Wales Book of the Year Focus: Francesca Reece
Ask the Author: Francesca Reece
When did you first realise that you wanted to be an author?
I was always a big reader and writer when I was a kid, and then when I was in Year Four at Ysgol Llanbedr I was selected to be part of the Denbighshire Writing Squad, which was this incredible programme run by Eileen Jones and Bethan Hughes, from the Denbighshire LEA and Denbighshire Libraries respectively. Once a term, the kids involved would get to spend a day doing a creative writing workshop with a published children’s author, usually held at Ruthin Library. It was such a wonderful, formative experience – we met so many brilliant writers (obviously wildly exciting for state school kids from rural north Wales), and it showed us that pursuing writing was possible. Bethan and Eileen were the best, and so important to me growing up!
What inspires you?
Other writers and novels, life experiences, people telling stories about their lives in conversation, brief encounters with people who flit in and out of your life, memories, music…
Who’s your hero and why?
The French chanteuse, Barbara, because she was such an extraordinary artist and so completely herself. Sybille Bedford, because she knew how to live. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because she taught me about dialogue and saved the world a lot.
Your favourite place on earth and why?
I have so, so many favourite places but off the top of my head I’d say somewhere I can write my diary if alone, or consume aperitivo if with others. Ideally both activities al fresco and in sun.
What are you currently reading?
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun.
What inspired the idea for your book?
I knew I wanted to write a novel about urban-rural divides, as inspired by my own life trajectory which took me from a tiny village, Clawddnewydd, to London at the age of eighteen, and then to Paris for most of my twenties. I was also very preoccupied with the idea of property and ownership at the time, and one day the image that now makes up the prologue of the book – of Geth waking up at Tŷ Gwydr and the reader slowly realising that the house doesn’t actually ‘belong’ to him – came to me almost exactly as it is. I gave him the same job that my dad had done because it was something I knew so well on a very visceral level (the way he smelt, for example, when he came home from work). It was also handy for research…! As soon as I knew I was going to be writing about second homes in North Wales, I knew that llosgi tai haf would have to play a role; cue the 1980s subplot. And finally, during the first lockdown, I wrote what was essentially a portrait of Geth’s adolescence, and when Olwen appeared, it became clear that I also had a love story on my hands. Everything else sort of spiralled out from there.
Will you read a piece from it please?!
Who should read your book and why?
Every kid I met in Fresher’s Week in London in 2010 who said something to the tune of, ‘I love Wales, I did my Duke of Edinburgh there, it’s like Scotland but no one knows about it.’ For obvious reasons…
How does it feel to have reached the WBOTY 2025 Shortlist?
Total joy. The thing I wanted more than anything in writing this book was for it to resonate with WELSH readers, so I’m just so, so thrilled and honoured.
Do you have any other work/events in the works?
I’m currently working on an edit of my third book, which is very different! It’s a snarky comedy about left wing militants, wellness culture, hallucinogens and odious expats in Marseille…
In the words of the judges…
Praise for Glass Houses
