stages of development. I’ve decided to go independent with regards to fiction, and early next year I’m putting out an ebook compilation of short stories called X, most of which have been published before in various places. It’s all ready to go. If I don’t go through a publisher I’ll be able to sell the book a lot cheaper and hopefully reach a wider audience. I’m also re-writing my first book, Into the Dragon’s Lair – A Supernatural History of Wales, which will be reprinted by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch hopefully sometime next year. When that is done I’ve been thinking of doing a follow-up to Rainbow’s End, about a valley boy and his experiences of living and working in China!

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

Christian:   You only have one life, so follow your dreams, do what makes you happy, and don’t let anyone hold you back!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to drop by my blog:

http://cmsaunders.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"> http://cmsaunders.wordpress. com/

Or follow me on Twitter CMSaunders01

AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author and novelist Jenny Sullivan about her new book Totally Batty and her plans for Christmas.  Jenny is the author of many children''s books including  Tirion''s Secret Journal  and  Full Moon  which won the prestigious Tir na n-Og  award  in 2006  and 2012 respectively. She is currently working on a series of historical novels based on  the life of Owain Glyndwr . Jenny was born in Cardiff and now lives in France. She travels to Wales to work with school students on a regular basis.

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AmeriCymru: Hi Jenny and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. What can you tell us about your latest book ''Totally Batty''?

Jenny: I think it''s funnier that "Full Moon" and I like the title better, too. I wasn''t allowed my original title for "Full Moon" which was "As Mad As A Box Of Frogs" which was a pity, because "Full Moon" is the title of several other books that aren''t by me!

AmeriCymru: ''Totally Batty'' is the sequel to the Tir na n-Og Award-winning novel Full Moon. Care to tell us more about the earlier book?

Jenny: It''s about a (fairly) typical Welsh family living somewhere in the Welsh Valleys. The plot centres on Nia, whose Aunty, Gwen''s hobby is running a sort of underground railway (as in the Deep South during slavery) but for supernatural beings. When Gwen is mugged for her pension and winds up in hospital she asks Nia to go to her house and leave out some food for a visitor... Nia quickly discovers that the ragged boy she finds in her Aunt''s basement is actually a werewolf. The sub-plot concerns Nia''s sister Ceri, who has been discovered by an agent and has a new career as a TV star, and Nia''s Mam, who desperately wants to act but can''t. The family is as mad as a box of frogs and very Welsh. I had a lot of fun writing it and liked the characters too much to let them go. Which is why "Totally Batty" was written. This book may contain the only recorded case of vampire headlice. Think about it...

AmeriCymru: When last we spoke you were researching part three of your trilogy of novels based on the life of Owain Glyndwr, “Silver Fox ~ the long Amen” . How is the novel coming along?

Jenny: Slowly. I''ve only managed about 50 pages. It''s been one of those years. I seem to have been running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place. And of course Owain has to be researched so I don''t make any historical howlers.

AmeriCymru: Any other projects in the pipeline?

Jenny: A sequel to "The Great Cake Bake" (that came out in September), called " The Great Granny Hunt" and I''m sort of walking around a novel full of teenage angst, though teenage books are notoriously hard to sell. Apparently teenagers don''t read. Or so I''m told.

AmeriCymru: What will you be doing for Christmas this year?

Jenny: This is where I wear a great big smile. We''re going over to the UK to spend three days with my eldest daughter and her partner Art and my three Grandchildren, 8 year old Daisy, 6 year old Tove and The Boy, Dylan, who is 3, doesn''t know his own strength and has been known to knock me off my feet in his haste to get a cwtch. They''re in North Weald in Essex. Then we go on to Ealing in London to spend a couple of days with my middle daughter Tanith and her husband Daz, (who is recovering from a massive heart attack three years ago). I can''t wait and am getting what Tanith calls "silly and excited ". If only we could also see our youngest, Stephanie, too, but she''s living in Northern Ireland with her husband Conall and their two children Catrin and Joseph and we can''t be in two places simultaneously. Joe was born in January and I spent nearly three weeks over there on Granny duty, including taking over the night feeds. I was a wreck when I came home! I last saw them all together in July on holiday en famille in Fishguard, which was uncharacteristically sunny the whole time. Magical!

