Faber signs King's 'landmark' Welsh history

EMBARGO THURSDAY

Faber has signed Brittle with Relics: A History of Wales, 1962–1997, billed as a “landmark” new work by Richard King.

Editorial director Alexa von Hirschberg acquired world all language rights from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown. It will be published in spring 2022.

King's book examines 30 years in Wales as it experienced the simultaneous effects of deindustrialisation, the subsequent loss of employment and community cohesion and the struggle for its language and identity.

The publisher said: “The book is written as an oral history, a narrative form that amplifies the grain of the Welsh voice and its particular inflections, vocabulary and accents. Drawn from over 100 interviews with many people familiar to the general reader, including Neil Kinnock, Leanne Wood and Rhys Ifans, and many who are not. The result is a rich and powerful examination of the differences in lived experience.”

Von Hirschberg said: "Brittle with Relics is a landmark work from an extraordinarily gifted writer. This history is long overdue and will have a profound impact far beyond the 'tempestuous borders' of the Welsh nation."

King is the author of How Soon Is Now?, Original Rockers and The Lark Ascending, all published by Faber. He was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the past 20 years has lived in the rural county of Powys, Mid Wales.