Tom Anderson talks with fellow author Fflur Dafydd, whose first novel in English, Twenty Thousand Saints (Alcemi), was published in October 2008.
Shwmae Fflur. Braf i siarad da ti. So it may seem a bit obvious to say this to a writer, but language is something that really courses through your work. You sing in Welsh, write some of your prose in Welsh, and then in your English-language novel there is this feeling that the characters' words are kind of hanging in the ether, or on the sea breeze. It's all tied to identity too. So speaking of identity, which do you find the more rewarding - song writing or prose writing? And in which language?
For me, language and identity are inseparable, and I truly believe that I am who I am because I am a Welsh speaker, and also because I have always lived in the liminal space between languages, using each language for a different purpose. Language is the focus of my world and my work, and I am always thinking of ways to make English sing in a Welsh way, or to make some of my Welsh prose a little edgier, more English or European in feel. I probably find writing in English a little more rewarding - because I feel that I've somehow achieved something I never thought I could do, which is to use what I still see as a colonial language as a means of expressing my experience of colonisation. Also, for some reason, my critics have been kinder to me in English! But writing in Welsh is a real buzz, creating something anew, bending these archaic Welsh words in new exciting ways. Set to music they work particularly well, as Welsh is a musical language, very rhythmic, and pulsing.
There's a bit of a mystery developing in Twenty Thousand Saints as well - did you know how it was going to be resolved as you were writing it?
The truth is, I had no idea how to resolve the mystery I'd set up. So for the most part of writing the book, I was as intrigued as the reader about what had happened to Delyth. I wasn't sure whether she'd reappear, whether she was dead, whether she'd been murdered or committed suicide, all these things were going around and around in my head as I worked my way through it, and in a way, the mystery is probably stronger because I kept the secret from myself as well as the reader, for as long as I could. The writing itself finally gave me the answer, because I'd come to know her through her absence in the book, and I woke up one morning, finally knowing what had happened, it was my eureka moment. I even wrote it down in my diary: "I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO DELYTH!" But I won't tell you, you'll have to read it to find out....
And what about the claim I made that some of your writing reminds me of magical realist stuff? That led us to do an interesting book swap in the Spring eh?
It was interesting that you said that - and very astute - as magic realist works have informed a lot of my work from an early age. I read a lot of Michel Faber, Jeanette Winterson and Milan Kundera in my early twenties and nearly all my short stories, in Welsh and English, have this strange, ethereal feel to them, they're all on that boundary between the real and the fantastic. For example there are parts of the books where the nuns are said to be 'levitating' into a room - which they aren't of course, it just seems that way, but then, they have become such strange characters that you almost believe they could. Also I feel that an island space is the perfect ground for touches of magic realism, as you begin to feel that anything could happen, that you're in an 'inbetween' space - where nothing is as it seems. In terms of our book swap, I think we opened one another's eyes to the sheer scope of magic realist fiction - when you gave me Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore and I gave you Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled - which have interesting parallels between them. I would love to write something similar to The Unconsoled in Welsh - something rambling, directionless, and absurdly funny - but I know it would drive my Welsh critics crazy...
How accurately does Twenty Thousand Saints reflect your own time on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island)?
I think the general feel of the island is the same in the book as it was in real life. You're in a tiny confined space of 2 miles, with all these diverse people, from whom there is no escape. Strange things happen. You are drawn to the most unusual, unexpected people - as friends, as lovers. You forget about the mainland, about television, about all the garish distractions of mainland life and you see yourself more clearly. The Welsh predecessor to this book - Atyniad - was embarrassingly autobiographical, and it described the way I connected to the island in a very raw, almost entirely uncensored way - which I don't regret exactly, but it needed to be done again, with a little more perspective. At least with TTS I had some real distance from these characters, so that they are just characters rather than drawing on real life characters. Something else in the book which hopefully remains true to the island is the sense of place, the birds, the seagulls, the seals, the way everything is wonderfully natural and free. But you can also go a little stir crazy, and start to go mad...! I had romantic visions of staying there all winter to write, after everyone had left the island, turning into a hermit like nun, like the one in my novel. But I don't think I'd make a good nun, which is why I'll stick to writing about them...
