Sarah Gethin On Falling in Love With Heathcliff
My latest guest in the Meet A Welsh Author series is Sara Gethin, a former primary school teacher who began writing fiction for children. She’s also published two novels for adult readers and several short stories.
Earliest Reading Memory
Sitting on the floor of the library in Llanelli, a book in my lap, probably an Enid Blyton. The children’s section was upstairs back then, in a wonderful, light-filled room that smelt of furniture polish.
The Author Who Changed My Life
Emily Bronte, thanks to the Welsh Joint Education Committee who felt — wrongly in my opinion (I appreciate this may be controversial! ) — that Wuthering Heights was the ideal novel for impressionable teenagers.
I fell for Cathy’s Heathcliff, and it took the rest of my teenage years to realise that his character traits weren’t the best to search for in my own love interest. Of course, read with wiser eyes, it’s a wonderful novel.
Welsh author Sara Gethin with her latest novel Emmet and Me
The Book I Keep Returning To
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. Genius.
Most Recommended Book
A Marmite one. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I was on a packed train to Bridgend when I came to the story’s jaw-dropping reveal halfway through the book. (I very nearly missed my stop.)
An Unexpected Pleasure
A good friend kept recommending Frank McCourt’s, Angela’s Ashes. I held out, convinced the subject matter was far too miserable. When I eventually read it, I did sob quite a lot, but I cried with laughter too. Now in my top five favourite books.
The Last Book I Bought
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. Love her writing, keep forgetting how to correctly pronounce her surname (according to Wikipedia, it’s ‘teivz’).
You Won’t Find Me Reading …
Any further releases by Harper Lee’s estate. Having read Go Set a Watchman I wish I’d stopped at To Kill a Mockingbird.
I Would Love To Have A Drink/Dinner With …
Patricia Highsmith.
I spent a few months reading her books back-to-back in my thirties, and her portrayal of people and their devious motives fascinated me. She didn’t have the friendliest of personalities, reportedly, and she once took a snail-covered lettuce in her handbag to a party (breeding the creatures was one of her hobbies, apparently).
So maybe not dinner with her, but perhaps a tequila.
My Favourite Writing Place
A coffee shop in Kilmainham, Dublin.
I Wish I’d Written …
Anything by Agatha Christie. Oh, to have a mind that could plot a storyline so perfectly!
The Author Behind The Name: Sara Gethin
Sara Gethin is the pen name of Wendy White, the name under which she has published four books for children.
She grew up in Llanelli, working as an assistant in a children’s library and as a primary school teacher.
The first of her four books for children — Welsh Cakes and Custard — won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014.
Her debut novel for adults, Not Thomas, was shortlisted for the The Guardian’s “Not the Booker prize” project in 2017 and the 2018 Waverton Good Read Award. It was optioned for television.
Her second novel, Emmet and Me, was published by Honno Press in May, 2021.
Sarah’s short fiction has been shortlisted for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award
You can follow Sara via her website and at Twitter @SGethinWriter
Emmet and Me: Synopsis
Summer 1966: When her father comes home with lipstick on his collar, ten-year-old Claire’s life is turned upside down. Her furious mother leaves the family and heads to London, and Claire and her brothers are packed off to Ireland, to their reclusive grandmother at her tiny cottage on the beautifully bleak coast of Connemara.
A misfit among her new classmates, Claire finds it hard to make friends until she happens across a boy her own age from the school next door. He lives at the local orphanage, a notoriously harsh place. Amidst half-truths, lies and haunting family secrets, Claire forms a forbidden friendship with Emmet ‒ a bond that will change both their lives forever.
After this, I think I may need to investigate what Gethin books are in the local library – I daren’t buy any more new books for a while until I empty a few more shelves!
Good luck with trying to track them down. Our library system doesn’t do brilliantly with contemporary welsh authors
Thank you so much, Calmgrove! (I hope you manage to track them down in your library, but if they’re not on the shelf, they should be able to order my books for you.) I hope you have some good reading in your life at the moment ☺️
Thank you! I’m sure either Crickhowell library or Powys will have access, and we have a pretty decent indie bookshop which can order stuff in PDQ, so no worries on that score. 🙂
Oh you’re in a lovely area, and with an indie bookshop to boot – hope you’re not melting too much today!
Staying cool, thanks! Just a couple more days of this and then some respite, hopefully…
Back to cloudy skies next week I think
I was made to read Wuthering Heights as an impressionable teenager to o, and I’m glad I was, even though it probably wasn’t the healthiest thing!
Oh dear, none of Sarah Gethin’s choices are on my Must Read list, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t consider her books worth a read.
If your must read list is anything like mine, it grows every day.
Uh-huh!
Thanks for reading my responses to Karen’s questions, Margaret. (I’d give Karen Joy Fowler’s book a try – but as it’s the novel I most recommend, I would say that, wouldn’t I?!)
Indeed. Good advice, I think, and on the list!
It was on our school syllabus too – the few boys who did the A level English hated it. The girls were all in love with the idea of such passion
Huge thanks for this feature, Bookertalk – I loved thinking about my responses to your questions. Thanks for reading and reviewing Not Thomas and Emmet and Me too. Your support for writing from Wales is very much appreciated!
Seems like lots of us were made to read it at an impressionable age! Yes, not the healthiest read but a beautiful novel. Thanks for reading about my (peculiar!) thoughts, Laura🌻
I need to read Angela’s Ashes
I read a later one by him where he was working as a schoolteacher. I don’t think it had the same impact as Angela’s Ashes
I haven’t read Frank McCourt’s follow-up to Angela’s Ashes, Karen. I’m worried I would feel the same about that as I did about Harper Lee’s second offering! Thanks again for featuring me and my books on your wonderful blog – taking part was a lot of fun!
Angela’s Ashes is such a brilliant memoir! Thanks for reading my recommendations, Carol🌻