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

Jenny: Yes - I''m Patron of Reading to three primary schools in South Wales. This involves a visit to each at least once a year and a monthly newsletter from me to them all with news, projects, reading suggestions, challenges and competitions. If there''s someone involved with a U.S. school reading this, and would like me to be Patron to their school too, please get in touch. I can only manage one more school, so it will be first come, first served. I can''t promise an annual visit, however! I would like to love there to be a Welsh-American link and perhaps the schools themselves might develop links eventually.

My web page is The Magic Apostrophe page and most, if not all of my books (there are some that are contributions only) are listed on AmeriCymru

AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author and novelist Jenny Sullivan about her life and work. Jenny is the author of many children''s books including Tirion''s Secret Journal and Full Moon which won the prestigious Tir Na-Nog award in 2006 and 2012 respectively. She is currently working on a series of historical novels based on the life of Owain Glyndwr . Jenny was born in Cardiff and now lives in France. She travels to Wales to work with school students on a regular basis.

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AmeriCymru:  Hi Jenny and many thanks for agreeing to talk to AmeriCymru. When did you decide to become a writer?

Jenny:   I don’t think anyone “decides” to become a writer.  One either is, or is not, and wishing can’t make it so.  (I seem to meet a lot of people who “have always thought they could write a book”.  My answer is usually, “then do!)  The first time it entered my head was in primary school, when my beloved Miss Thomas, a spinster lady of probably quite youthful years, although she seemed ancient, of course, to an 8 year old, read one of my stories, tugged my plait and told me that if I was prepared to work very hard, one day I would become a famous writer. 

I remember being quite taken with the idea, rushing home to see my poor, put-upon mother, who had five other childebeasts beside me, and reporting Miss T’s opinion.  Mum put down her potato knife, sighed and said “I’m going to have to go up the school and have words with That Woman, putting stupid ideas like that in your head”. 

She didn’t, however (too busy) and from that moment on I was A Writer.  I wrote my first novel, aged 16, about a racial war on the Isle of Wight (go figure).  That one I buried in the garden.  The one after that I put in a metal wastebasket and set fire to it.  Lost my eyebrows...

AmeriCymru:   You are currently writing a series of historical novels based on the life of Owain Glyndwr. Care to tell us a little more about the ''Silver Fox'' series?  

Jenny:   At the ripe old age of 50, somewhat by accident, I found myself tackling an MA at University of Wales, Cardiff (now Cardiff University).  When I’d finished that, my tutor, with whom I’d become friendly, came with his wife to dinner.  Having found the MA something of a trial (having left school at 15 without so much as an O level to my name), I was being entirely frivolous when I mentioned that I’d been thinking of doing a PhD next.  He raised a languid eyebrow, surveyed me for a brief moment and then delivered his opinion:  “Nah.  You wouldn’t get it.”  My instant reaction was,  I bloody would!   So I applied, was accepted, panicked, and decided to write a novel about Owain Glyndwr, whose exploits had fascinated me since I was in primary school (again, thanks, Miss T.  She never managed to teach me maths, but boy, did she ever interest me in history and fiction!). 

I did two years’ research before I wrote a word, and when the time came for me to stop researching and start writing, I just couldn’t find the “handle” into the book.  So I went to that magical place, Ty Newydd, the Welsh National Writers’ Centre in Llanystumdwy, near Cricieth, David Lloyd George’s old home, leaving my family at home, and to cut a long story short, the Welsh Wizard worked his magic, and the writing began.  That first book took me another two years to write and edit, and then I had to tackle the loooooong dissertation, but at last I was able to submit it (which is another tale entirely!).  THEN I found out I had to have something called a “vive” or “viva” or something.  Didn’t have a clue what this was until m’tutor explained.  About 20 minutes of grilling, he said, do defend your novel and thesis.  At that point I went into total panic. 

The interview was on 12th December, my husband was working away, all my children were at work or college and I betook myself to Cardiff for the aforementioned torture session.  Forty-five minutes later, a small, limp rag came out of the interview room.  I was hooked into a tutor’s office, and he kept me supplied with Kleenex for the next fifteen minutes while I snotted and howled.  I knew I’d totally blown it.  Summoned back, the Chair of the panel said, “congratulations, Dr Sullivan”...  Leaving the college, I phoned one husband, three daughters and my father-in-law.  Not one of them answered.  I had to wait until 7pm that night before I could tell anyone.   

