Arianwen

Arianwen is someone for whom life comes easily. Hers is an ordinary life, in a hidden valley in West Wales during the first half of the 20th century, filled with the small pleasures that help us bear life's little tragedies.

But in a fast-changing world, Arianwen must learn the hard way. It is endurance that will see her through real adversity.

Elegantly written with an understated humour and a lyricism that reflects the natural rhythms of the Welsh language, Arianwen is the captivating portrait of one woman who represents us all. Angela Johnson was previously shortlisted for the Impress Prize, and is also an award wining poet. Angela says, "I grew up hearing stories from my Dadcu. As he worked he told stories, in Welsh, of course. English was for church on Sundays like his only suit. It was many years later before I found out why, in a community of rabid chapel goers, grey suits blending into the bleakness of granite chapels, he was an Anglican, an alien in that place of holy water and the liturgy of High Church and the sun insinuating itself through the stained glass, his Welsh voice intonating ancient beliefs. I sometimes wonder whether he was a true believer. He seemed too astute an observer of life for such credos. An observer, yes, that's what I have set out to be. Just like Dadcu."