‘Thank you letters & hugs go a long way’

Actress – and now author – Ruth Jones talks to Prima about relationships, passions and pretending she isn’t famous

Ruth Jones talks friends, family and her new novel

After smash-hit successes with TV shows Stella and Gavin & Stacey (which she co-wrote with James Corden), Ruth, 51, has been hard at work writing her first novel, a Sliding Doors-style time-shift romance, Never

Greener. She lives in Cardiff with her producer husband, David Peet, 64, and her three grown-up stepchildren live nearby.

SPECIAL FRIENDS

I’m at my happiest when I spend time with the people I love. Relationships are the biggest passion in my life, and I can quite happily sit and while away the hours talking. I’ve been blessed with very long friendships and I get on very well with my family. I’ve still got friends from school and university who have stayed prominent in my life. We try to get together as much as we can. When you’ve had that shared history, it’s very special.

MY NEW NOVEL

I’m very chuffed with myself for writing a novel. Two years ago, I was knackered with work so I went for a spa break. While I was there, I found a few thousand words on my laptop of a screenplay I’d done 15 years before, and one day I just started writing again – that became the book. I really fell in love with it; so much so that I would go off for a massage and I couldn’t wait until it was over so I could write some more! It was the whole idea of what if your life had gone on a different journey – does your personality change as you get older or are you always essentially the same person? I got myself a literary agent and it was very exciting when there was a bidding war! I love the creative process. I’m very passionate if I get a new idea. I always liken it to planting a little seed, then you water it and it becomes a little shoot, and you watch as the project develops.