Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 24

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE
more Welsh than Norwegian—or a Welsh Viking.
What have you learnt from living in Wales?
Put simply, it is as though I have gained another background, even another childhood,
through learning about family and local history from old uncles (I’m so glad I always
took time to sit with them and listen to their tales), and old documents etc.
Who is the audience for your writing and how much of it is local?
I’m lucky, as my audience is worldwide—even if only a handful here and there, but
since publishing The Loss, I’m building quite a local reader base, too—and my books
are in two local libraries (Abergavenny and Crickhowell). A couple of short stories
(published) were based on life in the locality (one on an event in my own house), but
two works in progress are based right here where I live. One is set back round about
the time when Shakespeare visited the area, when the iron works were going strong,
and one in the here and now—a novel dealing with the upheaval caused by the
dualling of the Heads