Photograph: Philip Pullman Praises North Wales Classic

Philip Pullman, much loved and acclaimed author of the His Dark Materials, the first book of which (Northern Lights) was made into a film The Golden Compass (2009), has chosen to write a foreword for one of his favourite writers, Stead Jones for the Library of Wales series.

He writes, “When I read it… I was enchanted with it, not only for the memories of place and atmosphere it evoked so skillfully, not only for the light touch and the sympathetic voice of the narrator, but mainly for the brilliantly drawn portrait of an extraordinary individual.”

As a child, Philip Pullman went to school in Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech. He still has strong roots in North Wales, receiving a Honorary Degree from Bangor University in 2007 and recently becoming a Fellow of the Welsh Academy. It is perhaps no wonder then that he feels a connection with Stead Jones’ novel Make Room for the Jester which takes place in the North Wales seaside town of Porthmawr.

Make Room for the Jester will be available from the 3rd March to mark World Book Day this year. Make Room for the Jester is a remarkable and welcome rediscovery and a great addition to the Library of Wales series, which aims to republish classic Welsh texts in English.

There’s fraud and farce, drunkenness and temperance in the wartime work. Lew Morgan and Gladstone Williams are two friends trying to make sense of their lives over a long hot summer. It will be a summer that changes their lives. When the charming, but drunk, Ashton Vaughan returns home he triggers a chain reaction of ruin, scandal and death which will change the town forever.

If you are looking for something to read for World Book Day on the 3rd March, then you couldn’t go much better than Make Room for the Jester

Written by: Eluned Gramich
Monday, February 28, 2011