With the experiences of two families giving up their home comforts to travel back to 1890s Blaenavon about to hit our television screens this month, it is timely that stars of a previous reality show reflect on their experiences during, and since the time they spent in the 1927 Coal House. Cerdin and Debra Griffiths and the family are back to tell us about how life has been for them since their nationwide TV exposure.

Life in the Coal House reminds us of those pleasant and not so pleasant experiences and contains the family’s personal photographs. The experience certainly changed the family’s way of thinking. Debra comments, “I look at things differently now… having lived in circumstances where I know that, if the fire went out, there would be no food for the family, well, that does change your outlook on all sorts of things. I really appreciate thinks now that I used to take for granted.”

Cerdin adds, “I’m extremely proud of the way that my family coped with their various experiences in the Coal House… the children went through massive changes, like speaking another language as well as adapting to a whole new way of living, and they did all this without complaining or protesting too much.”

Life in the Coal House may make interesting reading for the Snowdonia house incumbents. Life in the Coal House retails at £3.95 and is published by Y Lolfa in October 2010.