Inspiration comes from what we see. We have to see to want, and an author needs to really see to write.
Wales is often noted for the sheer beauty of its landscape, but just to call it beautiful is a disservice to the land. Wales is diverse and changeable, tough and uncompromising, warm and welcoming. We have high, harsh mountains, flat golden beaches, and everything in between. I am very grateful to live somewhere where I can go 20 minutes in one direction and be on the beach, or 20 minutes in the other direction and be in the mountains.
This has, of course, spilled into my writing. “The Chair” was deliberately set on Cadre Idris. I picked the mountain as somewhere that’s rural enough to believably not have phone signal, and therefore be somewhere to run to in order to avoid modern technology. But it also had to be a place where the land itself can become the enemy.
I’ve used other parts of Wales in my writing too, for example Swansea as it’s got a strong connection to the stained-glass industry, and the university engineering departments are often involved in land speed records.
When I moved to Wales, one of the places I got to know was Merthyr Tydfil and I always felt it would be a great place to kill someone – I mean somewhere to set a crime book, of course. Only I didn’t have a story to put there.
Recently, I’ve been working on a new book, this time a police procedural. If this book succeeds, there is the potential for it to become a series and that means that I needed to set it in a place that would give me sufficient scope for a range of characters and crimes.
I needed somewhere with a police presence sufficient to include a CID team – which is usually a large(ish) town or city. I needed somewhere where they could get autopsies – which for police autopsies is apparently Cardiff only at the moment, though a recent announcement is set to change that. I and wanted somewhere where I had a good mix of physical landscapes, so I could do gritty urban realism, but I also wanted wide open spaces, areas that would support some of the wilder, and more wider ranging ideas that I have in mind.
Which all brought me back to Merthyr Tydfil – the perfect place for crime.
Merthyr sits at the top left-hand of The Valleys and has a relatively new, purpose-built large police sttion. It’s at the crossroad of the north-south A470, and the east-west A485, the Heads of the Valleys Road. It’s an urban heart with easy links to Cardiff. It’s an historic area that links to the natural beauty of the Brecon Beacons.
Of courses there are also the coal fields and scars to the west, at the remains of Tower Colliery, and to the east is the road to Abergavenny and the towns down the valleys. Actually, those towns are sort of off limits as they are in the Gwent Police area, not South Wales Police as Merthyr is. Though even that provides an opportunity, there’s a lot of interesting possibilities for different police forces working together.
It also helps that Merthyr is known more widely than many Welsh towns. And that it’s within driving distance for me to go do some research if as and when I need to.
So, while Merthyr Tydfil took its time, it finally told me that what story it wanted me to write. All I have to do now, is sell it.
See more from GB Williams at gailbwilliams.co.uk
