Books Books

White Ravens

Owen Sheers

Series: New Stories from the Mabinogion

Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Literary Fiction

Number of pages: 199

ISBN: 9781854115034

Publication date: November 24, 2009

Price: £8.99

Series: New Stories from the Mabinogion

Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Literary Fiction

Number of pages: 199

ISBN: 9781781721261

Publication date: November 24, 2009

Price: £7.19

Out of stock

“a gripping contemporary story… brilliantly absorbs the magical elements of the original.” – The Guardian

“Sheers makes his 20th-century setting sing but holds on to the otherworldliness of his source material… A spellbinding fable about male self-destructiveness and the effects of war on those who return home.” – The Financial Times

Two stories, two different times, but the thread of an ancient tale runs through the lives of twenty-first century farmer’s daughter Rhian and the mysterious Branwen…

After being wounded in Italy, Matthew O’Connell is seeing out WWII in an obscure government department spreading rumours and myths to the enemy. But when he’s given the bizarre task of escorting a box containing six raven chicks from a remote hill farm to the Tower of London, he becomes part of a story over which he seems to have no control.

The eleven stories in the Mabinogion come from two medieval Welsh manuscripts, with roots dating back many centuries earlier. They bring us Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and their own view of the Island of Britain. There is enchantment and shapeshifting, conflict, peacemaking, love and betrayal.

In this series commissioned by Seren, the old tales are at the heart of the new. Each author reinvents a story in their own way: creating fresh, contemporary tales that speak to us as much of our own world as of events long gone. Based on ‘Branwen, Daughter of Llyr’, White Ravens is a haunting novella from an acclaimed writer.

Owen Sheers

Twice-winner of Wales Book of the Year, Owen Sheers’ poetry books include Skirrid Hill, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, and the verse drama Pink Mist, chosen as a Guardian top ten play of the year and winner of the Hay Festival Poetry Medal. His first novel Resistance, was translated into 15 languages and adapted into a film. His most recent novel, I Saw a Man was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Étranger. Owen’s theatrical work includes The Two Worlds of Charlie F., winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, Mametz and The Passion, both for National Theatre of Wales, and Unicorns, almost, about the life of poet Keith Douglas. His arts documentaries include the BBC 4 series A Poet’s Guide to Britain, The Greatest Poem of WWI: David Jones and In Parenthesis and a BBC documentary about the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Dylan Thomas: A Poet’s Guide. His recent BAFTA nominated film-poem about the Aberfan disaster, The Green Hollow, won three BAFTA Cymru awards including for Best Writer. 
To Provide All People was his BBC film-poem written to mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS. His BBC One climate drama The Trick, was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru best film award and was part of PBS’s Earth Day scheduling for 2022. Owen’s most recent book is a work for children, Drew, Moo and Bunny, Too. 

A former NYPL Cullman fellow, Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and Artist in Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union, Owen was the recipient of the 2016 St David’s Award for Culture and the 2018 Wilfred Owen Poetry Award. He is Cennad of Wales PEN Cymru, a Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford, a patron of STAMMA and The Children’s Book Show and a co-founder of Black Mountains College, a new university focused on sustainable futures and systems change. He lives in Talgarth with his two daughters.

Author profile

Listen to Owen Sheers read an extract from his novel, White Ravens: