The Writers of Wales Database

WOOD, ROMY

Email: Romyanna.thomas@talk21.com

Romy gained a BEd from Homerton College Cambridge in 1995, and spent ten years teaching in secondary schools, where as Head of Drama she staged productions from “Macbeth” to “Les Mis.” In 2006, she gained a distinction in the MA at Cardiff University in 'The Teaching & Practice of Creative Writing' and continued to write under a bursary from Academi. She was a lecturer in Life Writing at UWIC and now teaches Creative Writing for the Open University and facilitates therapeutic writing groups. Her first novel, Bamboo Grove was published by Alcemi in October 2010. For more information, click here. Romy lives in Cardiff with her husband and three children. She is a Member of The Welsh Academy.

Reviews:
With respect to Bamboo Grove (Alcemi, 2010)

"…Romy Wood has assembled a cast of vivid and uninhibited characters, and constructed around them a story that buzzes with insight and imagination. The narrative snakes between its main characters and the locations of London and Bangkok before its impressive and unexpected denouement. There are moments of great beauty in Bamboo Grove – and intimations of a deep affinity with the big themes that are tackled here; environmental responsibility and escape, mental illness and the policing of joy. A very fine debut…"
Richard Gwyn

"…An unusual and engaging novel packed with a cosmopolitan cast of colourful characters involved in dubious schemes across two sides of the world, Bamboo Grove is as unpredictable as the tremendous event that forms its climax…"
Lindsay Clarke

Selected Publications:
Bamboo Grove (Alcemi, 2010)




Bamboo Grove (Alcemi, 2010)

A pseudo-Buddhist monk, an illegal immigrant, a teenager with precarious mental health and a quixotic pair of young businessmen chancing their luck. All of them intricately, messily bound by the unique and rather dubious organization that is Eastern Vision. The empire has one foot in the seedier realms of metaphysical Surrey and the other amongst the slums and skyscrapers of Bangkok. From faux-Eastern objets to real estate, client-centred sperm-donation to gypsy magic, the tangled fortunes of Eastern Vision go from strength to strength and back again.

Yingyang, first child of the dysfunctional troupe, tells us the story; from the day her mother Jessica tripped on a paving slab and never looked back, to her own quirky upbringing and island exile. In Bangkok, enigmatic entrepreneur Bristol takes the helm and in London, Romanian refugee Pippa claws her dainty way up the ladder to exploit the company’s potential for her own ends. Moses, who prefers not to mention that he was born in Surrey, surrounds himself in mystic exoticism, building his own outrageous business-within-a-business. As they battle for control – of the company, of each other and of themselves – they hurtle towards an end none of them could have predicted.

A black comedy about sex, financial boom and bust, corruption, cultural collision, fertility and altruism.

To purchase this title from Alcemi, please click on its front cover