Up in the mountains of Bethesda, North Wales, Colin Tudur, a fifty-year-old football referee has endured a pitiful, people-pleasing existence. Finally chasing his dream, he commits to full-time training, quitting his job as a bin-man, one day dreaming of reffing on S4C.

This far from serves his parasitic, coercive wife Clare and stepson Dale, who have both long grown dependent on his salary. Thwarted in his pursuit of freedom by North Wales’ second-home owner induced housing shortage, twenty-year-old Dale wallows within the confines of Colin’s isolated, mountain-top farm cottage. Freshly expelled from college, unemployable, and broken by his family’s toxic, co-dependent grooming, drug addiction steps in to fill his sorrow shaped hole. When a chance arises to enter the dealing game, a stab at ending this nightmare, he grips it with both hands, dragging a host of issues to the family’s door.

Ogwen Blues is a novella told over eleven chapters and set in the town of Bethesda, Wales. The story mainly focuses on Colin Tudur Parry a bin-man in his fifties, an ex semi pro footballer and now referee. He is married to Clare, an obnoxious woman who has never wanted to work, although she has a degree, and she treats her husband appallingly. Clare has a twenty-year-old good-for-nothing son who is happy to join in with treating Colin as his cash cow and slave and a teenage daughter Shona.

The story is quite depressing and at just a couple of chapters in I did think about giving up but persevering the book did improve, slightly. The feelings of the characters in this small town were very anti-English and nearly all of them were unemployed and drug users which I found surprising, I mean the local dealer is certainly racking it in.

Ogwen Blues is a brutal and harsh story of a town that has seen long-term poverty, lack of jobs, lack of entertainment, and low standards. The people didn’t seem to care about themselves let alone each other. It is a raw, eye-opening, and gritty novella that was quick to read, however, it did live up to its name and made me feel down whilst reading as there was no enjoyment within the pages whatsoever.

I grew up in rural North West Wales, where hardships and a lack of opportunities spurred my passion for tackling tough subjects, such as poverty, addiction and mental health. Screenwriting was my first love, but having grown tired of waiting for funding to produce my work, I now dedicate myself to turning all of my scripts into books.