My First Coloring Book
Prize-winning Welsh author Lloyd Jones celebrated the launch of his first collection of short stories last week. The work entitled "My First Colouring Book" is currently available from all reputable booksellers. Lloyd Jones is the award winning author of "Mr Vogel" and "Mr Cassini", two of the most refreshing and challenging novels to come out of Wales in recent decades.
He agreed to an interview with http://americymru.ning.com in which he spoke about his life, work and future literary plans:-
Many of your writings revolve around journeys or more particularly walks. It is well known that you do a lot of hill-walking/
"I had been very ill, mentally and physically, following a major breakdown caused by stress and alcohol in 2001. As I recovered from my near-death experience I found that walking was the best medicine for body and soul. It still is - I go for a walk every day. Every walk is a celebration of the concept of freedom"
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To what extent is "Mr Vogel" autobiographical?
"Almost all the book is based on my life. I walked completely around Wales, a journey of a thousand miles, in 2002/3 and I have walked across the country eight times in eight different directions since then. Also, I was a patient at Gobowen hospital in Shropshire, strapped to a metal frame for a year, when I was aged about six. The bonesetters of Anglesey, featured in my book, were a real family and they have descendants in America".
You have published a collection of poems which were distributed privately. Do you have any plans to publish further poetry anthologies?
"No. Friends have assured me that my poems should remain in a locked drawer. I have written a narrative poem for 2008 with an entry for each day - and it's still going strong, in November. It will have 369 poems eventually, and will be published to critical acclaim when I'm dead; if my family burn it my mini-epic will be remembered as the great lost poem of the twenty-first century. Or maybe not."
It has been suggested that "Mr Cassini" is an attempt to explore and elucidate modern problems and neuroses utilizing ancient Welsh myth and legend. Is this true and if so, what role do the stories of the Mabinogion play in the book?
"Yes, Mr Cassini is an Arthurian book based on the legend of Culhwch ac Olwen - probably the first Welsh story ever recorded. Mr Cassini is also a voyage around my alcoholic father. In the Mabinogion legend, the beautiful Olwen's father is a nasty giant who forces Culhwch to perform a number of Herculean feats before the two can wed. Arthur (Duxie in my book) helps them in their quest. I have tried to use the Arthurian legend in a contemporary Celtic context - as a reaction to the romantic and sentimental rubbish promulgated by TV and film directors."
More at this url:- http://americymru.blogspot.com/
