Niall Griffiths – författare

On leaving school a sixteen-year-old boy goes to live with his uncle on a remote Welsh hill-farm. His aunt has recently committed suicide after losing her livestock in the foot-and-mouth epidemic and his uncle has turned, once again, to the bottle. The boy is a spiritual savant: an unwitting repository of folk memory from the margins, barely educated but possessed of extraordinary insights; barely literate but able to speak a language of his own - a poetry laden with Pagan and Christian myth. He is unaware that he is gifted and unaware of what he knows. But during one of his ecstatic trances, the boy learns that he has an appointed role in the world, which he must discover for himself. During an episode of brutal and climactic violence, he does exactly that.Told through the boy's internal monologue of beauty and damage, Runt is a powerful, disturbing and moving novel that reinvigorates the language of fiction and illuminates domestic tragedy with a penetrating epic light.

Everything goes wrong from the start. The money's been stolen from the remote North Wales post office, but Darren's been over-enthusiastic with the lump hammer. The elderly sub-postmistress lies in a coma. When Darren and Alastair get back to Liverpool only to have the money stolen from them- when a consignment of pure cocaine is added to the mix, along with some seriously dangerous criminals - things really get out of hand, and stay that way until the story finally crashes to its grisly conclusion.

Sixteen-year-old Grace has dreams, and she knows how to make them come true: a little silicone and surgery here and there –nose, breasts, lips, hair, teeth, nails.Then with the right clothes and a new tan she’ll be ready: ready to be seen, consumed and adored by millions. Grace will become a celebrity.Someone, though, remembers her as an ordinary, pretty schoolgirl living in a rural paradise: a place of simple, natural beauty. When he sees how utterly Grace has changed, he realises how far the world has fallen since those days. The collision of their two lives, their two very different trajectories, can only end in catastrophe.

Robbed of his ancestral home - a near-derelict hovel in the mountains of west Wales - Ianto pledges revenge not only on the English yuppies who have turned his grandmother's cottage into a weekenders' barbecue party but on all those who have violated him and the land that is his. This latest act of colonial oppression and desecration triggers his lurid and strange imagination into unspeakable savagery - embodying our most primal fears of physical threat, a world beyond our control.

A newcomer has arrived in a small Welsh seaside town - a one-armed Liverpudlian. Seeking to rebuild his life, if not his body, he is attempting to lead a life here unlike any he's lived before: a normal one - shopping, gardening, signing on, visiting friends, all the usual diurnal activities.Over a hundred miles to the north, however, two men in shellsuits are leaving Liverpool, heading south in a rickety old car. They have been sent by their gang-boss to wreak terrible, violent revenge, but have only a rough idea of their quarry: a one-armed man, maybe living somewhere in west Wales, in a small town by the sea.

In the late 1990s, a group of young drifters from various parts of Britain find themselves washed up together in a small town on the west coast of Wales, fixed between mountains and sea. Here, they both explore and attempt to overcome those yearnings and addictions which have brought them to this place: promiscuity, drugs, alcohol, petty crime, the intense and angry search for the meaning which they feel life lacks at the arse-end of this momentous century. A novel about the dispossessed and disenfranchised, about people with no further to fall, Grits is also resolutely about the spirit of the individual, and each character's story is told in their own rich, powerful dialect. Through their voices, the novel charts this chapter in their lives, presenting, with humour and rage and a deep underlying sadness, a picture of the diversity and waste that is life in Britain today.A work of power, passion and enormous originality, Grits describes - in language both mythic and demotic - ways of living that appear squalid but which aspire to the spiritual. As a novel that speaks for an under-class and a sub-culture, it stands comparison with Cain's Book and Trainspotting.

A bar in Liverpool January 2nd 200:VICTOR meets a girl. Some time later that night he is in her bed. This, he thinks, is the best sex he's ever had.KELLY meets a boy. Some time later that night he is in her bed. This, she thinks, is the best sex she's ever had.So the story of Kelly + Victor progresses, through two mirror-image narratives: a story of the growth and spiralling intensity of sexual obsession, traced to its inevitable, devastating conclusion. Set against a backdrop of urban despair, spiritual absence and a world swamped with pornography, this is a novel about yearning for union, for purity, and for magic and mystery in a world that denies them all. And it is, above everything, a love story - or all that 21st century Britain will allow of one.

