13:30 – 14:30

In July 2022, Gary Raymond wrote the first article to be published jointly in both Wales Arts Review and the Western Mail. It was titled “The Golden Age is Now: How Welsh Writers Can Help Redefine Our Nation”. In it, Raymond argued that “brilliant books written by inquisitive minds… form the beating heart of any confident nation” and that Wales was on the cusp of a period of “imperative vitality in the way it thinks, and writes, about itself and the wider world”. A year later, he talks about whether his perspective has changed, the impact of that article, and what he has learned about Welsh writing ahead of the publication on his history of Welsh literature in 2024.

Gary Raymond is a novelist, playwright, critic, editor, and broadcaster. He is presenter of The Review Show for BBC Radio Wales and is executive editor of Wales Arts Review. He is a regular writer on film, music, literature, and theatre, and can often be heard on BBC Radio 3 and 4 as an arts commentator and reviewer. His novels include For Those Who Come After (Parthian, 2015), The Golden Orphans (Parthian, 2018), and Angels of Cairo (Parthian, 2021). He is also author of the fiction newsletter JellyBread which is published via Substack. In 2020, he published the non-fiction book, How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (Parthian). He is also writer and presenter of BBC radio documentaries How Tom Jones Conquered America (2020) and How Great was How Green was My Valley (2021). His first play in twenty years, A Beautiful Rhythm of Life and Death, about the life of Welsh writer Dorothy Edwards, will be produced by Company of Sirens in May of 2023, and his next book, a history of Welsh literature, will be published by Calon books in 2024.

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