Robin Llywelyn

Robin Llywelyn (born 1958) lives in Minffordd, in north-west Wales, where he is Managing Director of the Italianate village of Portmeirion, designed by his architect grandfather Clough-Williams Ellis. He came to prominence as a writer when his first novel, Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn (White Star on a White Background, 1992) won the National Eisteddfod's Prose Medal in 1992. His subsequent works confirmed his reputation as one of Wales's most innovative contemporary prose writers. His second novel, O'r Harbwr Gwag i'r Cefnfor Gwyn (From Empty Harbour to White Ocean, 1994), a tender love story which can also be read as a political fable, moves through unspecified countries reminiscent of parts of Eastern Europe before ending in New York. It won him the Prose Medal for the second time and the BBC Writer of the Year award.