Real Aberystwyth

The Real Series

by Niall Griffiths, Peter Finch (Editor)

Aberystwyth: two languages, a university, a farming community, a port turned marina, a holiday resort, seat of the National Library of Wales and the Welsh Books Council, home to writers and spies. It is a singular place composed of any number of conflicting and complimentary things, with a medieval beginning, Victorian heyday and contemporary reputation as a cultural powerhouse in the guise of a market town.

Aberystwyth is a fluid mix of long-established natives, large student population, and a colony of those who came and never left. Niall Griffiths falls among the latter and the town and its environs have provided rich material for his fiction. Here he mixes autobiography with topography, aligns the oblique approach with historical report, and contrasts the prosaic with the downright odd. The birthplace of the Welsh Language Society, the home of saints, the playground of writers, crucible of alternative living, Aberystwyth and its hinterland are a remarkable phenomenon. This book is an enthralling picture of a world famous town.

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool to a Welsh/Irish/Romany lineage. He’s been a labourer, a barman, a server of fish and chips, a burglar, a farmhand, a tree feller, a factory worker and many other things too tedious to relate. Now, he’s a full-time writer, living at the foot of a mountain in mid-Wales, with seven novels published, several works of non-fiction and more short stories and radio plays and travel pieces and reviews than he cares to, or possibly even can, count. His fourth novel, Stump, won the Wales Book of the Year Award. A film adaptation of his third novel, Kelly+Victor, won a BAFTA. He’s now working on the screenplay for his sixth, Wreckage. His latest novel is Broken Ghost.