Well, I’ve spent a lot of this past year wandering up the River Wye from the border at Hay-on-Wye to its source on Pumlumon Fawr, filming the river and the things on its banks and recording conversations with scores of people – from poultry farmers to teachers and musicians, conservationists to tourists, anglers, a rally driver and a spirit medium. The result is a (for want of a better word) film called Tarddle/ Source, in which nine months and seventy-something miles pass by while unseen people discuss their relationship with the Wye but also their lives, hopes and concerns, and subjects as varied as wind farms, peat bogs, Welsh identity and the nature of the soul. It’s two hours long, almost exactly, and though it will come to other places in the future, it will start as an installation in Hay Castle, showing three times a day from January 20th to February 7th in the Clore, which is a great space with the whole end wall for a screen. Please do come and give it a look – I made it to be seen in one go, but you’re welcome to drift in and out, as you like – and if you can make it to Hay on January 23rd then why not come along to this launch event too?

More info here: https://www.haycastletrust.org/p-5167-tarddle-source.aspx

Hope to see you on the 23rd…

All out west – Jackie Morris, Nicola Davies and I will be having an evening of all things Sarn Helen over in St David’s (at Ty’r Pererin, a Pilgrimage Centre, suitably) on September 6th. This is the first and last such event Jackie and I will do in Wales, so please come along if you can!

As weeks go, this has been a blinder. It’s bewildering, honestly; you slog away for years then, all of a sudden, loads of things happen at once. Monday, we started filming Mr Burton – and the rushes are gorgeous: we’ve been so blessed with the actors, the crew, the whole lot. Then Thursday, Sarn Helen wins the Wales Book of the Year. That’s something I never dared to imagine – especially after 2008, which made the prize feel like it was cursed for me. (Details in Sarn Helen, if you don’t know what I’m on about.) Most important is the way that the message of Sarn Helen has been received: everything about climate and ecology. I’m cautious about the word optimism; it strikes me as a counterpart of anxiety – something diffuse, unmoored from the facts. But given that the change we need to make is, at root, a cultural change, a change in our mode of being, that the cultural establishment in Wales should be so willing to embrace this book – this is a cause for hope for me. It feels that way for now at least, and I’ll take that.

Thanks so much to the judges (and to all the incredibly kind people who have written in the past few days).

OK, so it’s not like you can’t see the moving parts (lights and atmospherics and sound folks and cameras) but all the same, after nine years trotting round your head, it’s amazing to see your characters manifest. July 1st and here is Mr Burton in St Theodore’s Church, Port Talbot. Toby Jones and Harry Lawtey – what a remarkable pair they are. (I’ve got to sit in on their rehearsals.) So many thanks to them, to Ed Talfan and everyone at Severn Screen – and, of course, to Josh Hyams and Marc Evans, as seen in the pic below this.

Brilliantly, Sarn Helen is on the WBOTY shortlist. Many thanks to everyone who made that happen, and if you’re feeling public-spirited then please do vote for the People’s Choice Awards: https://nation.cymru/culture/vote-for-the-wales-book-of-the-year-2024-peoples-choice-award/ (Eee, but I would like it to win that, though…)

Back in 2015, about an hour after I sent Addlands to Clare Alexander (estimable agent), a friend named Josh Hyams (estimable producer) phoned to talk about an idea. This struck me as a good sign; I listened, was involved at once. The idea revolved around the early life of Richard Jenkins, who, over about two years during WW2, transformed from a no-good boyo working in the Co-Op in Taibach, Port Talbot, to a student at Oxford by the name of Richard Burton, already appearing on the West End stage. Josh and I read and conferred and visited and made up reasons to enter houses in Port Talbot. We drafted many, many times – I have about 200 versions on my computer – and slowly became more and more drawn to Philip Burton, the teacher who brought about the transformation and, ultimately, gave Richard his name.

The thing I remember best about our first conversation was Josh telling me quite how fast it was to write a screenplay, as against a novel.

Hmm. Anyway, nine years later, it looks as if we’re nearly there. As this article in Deadline explains, Mr Burton is due to be filmed this spring, directed by Marc Evans, with Toby Jones as Philip Burton, Lesley Manville as Philip’s landlady/ confidante Ma Smith, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Aneurin Barnard as Cis and Elfed: Richard’s sister and brother-in-law. This is a dream cast, as doesn’t need saying. More soon, and let’s hope it happens!

Am very happy to report that Sarn Helen has been awarded the Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year. Obviously, I’d be delighted in any event, but the idea that this will bring some of those ideas around climate and ecology to people who have not yet met them – this is a real lift of spirits, and has led to six or seven pages of this new novel (On the Utmost Limits of the World) in about a day and a half. Which for me is light speed. Long may that last! Many thanks to all at Waterstones for reading and supporting Sarn. I appreciate it more than I can say.

If in Cardiff and fancying getting read to, this event is free for all, supported by Cardiff University.

Also at Birmingham Literature Festival on Saturday (7th), talking with Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Pawas Bisht. Come if you can!

Had a lovely session in Cardiff the other day about Writing and Place with Zoe Skoulding and Joan Passey. I can’t listen back to this sort of thing, but I gather it comes across. Give it a try and see what you think. And if you happen to be at either Between the Trees (Aug 27th) or End of the Road Festival (Sept 3rd) then pls come along and say hello.

It’s great that Sarn Helen is on the Wainwright longlist. Very fine company. Many thanks to them.

While I’m here, could I flag up an event at Waterstones Abergavenny? It’s on Wednesday 26th July. 7pm. Hope to see you there