Author shares alternate Encyclopaedia of Wales inspired by novel

Stephen Price

One of Wales’ most celebrated authors is sharing an alternative to the Encyclopaedia of Wales inspired by her latest novel and friendship with one of the giants of Welsh writing and poetry.

To coincide with the paperback publication of The House of Water, author Fflur Dafydd is releasing selected entries from the encyclopaedia that sits at the heart of the novel.

Part factual record, part emotional reckoning, it offers an alternative way of understanding Cymru — not as a set of definitions, but as a lived experience.

Several entries have already been shared publicly on the author’s Instagram including A – Awen, B – Bridge & C – Coupling.

Threaded throughout The House of Water, the encyclopaedia is written by one of the novel’s central characters, Eurov Griffri. An academic by training and obsessive by nature, Eurov attempts to catalogue Wales using real histories, real figures and real cultural reference points. But instead of neutrality, he brings feeling. Instead of distance, he brings himself.

The entries move freely between an exploration of language, mythology, relationships, identity and loss. Rather than treating Wales as something fixed or knowable, Eurov’s encyclopaedia asks what it’s like to live inside it — and each entry also provides a valuable clue about the mystery unfolding at the heart of the novel, propelling us forward to discover the truth about what really happened during one tragic night at the Griffri family home.

Selected entries are being released publicly alongside the paperback publication, bringing one of the novel’s most distinctive and ambitious elements into the open and allowing readers to encounter Eurov’s voice directly.

Inspiration

The inspiration to create an alternative encyclopaedia of Wales came from Dafydd’s friend and former colleague at Swansea University, the late poet and writer Nigel Jenkins, one of the editors of the Encyclopaedia of Wales. (University of Wales Press, 2008).

Dafydd said:
“Nigel was extremely passionate about Wales taking ownership of its own facts and history, and he also joked that trying to condense it to encyclopaedic entries was an insurmountable task, often playfully abbreviating the term Encyclopaedia to ‘Psycho’ when I would ask him how it was going, suggesting there was a certain madness attached to the whole process”

“Writing an encyclopaedia is a huge labour of love – it requires patience, precision and belief in the value of what you’re recording – and his dedication to it inspired me to think about what lay in between the facts and the histories – what emotions, values, and passions were felt by those behind such huge endeavours, and how indebted we are to those who do this work for us, labouring away so we can know who we are. It also made me think about how Wales could shape a person, and influence who they become and how their story unfolds. Is it ever really possible to ‘take Wales out of the person’?”

Praise

The novel’s innovative encyclopaedia was highly praised by Carole Burns in the latest edition of the New Welsh Review, who stated: “Dafydd is ambitious in how she explores Welshness. It would be a risk for lesser writers…but Dafydd avoids any possible cliché.. (she) takes on questions of what it means to be Welsh head on, and with subtlety.”

Originally published in hardback by Hodder & Stoughton, The House of Water received widespread critical acclaim and was named among the Top Ten Thriller and Crime Reads by both the i paper and the Belfast Telegraph.

Writer Russell T Davies hailed the novel as “magnificent”, noting that “the fact that it’s so Welsh sings out of it, psychologically, intimately, textually, metaphorically,” with other reviewers also praising its psychological depth, cultural insight and haunting sense of place.

The paperback edition of The House of Water is published on 12 February and is also available in hardback, e book and audio.

Selected encyclopaedia entries will be shared across Dafydd’s social media channels as part of the paperback release, offering readers a new way into the novel’s inner world — and an alternative lens through which to view the country also known – according to Eurov – erroneously, as Wales.

To mark the release of the paperback of the novel, Fflur Dafydd will be on tour over coming months in locations across Wales and the United Kingdom.

Tour details & tickets: www.fflurdafydd.com/events    

Follow Fflur Dafydd on Instagram and Facebook.