Then, of course, I had to write part two.  Did that.  Loved every moment of it, because I knew I didn’t have to submit this to anyone but a publisher.  I started submitting part one, but couldn’t get any of the Welsh publishers to even read it.  Historical fiction, apparently, doesn’t sell.  (Tell that to Hilary Mantel.)  I found a London agent who loved it, wanted to handle it, but wanted her colleague to see it first.  Colleague loved it too, but “nobody’s interested in history, especially Welsh history, so we’d like you to take out most of the boring historical stuff and put in more sex...”  So that was another avenue closed.  I went the self-publishing route, paying for the first edition, and when that sold out I went to Amazon CreateSpace and republished in Kindle and paperback, following it up with part two.  I’m currently working on part three, which I hadn’t planned, but I keep getting emails from people who want to know what happens to the characters next.  I’d hoped to get away without writing the tragic end to the Glyndwr story ~ but I’m going to have to tackle it.  I’ve just started research and am much cheered by the wonderful reviews the first two are getting on Amazon ~ and not all, I should add, from family and friends!  

AmeriCymru:   How difficult is it to imagine the world of the 15th century and in particular the life and times of Owain Glyndwr?  

Jenny:   Imagining the 15th century isn’t difficult.  People then were just people, just as we’re people in the 21st century, with the same desires, same hopes, same frustrations, only with more blood and fewer iPads.  I enjoyed writing the novels so much that, because my husband often worked away from home at that time, I sometimes used to work all day and late into the evening.  It was bliss.  I remember one night realising I was overdoing it, however, when I had one of my 15th century characters checking his wristwatch...   

AmeriCymru:   You have written many childrens books. How does writing for children and adults differ?  

Jenny:   That one’s easy.  Adults will persevere with a book if they really want to read it.  Children, if they aren’t captured in the first couple of paragraphs, will give up and go back to their X-box or Wii or whatever.  I love writing for children ~ it’s pure escapism, and “I” have the most amazing adventures. 

Which is why, I suppose, most of them are written in the first person.  I thoroughly enjoyed writing my two historical novels, “Tirion’s Secret Journal” and “Troublesome Thomas”, both set at Llancaiach Fawr Manor near Nelson in mid-Glamorgan, and may revisit the house in Tudor times when I’ve finished part three of Silver Fox.   

AmeriCymru:   You have taught Creative Writing to adults and children in primary and secondary schools. Although you currently live in France you visit Wales a couple of times a year to work with school children. How important to you is this ongoing classroom contact?  

Jenny:   When we moved to France it was on the understanding that I could return three or four times a year.  I love that contact with children, teachers, librarians, parents, and of course it helps to sell books, although that’s the least important reason of all.  I love the buzz of meeting a class of children and getting ALL of them writing and achieving things they didn’t think they could.  I often have teachers say at the end of a session “that boy (it’s usually a boy), I’ve never managed to get more than two lines out of him, and you’ve got a page and a half”.  I’m quite smug about it, but that’s the reward ~ something they can do, that they didn’t think they could. 

When I visit my daughter and her family in Northern Ireland I always visit my primary teacher son-in-law’s class and work with them.  As he says, “I don’t always agree with your methods, but I admit you get results”.  The other thing that arises from my school visits is that I always have an eye peeled for talent ~ if I can say to a child what dear Miss T said to me, I’m delighted, and I always offer to mentor children and young people that I meet who really want to write and are prepared to put in the necessary slog to do it.  I spent the weekend talking one of my protegees out of nearly £700 worth of self-publishing (with a publishing company with a reputation like a venus fly-trap), editing a chapter for her, and recommending Lynne Truss’s “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”...  Nuff said!  

AmeriCymru:   You have won the Tir na n–Og Award twice, once in 2006 for ''Tirion''s Secret Journal'' and again in 2012 for ''Full Moon''. How did it feel to win such a prestigious award? Can you tell us a little about the prize and the selection process?  

Jenny:   When I was younger, I had three ambitions:  to fly in a helicopter, to see a whale in its natural environment, and to win the Tir na n-Og.  Only the whale remains... 

The helicopter flight was the best fun I’ve EVER had with my clothes on... 