I love the bit where this really bizarre thing happens with all the seabirds and the lighthouse. I think you called it 'the attraction' - and it was kind of a turning point in the story too. It seemed so surreal. What was that all about?
The migrating birds tend to lose their way if it's a particularly foggy night, and so they get drawn to any other light they can see. The night in question, I was walking back from a party at the top end of the island and saw the surreal vision of hundreds of birds circling the air above the lighthouse, turning around and around in this huge white light, one of the most dramatic things I've ever seen. Some of the birds had flown straight into the lighthouse and had died, so the lighthouse courtyard outside my cottage was scattered with dead birds. While my housemate helped the birdwatchers to guide the rest of the birds down from the air with these little lamps, my job was to collect the dead birds in a box, something I'll never forget - those stunned looks on their faces. But the rest of them were saved, stored in a bird-shed overnight, and then set free the following night by the birdwatchers. I've documented it in the book more or less as it happened, as it's one of those stories which perhaps would be marred through fictionalising it too much. But it's stayed with me as one of the defining moments of my residency, and also the whole notion of the 'attraction', being mesmerised by something, being unable to turn away, seemed to be quite important and symbolic for the novel as a whole - as the characters all feel the same about Bardsey Island itself.
So I've heard rumours you are the owner of a first edition copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. How did that come about?
I was lucky enough to win the inaugural Oxfam Emerging Writer of the Year Award at the Guardian Hay Festival, and as part of my prize I was given that book, which apparently I was seen "hugging" at the end of the award ceremony! As another part of my prize I've been performing in all sorts of different events for Oxfam Bookfest all over the country, which is a great opportunity to go into their specialist bookshops and urge people to donate books to Oxfam. It's such a simple, worthwhile thing to do - and you can now find copies of Twenty Thousand Saints there at a bargain price! I love browsing in second hand bookshops anyway, because you come across real gems (I found one book there recently which actually lead me towards my next novel, but that's another story), and in buying books from Oxfam you are also contributing to some of their really worthwhile causes, like their recent campaign to combat the effects of climate change on poor communities, which is making huge strides in those countries most affected.
Has the recent trip to Washington DC had much of an effect on your view of America then?
I feel like I'm always in America! I've been five times now, mostly for work related things or readings. I was invited to the North American Festival of Wales in Chicago last year and Washington this year, and I will say that being in Chicago in August 2008 when things were really heating up with Obama's campaign, was a very exciting experience indeed. To think they've had this awfully inept president for so long and to have someone like Obama there now, it's so wonderful! So seeing the Whitehouse was a great moment for me - to be proud , rather than disgusted by what goes on in there. But the recent visit, sponsored by the Welsh Academy, as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (where Wales was a guest nation) was a truly great experience - there are so many links between Wales and America - and we certainly need to build on those connections as a nation.
You've had a busy year so far, with a real heavy focus on public appearances and readings. When you do sit down to write at the end of it all, do you know what's going to appear on the page yet?
Writers have odd lives....the more success you have, the less time you have to write! I've been asked to give so many readings this year that my focus on writing has diminished, and I feel like I need space to work things out and get writing again. I am working on a novel at the moment, which is crawling along, and I've decided not to make a meticulous plan (like I did with TTS), of what's going to happen in it - rather work organically from a bunch of interesting characters I've started putting together. I'm now on the second chapter and just bumbling along, quite happy to be roaming around a book not knowing what on earth will happen next. But after three or four chapters, I always start hatching a plan, so I'll let you know when it happens!
And finally, I know people always want to ask authors this (and are almost always left flatly disappointed by the answer)... what are you reading right now, today?
I'm reading Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruis Zafon. I feel like I've been reading it forever, as my concentration span is minimal at the moment - an intense read, but one I'm enjoying very much. But I love books about libraries, mysteries, I love reading ABOUT reading. I'm such a geek.
Previously: Trevor Byrne talks with Tom Anderson.
