Siân James (novelist)
Siân James (20 September 1930 – 21 July 2021)[1] was a Welsh novelist, academic and translator, who wrote in English. Her third novel, A Small Country, is seen as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature. Her 1996 short-story collection Not Singing Exactly won the English-language category in Wales Book of the Year,[1] the first book by a woman to do so.
Birth and academic posts[edit]
James, born in Coed-y-bryn in Ceredigion, attended the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She was a Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and of the Welsh Academy. She taught on the University of Glamorgan's Masters' degree in Creative Writing.[1] She was later awarded an honorary doctorate by the university for her contribution to literature in Wales.[1]
Writing career[edit]
Siân James twice won the Yorkshire Post Prize, for her first and second novels One Afternoon and Yesterday. One Afternoon was republished in 2023.[2] Her third novel A Small Country, has come to be regarded as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature.[3][4] In 2006, A Small Country was adapted as a Welsh-language TV series, Calon Gaeth, which won the 2007 Bafta Cymru award for Best Drama/Drama Serial for Television.[5]
James translated Kate Roberts's novel Y Byw Sy'n Cysgu into English as The Awakening.[6] She also published a memoir, The Sky Over Wales, in 1997. In the same year, her short-story collection Not Singing Exactly won the Wales Book of the Year award.
Family[edit]
In 1958 Siân James married the Welsh Shakespearean actor Emrys James and set up a home with him in London and later Worcestershire. They had four children, William, Owen, Jo and Anna.[7] Emrys James died in 1989.[1]
Works[edit]
- One Afternoon (1975) (Reprinted by Persephone Books in 2023)
- Yesterday (1978)
- A Small Country (1979)
- Another Beginning (1979)
- Dragons and Roses (1983)
- A Dangerous Time (1984)
- Love and War (1994)
- Storm at Arberth (1994)
- Not Singing Exactly (collected short stories, 1996)
- Two Loves (1997)
- The Sky Over Wales (memoir, 1997)
- Summer Storm (1998)
- Second Chance (2000)
- Outside Paradise (short stories, 2001)
- Summer Shadows (2004)
- Return to Hendre Ddu (2009)
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Tony Curtis (9 August 2021). "Siân James obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
- ^ "One Afternoon". Persephone. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
- ^ Meic Stephens, A Book of Wales: an Anthology (J. M. Dent, 1987)
- ^ Tony Curtis, Wales at War: Critical Essays on Literature and Art (Seren, 2007)
- ^ Bafta Cymru
- ^ "The Awakening". Seren. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- ^ Jones, Catherine (30 November 2001). "A long life in words". Western Mail. Cardiff: Western Mail and Echo Ltd: 13.
Further reading[edit]
- Diana Wallace. "Inventing Welsh Writing in English". In The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature (Geraint Evans, Helen Fulton, eds), pp. 557–575 (Cambridge University Press; 2019) ISBN 9781107106765 doi:10.1017/9781316227206.030
External links[edit]
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