Kate Roberts

When the Welsh writer Kate Roberts died in 1985 at the age of 94, the Times obituary noted that 'she was felt by many to rank with Maupassant as one of the leading European short story writers'. Roberts is widely acknowledged as the major twentieth-century novelist and short story writer to have written in the Welsh language, being known and revered in Wales as 'the Queen of our Literature'. Much of her work has been translated into English and other languages and yet she remains today relatively little known and under-appreciated in comparison, for example, with other female contemporaries who wrote in English, such as Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and Elizabeth Bowen. This volume seeks to redress the balance, bringing the life and work of this extraordinary novelist, playwright, short story writer, journalist, and ardent political campaigner to the attention of the wider world audience that the sheer quality of her writing deserves.

'In this remarkable work Katie Gramich draws on the full range of Roberts's writings and on available secondary resources as well as interviews, letters, and papers in the archives of the National Library of Wales. The biographical material is handled carefully and attentively, avoiding simplification. This is a very accomplished example of the genre, opening up a lot of new material and providing a basis for further research and interpretation.' Professor Fiona Robertson (Research Professor in English, Birmingham City University) 'This volume, which provides a new perspective on the life and works of Kate Roberts, is written in a very accessible style. The coverage of Roberts' playwriting and of her non-fictional prose is much more extensive than in previous critical biographies, and the relation between the life and works, is illuminatingly detailed. Throughout, the focus is on Roberts as a woman writer, on her concern with the female perspective and on her own rather isolated position as a major female contributor to Welsh-language writing. Altogether then, the volume fulfils its promise of providing a fresh assessment in English of this important figure in the history of twentieth-century fiction.' Professor Jane Aaron (University of Glamorgan)