Hiraeth is a delicious Welsh word as it captures that nostalgic longing for home. As a Yorkshire lass living in Wales, I often yearn for Morley, a town in Leeds, where my family still live. Yet I also feel at home in certain places in Wales that connect to the spirit and soul of place I long for. Maybe it’s the spirit of the industrial past that connects me to South Wales.
Morley is a large town in West Yorkshire that was constructed from the blood, sweat and tears of coal and textiles. The stone buildings of Morley are crooked and leaned towards me with whispers of secrets. I always identified a beauty in the urban landscape of home and feel so happy when I return to visit my family. There is a community spirit in Morley and people will always chat and make me laugh.
Last year, I stumbled on some newspaper photos of Cardiff in the sixties and seventies and the people huddled together chatting connected me to a familiar community spirit and evocated a nostalgia. When imagining the people’s stories, I met Pearl and Jim, characters from my novel, Loving You (working title), searching for their dreams in a fictional Welsh town near to Cardiff.
Pearl is a seamstress who dreams of becoming a singer. Jim is a car mechanic who yearns to be an artist. Secrets about Pearl’s late father thrive in Aberynys as people still gossip about him. Pearl and Jim’s dreams push them together and pull them apart. Pearl is immersed in a community, but Jim is a loner. Both characters are shaped by their lives in Aberynys and want to escape in different ways. Pearl’s friends in the sewing factory are influenced by the people my grandmother brought to life for me when I was a child, and their sense of humour is both northern and Welsh. Of course, a colourful cast of characters also barged into the book, and my fictional town of Aberynys is a port which was also influenced by visits to Barry Island, Cardiff Bay and the Valleys.
Aberynys is the nostalgic place in my heart: a place built on stories I listened to when chatting to folk in Yorkshire and Wales. I created a place name with lyrical Welsh words: Aber is the Welsh word for estuary and ynys means island. Aberynys is a montage of my life experiences and a place that makes folk dream their dreams. Loving You remains one of my works in progress as I just love to visit the place in my heart where I can seek sanctuary from what is happening to us all at the moment.
Which place do you call home and is this different to place you live in now?
Please see all my adventures at Handbag Adventures and My Writing.
Hi Jessie, I think you might be able to guess the place where my heart is. Scotland. As I get older my memories of living there as a child are thrown into sharper contrast. I really missed visiting there this year but hope to stick to the same itinerary in 2021. Readers have said that they feel they have come to know Scotland through my books and I’m sure the same will happen to your next one. I can’t wait to read it.
Ah, yes – love the Scottish identity in your novels: you bring the place to life through the dialogue and the settings. Hope you get to return to that lovely place fixed in your heart very soon.
I enjoyed reading this blog! You have created some very vivid images of the places in your novel and the characters. I could identify with the feeling of hiraeth – I’m originally from Kent but have lived in Worcestershire for most of my adult life. There are many similarities – my partner is born and bred in Evesham, which he claims is the Garden of England. I was always told it was Kent. I want to read your novel!
Hiraeth is such a wonderful word that captures that longing for home. I am delighted the post connected with you. Season’s greetings, Sue.
A lovely look at places you love- and also so nice to hear about Pearl and Jim. I’ve always lived near my birthplace. As long as I can see a pretty sunset, I’m happy!
Good you have stayed so near to home. My hometown, Morley, was an industrial hub in its day and there are lots of very old buildings. People are so warm, funny and friendly. A pretty sunset soothes the soul and give inspiration. Pearl and Jim send you their good wishes. x
I love the reasons behind the choice of your fictitious place. It’s fun weaving stories. I write a lot of my stories set in Italy – if I were ever born again (?), I would choose to be Italian. I think the country brings out a different side to my basically Anglo-Saxon nature. But I live by the sea for half of the year in West Sussex and this morning I was blown along the shore, listening to the noise of the roar of the sea and the shingle scraping and rolling. I love the sea and the mountains.
I absolutely love the sea and feel lucky it is so close to us here in Wales. I do love to watch the seasons changing.
Such an interesting post, Jessie. The novel I’m currently working on is set in my home town of Barry, also in Bari, Southern Italy. But I spent many years living in Wiltshire so that county has a special place in my heart. I love how you choose such evocative photographs to capture your feelings about places which call to you.
So pleased you enjoyed the post and connected with it. Places shape us and our books. Your WIP sounds intriguing.