The Tir na n-Og is chosen by librarians, who are “shadowed” by children from various schools.  I don’t know any more about the process than that, but I’m glad they do it!  The first time I won, in 2006, the whole thing was fairly low-key, and my overall opinion of the evening was that the Welsh language winning author was more highly regarded than the English one.  The cheque for £1000 was good, though! 

The 2012 award was a whole different kettle of fish ~ the Welsh award was presented on a different evening, and as well as the cheque I was given a gorgeous glass trophy, which means considerably more, given that the cheque disappeared, pided between three daughters and a husband, and there were lots of interviews from newspapers and radio and the WBC made a You Tube fillum about me, which is interesting but fairly dire from a vanity point of view.  It’s a wonderful feeling to be recognised by the people who matter in literature ~ children first, then librarians and the Welsh Books Council, who organise the Tir na n-Og. 

AmeriCymru:   Where can people go online to buy your books?  

Jenny:   All my children’s books can be purchased from the Welsh Books Council on line, or from Pont/Gwasg Gomer on line, or indeed from Amazon.  The “Silver Fox” books can also be obtained from Amazon, in paperback and for Kindle e-readers.  

AmeriCymru:   What are you reading at the moment ? Any recommendations?  

Jenny:   Just discovered the Kate Shugak novels by Dana Stabenow, and have read the lot.  I can recommend “The Princess Bride” and anything at all by Dorothy Dunnett.  I love the Jacquot books, about a French rugby-playing policeman.  My favourite book of all time, however, and perhaps the book that has influenced me and my writing more than any other, is T H White’s “The Once and Future King”.  It’s the story of King Arthur, and it can be read on so many different levels.  Children can enjoy “The Sword in the Stone” part of it, and adults will enjoy that and the other parts two.  It’s a wonderful book.  

AmeriCymru:   What''s next for Jenny Sullivan? Any new titles in th e pipeline?  

Jenny:   “Silver Fox ~ the long Amen” is being researched;  I have at least five other books with Pont awaiting publication (I may get impatient and self-publish through Amazon);  I’m half way through writing a fantasy for teenagers, and somewhere along the line I’m going to write a novel about two families (loosely based on mine and my husband’s) during the two World Wars, and something bloody and murderous when I can find the time.  I read loads of crime fiction and want to see if I can write it too.  It will be a far cry from my children’s books, but fun to write, I expect.   

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

Jenny:   Just ~ helo, Cymru am Byth, and aren’t you glad we’re Welsh?

  Interview by Ceri Shaw   Ceri Shaw on Google+

LINKS  

Jenny Sullivan wins 2012 Tir na n-Og award with Full Moon

Jenny Sullivan''s page on AmeriCymru  

Children''s author Jenny Sullivan on basement werewolves and mad aunts    

Works by Jenny Sullivan on Amazon

Our fascination with societies and households united by social, class and occupational division continues unabated. The popularity of Downton Abbey , Upstairs Downstairs and Gosford Park bears testimony to this. But how much do we really know about the true experiences of domestic servants and the conditions in which they lived?

Buy the book here

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No Job for a Little Girl by Rosemary Scadden is based on interviews with those women who had to leave home in the 1920s and 1930s – some when they were as young as fourteen years old – to work as low-paid maids in the big cities.

Domestic service was Britain''s biggest employer a century ago with 1.5 million people working as servants – more than those who worked on farms or in factories. In a period where there were very few opportunities for young women, many had to leave home in search of work. And, as No Job for a Little Girl proves, the young girls of Wales were no exception.

The women’s own words bring an immediacy and vibrancy to the memoir. Their experiences highlight how much chance played in their conditions of service. Their precise duties and personal feelings are described, bringing to life a forgotten world of deference and social immobility. Ironically, it was the outbreak of the Second World War that transformed the lives of this lost generation of women.

O riginally from Newport, Rosemary Scadden lives in Cardiff, where she was for many years a programme researcher with both HTV and BBC Wales. She was involved in the landmark oral history series, All Our Lives,and worked with Sir Harry Secombe for eight years on Highway. Rosemary also spent twelve years working overseas, in Uganda and the Solomon Islands. Since her retirement she has become a popular speaker on many subjects and is an active member of the Women’s Archive of Wales.

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No Job for a Little Girl is available from all good bookshops and online retailers.

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For more information, please visit www.gomer.co.uk

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