Library of Wales - Welsh Writing in English

There seems to be a theme running through my Festival going this year - as the three speakers settled into their chairs at the Starlight Stage, one of them said: "I'm not Dai Smith - I'm afraid he's indisposed."
I was there because someone had advertised on the Hay Community Facebook page that they had spare tickets for the event. They'd won 4 but only two people wanted to go - so I was the third. I don't know if anyone was interested in the fourth ticket.
The Starlight Stage is one of the smaller stages at the Festival, and even then it wasn't full, which is a pity because it was a fascinating event. I'd never heard of the Library of Wales before, but they have been publishing since 2006, and now have a list of 50 books, all of them out of print or forgotten novels, memoirs, journalism or short story collections by Welsh writers in English.
One of the more recent authors was up on stage. Rachel Trezise is from the Rhondda and said that, when she started writing she thought she was the first writer to come from the Rhondda. In fact, there were several previous writers from the area, but she'd never been taught about them in school or university. Tomos Owen, who teaches Welsh literature, said that when he was in University there was a particular book that the tutor wanted to teach, but it had gone out of print, and this was just before the Library of Wales started and republished it. Later, though, she said that she was a bit embarrassed that her book had been published by Library of Wales, because she had been very young when she wrote it, and wished In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl had been forgotten.
The conversation ranged widely. Topics included Welsh authors having to write in a certain way in order to get published by London publishers. One author had actually won a Gollancz prize, but his book was then not published because it was considered to be too bleak! The view of the Valleys in How Green Was My Valley was considered by the speakers to be a saccharin version of Welsh experience, and they were pleased that there are now more opportunities for work to be published within Wales.
On the other hand, some authors have been criticised by local people for their depictions of Welsh working class life. The chap who was standing in for Dai Smith (I'm afraid I don't remember his name) said that he had worked on a film once about life in the Valleys in which one of the characters relieved himself on top of a car. When he went to talk to the Rhondda WI about the film, 240 women turned up to tell him that this was not the image of their area that they wanted to be publicised!
The books on the list are not just from the Valleys - they come from all over Wales, and over a span of about a hundred years. Tomos Owen said that some of the most interesting writing came from the Borders, because the writers were grappling with problems of identity, and how this came into sharp focus in the Border areas.
They also talked about the future of the list, and whether it should be widened to admit more contemporary writers. Rachel Trezise said she thought it shouldn't, because the purpose of the list was to bring back into publication writers who had been forgotten or were out of print. There was also a question of how far back in time the list should stretch - there had been an explosion of writing during the Industrial Revolution, but where had that writing come from? Who were the writers who influenced the later ones?
There are only 10 women writers on the list of 50, and there were hopes that more would be included in future. The list is very much Dai Smith's personal choice, and when questions were being asked at the end one woman said that there were plenty of good Welsh women writers if you took the trouble to look for them. However there are other Welsh publishers, like Hano, who publish women writers.
Another lady who got the mike commented with passion that she was sick of not being considered properly Welsh because she couldn't speak Welsh - having grown up at a time when speaking English was considered necessary to "get on in life", and Welsh was discouraged. So it was good to see Welsh writing in English being celebrated as being properly Welsh.
The final question couldn't be answered for lack of time, but she wanted to know if there were plans to publicise the Library of Wales outside Wales. I think the conversation carried on after the event finished.

I went straight to the Festival bookshop while the names they mentioned were fresh in my mind, to find the Library of Wales shelf. The books have black spines with a red bit at the bottom. Gwyn Thomas was much admired, as well as Dorothy Edwards, Lewis Jones, and many others. I came away with A Rope of Vines by Brenda Chamberlain, about her time on a Greek island. And while I was there, I picked up Mary Beard's Women and Power, and 101 Things You Need to Know about Suffragettes.