Gwyneth Lewis is best-known for her work as a poet, as the inaugural National Poet of Wales and for penning the iconic six-foot-high words that grace the front of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

But she has another, darker story she has been preparing to tell all her life, in diaries she’s kept since childhood. Now, in her book, Nightshade Mother, she recounts that story of her toxic upbringing at the hands of a controlling, coercive mother. Co-written with her younger self, it’s a haunting, moving and ultimately uplifting memoir in which Gwyneth confronts what happened to her; how she found solace in art and language and how she has reconciled herself to her past.

All Gwyneth Lewis ever wanted to be was a writer. Brought up Welsh-speaking in Cardiff, she studied English and spent time in America. She was Wales’s first National Poet and composed the six-foot-high words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre. Her other non-fiction books are Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book on Depression and Two in a Boat: A Marital Voyage. She has published nine books of poetry, the latest being Sparrow Tree.

Sioned Wiliam comes from Barry. She is the author of the novels, Dal i Fynd, Chwynnu, Cicio’r Bar and Y Gwyliau and is currently working on her fitfh, 60-Rhywbeth.  Sioned began her television and radio career at the BBC, before becoming an independent producer. Her credits include Tonight with Jonathan Ross, Game On, Big Train and Yonderland. She also produced iDot and exec produced Rhestr Nadolig Wil for Boom/S4C. She has been nominated for a Bafta award three times and has won a British Comedy Award and a Bronze Rose at Montreux. She was also a Commissioning Editor for ITV and BBC Radio 4 and spent last year as the interim CEO of S4C.