Welsh royalty and actress turned best-selling author Ruth Jones releases her third book Love Untold, a warm, joyous and heartbreaking generation-spanning novel. She natters with John Evans about the importance of family and forgiveness.
Love Untold is your third book! How are you feeling about it all?
Ruth Jones: I’m feeling okay actually, feeling good! I’ve had very positive feedback so far from people I admire. I think there is definitely progression from my first book. I’m very proud of it. I thought for this one, I’m going to keep it simple, but I ended up having a load of flashbacks – I’m actually really pleased with how they all turned out, but it was quite complicated to work out the structure of this one in lots of ways. But I’m really chuffed with myself for getting there in the end!
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Where did the idea and story for Love Untold come from?
Ruth Jones: Well, I filmed an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, which took me to New Quay, west Wales and I found it beautiful – I’d never been there before. And I found that quite inspiring as a place, so the town of Dylan’s Quay in the book is based on New Quay. I just loved the idea that when you’re very young, a teenager, you just think old people are old people and that they couldn’t possibly understand what you’re going through as a teenager. But of course, we were all teenagers once. And I loved the idea of the main character, Grace, having this backstory from when she was a young girl. Just being able to tap into the fact that they were all young once, you know?
I was also interested in the whole mother-daughter relationship. I just love creating Welsh characters, I suppose. Grace is 90 years old and she’s very much inspired by my mum. She’s inspired a lot of Grace’s characteristics: that kind of attitude to life, getting on with it and making do and mend. So yeah, I took a lot of inspiration from my mum’s attitude to life!
Was the representation of older women and generational women of importance to you when writing this book?
Ruth Jones: Yes, absolutely – I like this idea of exploring life and different stages of your life; how things are, and the difference in attitudes in generations that come with it.
There’s a lot of warmth and comfort that comes with reading your work. Maybe I’m being biased because I’m Welsh…
Ruth Jones: Yes, I like that. I really do. I’m glad that it comes across; I do try, and it makes me feel better about life when I write in that way. I think there’s enough nastiness in the world as it is, and I don’t want to add to it! So yes, my writing is pretty gentle, I guess. I tend not to have villains, and I still believe in the whole thing that there is a little bit of good in the worst of us and a little bit of bad in the best of us.
I know you’ve mentioned your mother but have you drawn from any other personal experiences in the book?
Ruth Jones: Not too much; like I mentioned, New Quay is a physical place that was quite an inspiration, and when I was writing about Dylan’s Quay, I would imagine that place quite a lot in my head. There’s little things that happen in the book that I’ve drawn from – there’s a particular story I’d taken from Justin Davies who played my son in Stella. Sometimes you collect things like a magpie and you think “Ooh, I’ll keep that!”
What do you hope people take away from this book?
Ruth Jones: I suppose – like you mentioned – the warmth, and linking back to everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, I want it to be something people can escape to. There’s some really lovely characters. Just the whole idea of forgiveness and family and showing that even the most irreparable rift can be resolved.
How are you feeling about it being released into the world?
Ruth Jones: Very proud! I’m looking forward to my mum reading it, as it’s dedicated to her. She received an advanced copy and must have read the dedication because she called me and said, “You give me so much joy too!”
So, what’s next? Any other endeavours you’d like to tell me about…?
Ruth Jones: I’ve got to get on with the fourth book now, so goodness knows what I’m going to come up with for that! But I was in this position before Love Untold. I didn’t know what it was going to be. So I’m taking comfort in that – that I’ll be able to come up with an idea, even though I haven’t got a slightest idea!
Love Untold by Ruth Jones is published by Bantam on Thurs 29 Sept. Price: £20/£9.99 Ebook. Info: here
Ruth Jones will launch Love Untold at the Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff on Tue 27 Sept. Price: £25 including a signed copy of the book. Info: here
words JOHN EVANS