**WINNER OF THE 2020 WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD**'A magnificently gifted writer' Irvine WelshA Welsh community witnesses a strange vision: the huge spectre of a woman floating over a ridge. Is it a collective hallucination, a meteorological phenomenon, or something supernatural? The individuals living in these mountains are already battling their own demons - of drink, drugs, domestic violence, depression - how could an apparition unite these crushed people or their fragmented country?This is a novel that gives voices to the marginalised, the dispossessed, the forgotten. An examination of modern humanity's desperate need to live meaningfully and vividly in a mediated world - where individual autonomy is lost and the collective heart is atomised and exploited. Disturbing and unforgettable, darkly funny and deeply moving, it is written in a charged language that is vernacular, lyrical and hieratic all at once. Broken Ghost is a howl of anguish and a summoning of gods.'Combines myth, drug culture and iconoclastic political vision in a wild music that's also a call to arms' New Statesman, Books of the Year'Griffiths has forged a chimerical piece of radical fiction, a Blake-like reverie on the possibility (or not) of spiritual regeneration in our time.' Guardian'This is a book powered along with ferocious momentum by the raw nervous energy of its characters, whose demotic, alternating narratives seem to muscle bodily off the page.' Daily Mail

OfTalons and Teeth is a historical novelset in pre-industrial Wales, where human love struggles to survive amidstsqualor, serfdom, and the rise of early capitalism.Keythemes include:- Amining village oppressed by both religious conformity and the birth of a newcapitalist order-Sion, a metalworker, embarks on an illicit relationship with Katherine, thewife of the mine owner's servant, challenging the transactional nature ofrelationships in a world driven by exploitation- Ablend of political anger, Celtic mysticism, and a celebration of the humanspirit’s desire for love in the face of greed and oppressionThisnovel explores the moment when people and the natural world were reduced tomere property, and when Mammon became the ruling force of society.  Of Talons and Teeth is a powerfulmeditation on love, resistance, and the brutal forces of history.

Robbed of his ancestral home - a near-derelict hovel in the mountains of west Wales - Ianto pledges revenge not only on the English yuppies who have turned his grandmother's cottage into a weekenders' barbecue party but on all those who have violated him and the land that is his. This latest act of colonial oppression and desecration triggers his lurid and strange imagination into unspeakable savagery - embodying our most primal fears of physical threat, a world beyond our control.

Everything goes wrong from the start. The money's been stolen from the remote North Wales post office, but Darren's been over-enthusiastic with the lump hammer. The elderly sub-postmistress lies in a coma. When Darren and Alastair get back to Liverpool only to have the money stolen from them- when a consignment of pure cocaine is added to the mix, along with some seriously dangerous criminals - things really get out of hand, and stay that way until the story finally crashes to its grisly conclusion.

**WINNER OF THE 2020 WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD**'A magnificently gifted writer' Irvine WelshA Welsh community witnesses a strange vision: the huge spectre of a woman floating over a ridge. Is it a collective hallucination, a meteorological phenomenon, or something supernatural? The individuals living in these mountains are already battling their own demons - of drink, drugs, domestic violence, depression - how could an apparition unite these crushed people or their fragmented country?This is a novel that gives voices to the marginalised, the dispossessed, the forgotten. An examination of modern humanity's desperate need to live meaningfully and vividly in a mediated world - where individual autonomy is lost and the collective heart is atomised and exploited. Disturbing and unforgettable, darkly funny and deeply moving, it is written in a charged language that is vernacular, lyrical and hieratic all at once. Broken Ghost is a howl of anguish and a summoning of gods.'Combines myth, drug culture and iconoclastic political vision in a wild music that's also a call to arms' New Statesman, Books of the Year'Griffiths has forged a chimerical piece of radical fiction, a Blake-like reverie on the possibility (or not) of spiritual regeneration in our time.' Guardian'This is a book powered along with ferocious momentum by the raw nervous energy of its characters, whose demotic, alternating narratives seem to muscle bodily off the page.' Daily Mail

