Six of One – Alison Layland

One writer

From when I was given The Hobbit as a small child to reading Lord of the Rings as a young teenager, followed by The Silmarillion and his biography, I was fascinated by Tolkien. So far I haven’t ventured into writing fantasy, but his influence on my writing life was huge in one particular, though indirect, way. As a linguist and philologist it was Tolkien who first sparked my fascination with medieval language and mythology, especially Celtic. Fast forward almost twenty years, when we moved to Wales in 1997, I was thrilled to discover the village we were moving to was Welsh-speaking and immediately devoted my spare time from work and family to learning the language.

And what does this have to do with my writing? Well, I came to writing later in life. Although I’ve been an avid reader since before I can remember and have told myself stories from an early age, I was always self-conscious about writing stories down and presenting them to the world, and believed I would satisfy my desire to use language and words by translating, which I eventually did. It was learning Welsh that unlocked my creativity as a writer.

One person

In terms of inspiring my writing, I’d say my Welsh tutor back in the late 1990s, Cyril Jones. I finally overcame whatever internal barrier was holding me back, and started creative writing, after our Welsh language course finished, but a number of us wanted to carry on – our tutor, Cyril, a renowned poet and creative writing tutor, offered to continue the classes as a creative writing course. Can I extend this question to two people? Nia Rhosier, who sadly died two years ago, supported us in our Welsh language learning and creative writing, and formed Cylch Llên Maldwyn, a small writing group, in the historic chapel where she was warden, and became a dear friend and supporter of my writing.

For whatever reason, I found that writing in a language that wasn’t my mother tongue enabled me to silence my inner critic. I also think that a second-language perspective maybe gave me the inspiration to play with words more than I would have in English. Whatever the reasons, for a while Welsh was exclusively my language of creativity. I wrote short stories, flash fiction and even a novel (which was never published). I didn’t write in English until I translated some of my work for friends and family to read.

One event

Winning the Coron (crown) at the Powys Eisteddfod in Oswestry, 2002. This was for a collection of short stories; I also won the short story competition at the National Eisteddfod the same year. The Powys Eisteddfod, although regional, is similar to the National Eisteddfod in that it has its own Gorsedd – the society that promotes Welsh language and culture and is responsible for the main prizes and colourful ceremonies at the Eisteddfod. Entries are submitted anonymously and the winner’s name is called out during the ceremony. There’s a moment’s silence before the winner stands and is only then revealed to the public before being accompanied to the stage for the ceremony. It felt so special: not only was it an affirmation of my writing – of which I sometimes have to remind myself when things aren’t going well! – but I also felt truly accepted as a part of the Welsh-language cultural scene.

One place

Tŷ Newydd, the Literature Wales creative writing centre, has played a big part in my writing journey. In the early days I was supported and encouraged on some of their courses by Welsh authors such as Manon Rhys, Eira Lewis Roberts and Mihangel Morgan. The house and courses have a really special atmosphere, and I have since been there on retreats and even led a couple of writing workshops there myself, for Disability Arts Wales.

Tŷ Newydd was also the place where I received another award, the annual Translation Challenge, which led to my first published book, a translation of Haitian author Yanick Lahens’ novel The Colour of Dawn, which was published a few months before my own debut, Someone Else’s Conflict.

One album

My dad was a great influence as I was growing up, on both the books I read and the music I listened to. Although we had quite different tastes, the overlap of our Venn diagram was large. In terms of books, he introduced me to all manner of novels, from science fiction to crime novels (an excellent combination…), and musically, his love of jazz developed in the 1970s to prog rock. A kind of family ‘our tune’ was Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, which will always remind me of him and the various wonders he introduced me to.

One piece of music

I’m one of those writers who makes playlists for books they write (see a delve into my playlist for Riverflow here.

So what I’m currently influenced by depends on what I’m writing at the moment. Currently it’s the mysterious and enigmatic Woodcat by Tunng [link: https://open.spotify.com/track/2956uJokVIP4ItRrbDKlOG?si=f951e51f61264547%5D, which inspired a character in my work-in-progress. Going full circle, after my debut set in my home county of Yorkshire, and my second novel located on the borders, my third is set firmly on Welsdh soil – albeit the soil of a fictional Welsh island…

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Find out more about Alison Layland at her website www.alayland.uk or her Crime Cymru page.