Niall Griffiths

Niall Griffiths
Born12 September 1966 (1966-09-12) (age 58)
Toxteth, Liverpool, England
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Alma materAberystwyth University
GenreNovel, travel
Literary movementModernism, post-modernism, transgressive fiction
Notable worksSheepshagger
Stump

Niall Griffiths (born 1966) is an English author of novels and short stories, set predominantly in Wales. His works include the novels Grits and Sheepshagger, travel guides to Aberystwyth and Liverpool, and a book of poetry. He has won the Wales Book of the Year award twice, for Stump in 2004[1] and Broken Ghost in 2020.[2]

Life

Griffiths was born in Toxteth, Liverpool, but had a long family link to Welsh roots in West Wales. As a nine-year-old boy Griffiths found a second-hand copy of a novel by Rhondda writer Ron Berry in a junk shop. Berry, who wrote from the viewpoint of the industrial working class, but in a more earthy and centred style than many of his more celebrated peers, "spoke" to Griffiths who was captured by the language and style of the writing. In future years Griffiths continued to cite Berry as a major influence, along with writers Alexander Trocchi and Hubert Selby Jr.[3] In 1976 his family emigrated to Australia, but returned three years later after his mother became homesick.[4]

Griffiths found himself in trouble with the law during his adolescence, and at the age of 15 he was sent on an Outward Bound course in Snowdonia in North Wales.[3] He found the experience uplifting and refocused him to work harder at gaining an education, eventually gaining a degree in English.[5][6][7] Griffith spent several years taking on a number of short term menial jobs before he was accepted into Aberystwyth University to study for a PhD in post-war poetry, but failed to complete the course.[3][8] He followed this by researching his first novel, which would follow disaffected and marginalised characters, living ordinary lives.[3]

Griffiths has been described as "a distinctively Welsh author".[8] He has "a fierce loyalty" to the city of his birth, but has lived "most of his life near Aberystwyth".[8] He currently lives "at the foot of a mountain in mid-Wales".[2]

Career

Griffith's debut novel, Grits, was published in 2000.[3][9] A story of addicts and drifters set in Aberystwyth, it explores "life on the disadvantaged and desperate peripheries of society" and quickly drew comparisons with Irvine Welsh.[8] Griffiths followed up Grits with Sheepshagger, a novel centred on a feral mountain boy named Ianto, which received strong reviews.[10][11] In 2002 he published Kelly + Victor, which explores the passionate sexual relationship between two clubbers which spirals towards destruction. The book was made into a film in 2012, directed by his friend Kieran Evans.[12][13]

Griffith's 2003 novel, Stump, is narrated by a one-armed Liverpudlian alcoholic trying to make a fresh start in Aberystwyth. Reviewers noted its "mesmerising command of idiom"[14] and described it as "his most economic and effective piece of fiction".[15] The Guardian said that it provides "one of the great depictions of alcoholism", and called Griffiths "an epic and, at moments, visionary writer".[16] The novel won two national awards, the Welsh Books Council Book of the Year and the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award.[1][17]

After two more novels, Wreckage and Runt, he wrote two travel guides, Real Aberystwyth, about his new home, and Real Liverpool, both edited by Peter Finch. In 2009 he wrote Ten Pound Pom, travelling back to Australia for the first time as an adult, comparing his memories spent in the country as a child with his new found experiences.[4]

He followed this with a book of prose, The Dreams of Max and Ronnie. Commissioned by Seren Books, this forms part of the New stories from the Mabinogion series, in which contemporary Welsh authors reimagine stories from the Mabinogion. The Dreams of Max and Ronnie is a version of The Dream of Rhonabwy. The series includes books by Owen Sheers, Gwyneth Lewis and Russell Celyn Jones.[3]

2013 saw Griffiths release his seventh novel, A Great Big Shining Star, his aggressive take on celebrity culture and fame. Two years later Griffiths released his first collection of poetry, Red Roar: 20 Years of Words.

In 2019, Griffiths published Broken Ghost, a novel exploring the aftermath of a vision experienced by three people on a Welsh mountain. The Guardian called it "an important novel" and described it as "a profane, passionate response to nature and to the countryside, which is rarely encountered in contemporary British fiction any more".[18] In 2020, this novel won the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award and gave Griffiths his second Wales Book of the Year award.[2]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Grits (2000 ISBN 0-224-05996-3)
  • Sheepshagger (2001 ISBN 0-09-928518-5)
  • Kelly + Victor (2002 ISBN 0-09-942205-0)
  • Stump (2003 ISBN 0-09-928758-7)
  • Wreckage (2005 ISBN 0-09-946113-7)
  • Runt (2007 ISBN 978-0-224-07123-9)
  • The Dreams of Max and Ronnie (New Stories from the Mabinogion series) (2010)
  • A Great Big Shining Star (2013)
  • Broken Ghost (2019)
  • Of Talons and Teeth (2023)

Poetry

Non-Fiction

  • Ten Pound Pom (2009)

Guide books

Prizes and awards

Critical studies

  • Aleksander Bednarski: Inherent Myth: Wales in Niall Griffiths's Fiction. Lublin: Wydnawnictwo KUL (2012).
  • Mark Schmitt: British White Trash: Figurations of Tainted Whiteness in the Novels of Irvine Welsh, Niall Griffiths and John King. Bielefeld: Transcript (2018 ISBN 978-3-8376-4101-1)

References

  1. ^ a b "Wales Book of the Year 2004". Literature Wales. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b c "Niall Griffiths' Broken Ghost wins the 2020 Wales Book of the Year Award". Literature Wales. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Niall Griffiths". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Niall Griffiths was a Ten Pound Pom for three years. He went back to Oz to see what he's missing now". Western Mail. 14 May 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  5. ^ "Griffiths, Niall, 1966-". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  6. ^ "Niall Griffiths". Wales Literature Exchange. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  7. ^ "Niall Griffiths: Between the rocks and hard places". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d "Niall Griffiths: 'the Welsh Irvine Welsh'?". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  9. ^ "Parthian's Authors". parthianbooks.com. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  10. ^ Brockway, Anthony (2004). "An Interview with Niall Griffiths". Wolf Man Knew My Father. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  11. ^ Jordan, Justine (3 February 2001). "Last exit to Aberystwyth". theguardian.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  12. ^ Johnston, Trevor (29 January 2014). "Film of the week: Kelly + Victor". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  13. ^ March, Polly (27 August 2013). "Kieran Evans on his debut film Kelly + Victor". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  14. ^ "Stump". Wales Literature Exchange. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  15. ^ "Stump by Niall Griffiths". The Independent. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  16. ^ "First the thirst, then the horror". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  17. ^ "Niall Griffiths". britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  18. ^ "Broken Ghost by Niall Griffiths review – a profane, ecstatic prayer". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

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