A strong sense of place or well-developed setting can make all the difference between readers simply enjoying a piece of writing and being totally immersed in it.

Whether a real geographical location or a fictional universe created by the author, the vivid use of physical landscape, time periods, climate, local customs, culture or architecture can be a means of creating real connection between writer and reader. And that’s true of both fiction and creative non-fiction too.

Our Sense of place panel brings together three writers who excel at the use of place to drive their narratives. Monty Lit Fest favourites, Jon Gower and Myfanwy Alexander are joined by crime writer, Chris Lloyd, author of the award-winning Eddie Giral series set in Occupied Paris. It promises to be a lively and inspiring discussion about a crucial element of compelling storytelling. 

Chris Lloyd lived in Catalonia for over twenty years, working in educational publishing and as a translator. He is the author of the Eddie Giral series about a French police detective in Occupied Paris. The first in the series, The Unwanted Dead, won the HWA Gold Crown for best historical novel of the year, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and was a Waterstone’s Welsh Book of the Month. The second, Paris Requiem, was a Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Book of 2023. The third in the series, Banquet of Beggars, will be published in August 2024.

Jon Gower has over forty books to his name, in Welsh and English, including 2023’s The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea, and Y Diwedd, which completes his Welsh language crime trilogy, published in 2022. He is also the author of The Story of Wales which accompanied the landmark BBC series, An Island Called Smith which gained the John Morgan Travel Writing Award, and Y Storïwr which won the Wales Book of the Year award.  He is a former BBC Wales arts and media correspondent and was for many years the presenter of Radio Wales’ arts’ programme First Hand.  

Myfanwy Alexander is a broadcaster and writer who grew up in the hills of Montgomeryshire. The landscape, culture and people of this unique area are her constant inspiration. In 2015, she published the first of her crime novels, A Oes Heddwas, introducing her detective, Inspector Daf Dafis, who returns in Pwnc Llosg, Y Plygain Olaf, Mynd Fel Bomi and 2023’s Coblyn o Sioe. The first two are available in English as Burning Issue and Bloody Eisteddfod, the latter adapted by Myfanwy for a critically acclaimed drama on Radio 4 and Radio Cymru in 2020.