The Writers of Wales Database

LLOYD-NESLING, NORMA

Email: nvln@btinternet.com
Website: Under construction

Fiction writer Norma Lloyd-Nesling was born in Abercynon in the South Wales valleys. After living in Berlin and England for a few years she returned to Wales. Initially, she trained as an English teacher gaining a B.A. (Hons) in literature followed by a Master’s degree and Ph.D from Cardiff University. She now works on an ad hoc basis as a freelance education consultant and visiting university lecturer. She is a fellow of the College of Preceptors. Married, she has one daughter and is currently writing her third book.

Norma was heavily involved with educational issues, for example, she was Chair of the British Education Administration Society (Wales) for many years. She is also a member of numerous organisations such as The English Speaking Union. Norma is the author of a number of published academic articles on pupil disaffection and under-achievement in schools in journals such Professional Issues and Management in Education Journal.

After leaving full time teaching she has exchanged academic writing for her first love, writing fiction. Season of the Long Grass, her full length memoir of life growing up in the valleys, was published in 2007. Her thriller novel, The Regis Connection, published in 2009, was inspired by her time living near the Berlin Wall and her many conversations with the locals. Norma is currently writing her third book intended to be the first in a series of Jack Conrad thrillers. She is a Member of The Welsh Academy.

Reviews:
With respect to Season of the Long Grass (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2007)

"…In a fast-changing world, this true story of a childhood spent in the Cynon Valley in the fifties provides a permanent, vivid and entertaining picture of the way we were…"
Elaine Morgan

"…Having been brought up in Wales in the forties and fifties I empathise with the Season of the Long Grass. It is a yarn well told and brings back fond memories…"
Ruth Madoc

"...It is an evocative journey to a time and place that so many of us recognise, meeting characters we all know and re-living experiences that were ours too, but perhaps in other valleys...There is a sweet richness to Norma’s tale-telling, but it is mixed to the savoury of the common touch that clearly marks her as ‘one of us’. Be honest, we have all known ‘Seasons of the Long Grass’ and Norma, wonderfully, does us all a favour, in reminding us of how we too, long ago, viewed life from our own Table Rock..."
Roy Noble

With respect to The Regis Connection (Austin & Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2009)

"...Absorbing - this is a pacey thriller that packs in a huge amount of action. The occasional touch of romance lightens it but is not so much as to put off the male readers...It is well-written and I very much enjoyed it..."
Five star rating from a customer on amazon.co.uk


Selected Publications:
Season of the Long Grass (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2007)
The Regis Connection (Austin & Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2009)

Contributed to:
Take Care Mr. Blunkett (Association of Teachers & Lecturers, 1998)



Season of the Long Grass (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2007)

This is an autobiographical story of growing up in a mining community in the Welsh Valleys in the 1950s. It looks at life in the valleys through the eyes of a child. The reader is taken quickly into the past where the dialogue, written in local dialect, makes the characters live in the reader’s mind. It is essentially a story of growing up in the valleys in a gentler time and the transition from child to young adult.

Physical description of the writer’s haunts such as Table Rock in the ‘Long Grass’ are evocative. Some scenes in the book are funny, some poignant and some colourfully descriptive of the times such as the Sunday School outing to the seaside, Christmas in Wales and the Boxing Day hunt. There are hilarious forays into the English countryside, the valleys funeral of a young girl, the Welsh Americans, the annual carnivals, fairgrounds, school life and ‘Rock and Roll’.

The book is essentially a journey through childhood to adolescence, and a burgeoning awareness that adulthood will mark the end of the ‘Season of the Long Grass’. The conclusion brings the reader back to the present day where the adult searches once again for the ‘Long Grass’ only to find that, like the evolving society, it has changed beyond recognition. Finally, she realises that even though this time is long gone the dreams and memories of childhood live on; that past and present are fused into one entity.

To purchase this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover



The Regis Connection (Austin & Macauley Publishers Ltd, 2009)

Suspected of belonging to a secret organisation, political dissident Peter Brandt fears for the safety of his son and his American wife. With the help of the clandestine Regis they concoct a dangerous plan to spirit them out of Germany under the noses of the Gestapo. Accused of being a traitor Peter is tortured before being sent to the Russian front. Operation Barbarossa found him amidst vicious fighting in the coldest, harshest winter for decades. Lost in a white-out blizzard his men are attacked by Cossacks. They wander from the blood-soaked scene into the snowy wilderness. After the defeat of the German army Regis finds himself in Russia working on rocket design. Eventually, he returns to Germany to continue his escapades when the Berlin Wall is erected. Elusive, the daring Regis evades the East German Stasi and disappears like a phantom in the night.

Vividly descriptive, acutely atmospheric; a gripping story that leaves an indelible image on the mind of the reader. Enduring love and human suffering span the decades from World War Two to the fall of the Berlin Wall. A thriller and a love story combine to keep the reader spellbound.

To purchase this title from amazon.co.uk, please click on its front cover