In population terms, Liverpool isn't a vast city (dwarfed by Birmingham, say), but it looms colossal in the history (recorded and mythical) of the British Isles, and in fact the world. "Real Liverpool" is Niall Griffiths' antidote to the flood of mawkish twaddle that will appear in the build-up to 2008 when Liverpool is European City of Culture.It showcases Griffiths' love/hate relationship with the city, its maritime and merchant histories, class divisions, sectarian divides, Celtic influences, and the siege mentality underpinning the celebrated Scouse humour. Nor does he flinch from Liverpool's dark side: the drugs, the urban blight, the fallout from Thatcherism, the internecine violence. Jamie Bulger, Heysel, Hillsborough, the Dockers' Strike, the Toxeth Riots, all of these and more are discussed."Real Liverpool" is underpinned by a strong autobiographical element which details the author's birth and formative years in the city, his movement away from it, and the abiding pull it exerts. In addition, Griffiths interviews many people closely connected to the city, from personal friends and family members to artists and workers. From the Wirral to Warrington, Anfield to Everton, Bottle to Diddyland, Griffiths criss-crosses the city by the Ferry and through the Tunnels, from John Lennon airport to the racecourse and down the docks, building a picture of a city which, whatever its faults, is never dull.

New Stories from the Mabinogion is an exciting series of contemporary novels by leading authors, reworking ancient Celtic myth cycles. The first two stories by Owen Sheers and Russell Celyn Jones were published in October 2009 to great acclaim, with reviews in The Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian. October 2010 is the turn of Niall Griffiths and Gwyneth Lewis.One of the less well known Mabinogion stories, 'Rhonabwy's Dream' tells the story of a man who falls asleep in a filthy hovel and has dreams of Arthurian splendour, knights, battles and games of chess. In Niall Griffiths' hands this tale of duty and the responsibilities of power becomes the story of a squaddie bound for the Iraq war, and a biting commentary on the tribes of twenty-first century Britain. In the second part of the book Griffiths reworks the Mabinogion's 'Dream of Macsen Wledig', a classic myth of an Emperor (Macsen) and a beautiful princess (Helen) whose family saves his empire from a usurper. In his typical trademark style, Griffiths reworks this story of love and loyalty as the dream of a seedy South Walian nightclub owner, Max, intent in revenge on a rival North Walian gang."You might not expect to find Niall Griffiths, a writer whose novels include Grits, Sheepshagger and Stump, poking around among obscure variants of Arthurian legend. Yet he states that however far he travels from Wales, 'the Mabinogion follows me there like luggage'. Griffiths points out that his ancient source material contains highly developed elements of satire: "Not until Monty Python and the Holy Grail would Arthurian myth and its notions of chivalry face such bombardment"; and his stories acquire a unique form of gritty Celtic realism, in which a young soldier bound for Iraq takes a potent tranquiliser and experiences a lurid dream in which a sinister, grinning overlord plays a barbaric game of chess with the infidel. The accompanying tale transforms Maxen Wledig, emperor of Rome, into Max, the big cheese of a nightclub called Rome, who unwisely falls for a seductive extra 'in a film based on some old national poem or something'. Griffiths also supplies the best sign-off of the series so far: 'The story ends here. It's not over, it's not finished. But it ends here.'"Alfred Hickling, The GuardianNiall Griffiths lives near Aberystwyth, and has published six novels to date. His 2004 novel, Stump, won the Welsh Book of the Year Award. His novel Sheepshagger was published to critical acclaim in 2002 (Vintage). Niall is also the author of the offbeat, psychogeographic guides Real Aberystwyth (2008) and Real Liverpool (2009), also published by Seren.

In 1976, Niall's family emigrated to Australia, as part of the GBP10 Pom scheme. He lived there for 3 years, moving from Brisbane to Perth in a souped-up station wagon. 30 years later, he returned to retrace his steps. This is his memoir.

Jerry is excited about taking his young son Stevie to watch the big match.But when trouble breaks out between the fans, Jerry and Stevie can’t escape the shouting, fighting and flying glass. And then Stevie gets lost in the crowd.What will Jerry do next? And what will happen to Stevie?SERIES INFORMATIONThis inspiring story from award-winning author Niall Griffiths is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills.Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to practice their reading skills and build up their reading confidence. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language.The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships.Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books