Welsh-American Author Writes Novel after feeling “ludicrously patriotic”

[Ceri Shaw]

A Welsh author living in America was overcome by emotion twenty five years since leaving his homeland and became “ludicrously patriotic”, so decided to write a novel glorifying Wales. Peter Griffiths is a Welsh-speaking author from Cynheidre near Llanelli, moved to Denver, Colorado in 1972, but in the last few years has gravitated back to Wales.

Peter Griffiths said: “In 1990, while driving from Heathrow to Bala, climbing the Berwyn from Llangynog, I distinctly remember being moved by the grandeur, and feeling ludicrously patriotic. How could I not write a novel glorifying Wales, its people, and its language? It would be aimed mainly at my circle people in the States, who go weak at the knees over Scotland and Ireland, but rarely over Wales.”

The novel is called, Tongue Tied, and is set in the Tryweryn valley and the Rhondda. The novel considers how language has had an unifying and some times divisive role over the centuries. The author said: “One is Welsh if one feels Welsh. The novel recognises the tension that arises at times between the majority of Welsh people who can’t speak Welsh and the minority who can; and the divisiveness of the language in these instances is compared, with sadness, to its crucial unifying role over the millennia.”

Tongue Tied is published by Y Lolfa on St David’s Day. The author now shares his time between Swansea and Denver. This is his first novel.