News Archive

 ’Calon Gaeth’ is awarded

The four-part television drama ’Calon Gaeth’, which Stan Barstow co-wrote with Diana Griffiths, received a Welsh BAFTA for Best Drama on the evening of Sunday the 27th April, 2008. ’Calon Gaeth’ was dramatised from the novel A Small Country by Sian James, also an Academi Fellow. Diana Griffiths is a member of the Academi Members’ Committee and Stan Barstow has recently been made an Academi Fellow.

A Small Country (Collins, 1979) is a bilingual love story. ’Calon Gaeth’ was aired for S4C in 2006 and produced by Richard J. Staniforth at Green Bay Media. James’ third novel, it has come to be regarded as a classic of Anglo-Welsh literature. Set in spring 1914, Tom Evans invites fellow Oxford student Edward to holiday on his parents farm in Wales. But his father Josi has left wife Rachel for the local teacher, Miriam who is pregnant with his child. His daughter Catrin feels outraged and betrayed. When she finds her own passion for Edward, family emotions are laid bare and each searches for a way to unlock a captive heart. Sian James was born in Llandysul and has twice won the Yorkshire Post Prize.

Diana Griffiths is an established radio playwright who also writes for stage. She was born in Neath and educated at Neath Grammar School, the University of Sheffield and University College, Cardiff. She was an English teacher followed by Head of Department in various comprehensive schools for many years and is an established creative writing tutor. For more information on Diana, click here to visit her Writers of Wales page.

Fiction writer and dramatist Stan Barstow changed the face of British fiction with his groundbreaking novel A Kind of Loving (Michael Joseph, 1960). Considered by many to be one of the pioneers of the 1960s school of northern English literary realism, Stan moved to south Wales in 2000. His work has been National Curriculum set-texts for decades and A Kind of Loving (Michael Joseph, 1960) was adapted for film in 1962. Stan has published eleven novels, three books of short stories, numerous television scripts and material for the theatre and radio. For more information on Stan, click here to visit his Writers of Wales page.