Geraint Roberts - Ramblings of a would-be published novelist

Where is 'there'?

'There' is in the hills of Mid Wales, where the yellow-green grass fades to piles of grey rock dragged from beneath the ground.
'There' is the site of an industry, now departed and the men and women who made it happen over a hundred years ago.
'There' has water, everywhere. In the ground, running from lakes, through leats to power the huge waterwheels that were the mechanics of the industry. Coal was expensive, but water was cheap. It rains a lot in the hills over winter...
'There' once produced silver, lead and zinc to aid the economy of this land. An industry long-gone and a hardy people long gone, living from mine to chapel and back to mine.
I did some research on the mine and the more I read, the more the story grew that could be told. The longer it went on, the more the characters built up and took over, so the industry became a background rather than the subject.

It's a place that I dream of, it's a place that draws me and a place that haunts me. Wonder what the old boys thought of it...

posted by Geraint @ 1:22 pm