Gill hopes to make mark with debut novel

February 03, 2011

It's always great to hear from new West Wales authors.
So, I was delighted this week to get a call from Gill Morgan, who is based in Haverfordwest and is yet another successful pupil from the MA creative writing course at Trinity College, Carmarthen (now University of Wales Trinity St David).
Gill brought me up to speed with her latest work -
'My 'debut' novel, Salt Blue, came out a few months ago. One reviewer remarked: 'This was obviously written by a young girl'. Another commented: 'This is obviously an autobiography'. Such confidence!
'It's a shame they both got it wrong!
'I am 67 years old and, whilst I will allow I have written about a young girl who is a dreamer, like myself, Stella, the heroine, is not me.
'The book is set in a small Welsh seaside town and the year is 1959.
'In 1959 I left Gowerton Grammar school and got married. (Perhaps I should have done things the other way round: written the book when I was 16, got married when I was 67!).
'We lived in Fishguard, where my husband taught and I worked in the Civil Service (an accounts clerk) for four years.
'I took a 10-year break to look after my daughters, did a lot of reading and studied by correspondence course.
'When we moved to Haverfordwest, I travelled to Trinity College each day and became a teacher. When I qualified, my mother said, in dismay, 'Don't teach! You can write'.
'I loved writing, but had never attempted a novel and thought it was probably beyond me. Teaching was a safer option.
'A few years later I won a small competition in the Woman's Realm magazine and following this I had a book published called 'Fishguard in Old Photographs'.
When Charles and Diana married, I realised Diana was descended from Lucy Walter, mistress of Charles II and a Pembrokeshire beauty. I researched the story and self-published 'Lucy Walter'.
'Taking early retirement from my job as the head of a nursery school when I was 55, I did an MA in Creative Writing in Trinity College, Carmarthen, with the intention of writing a novel.
'However, unexpectedly, I produced a volume of poetry.
'I then decided to start a textile art course at degree level, until my daughters pointed out I was avoiding writing.
'I sat at my computer and told myself if I could write a few pages, I would take it as a sign I was destined to write a novel. You can guess the rest - a miracle happened, or so it seemed.
'From nowhere, a story sprang onto the page and, not without some blips, it became the novel Salt Blue.'