Tonypandy in 1910 is a town of poverty, hardship, and strife, garrisoned by troops brought in to control the striking miners whose anger all too frequently erupts into bouts of violence and rioting. Megan Williams is 18 and in love with the boy next door, Victor Evans. But Megan's father would rather see his daughter dead than married to a Catholic, particularly one whose father and brother are marked as strike ringleaders. Tempers and violence flare on both sides of the dispute. Caught in the middle, Victor and Megan find themselves fighting for the right to love one another, remain together and build a future they can share.
CATRIN COLLIER/KATHERINE JOHN/CARO FRENCH/KATHERINE HARDY -
My most bemused moment. When someone commented, "It will be wonderful for Pontypridd when you die." (Many of my novels are set in the town)
My best "putting in place moment". When someone joined a queue at a signing session in Waterstones and waited ten minutes to say, "I don't want a book, love, but as you're here for two hours, look after my shopping for me." - I did.
My proudest moment, when I discovered my Catrin Collier novel, One Last Summer, based on my Prussian born mother's wartime diaries was named recommended reading for adults by the Holocaust Day Memorial Trust.
My new novel, Bobby's Girl, set in America during in 1968 - the era of the anti-Vietnam War and, Civil Rights movements and student protests will be published in the autumn of 2011.
