This collection was published in 2008, and I have had my copy for the best part of a decade before now reading it – but reading it now in the midst of protests outside asylum seeker accommodation made it all the more powerful.
The first thing this shows is that our nations wrestling with questions around immigration are not new, the stories in this collection show that the place we are standing now is at least two decades in the making – two decades during which our political leaders seemed unable to have an honest conversation about immigration, and as a result they seem unable to have anything but a toxic conversation.
The second thing is this is a collection of women writing in Wales – that it is women’s voices, speaking in the context of Wales, makes for a distinctive contribution. There is a belief that the people of Wales, from their own sense of marginalisation (dating from at least Henry the VIII acts of Union if not before), make them more open to welcome the marginalised from other places. This belief will be given a strong test come May if Reform become the largest party in the Senedd.
The collection speaks to the resilience of the women writing – and in this there is hope – the struggle with go on, but the spirit of these women is bigger and will endure and will overcome..
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