EISTEDDFOD TRIUMPHS
CROWN WINNER GUTO PICKS UP YET ANOTHER AWARD
THE winning entry for one of Wales’ most prestigious prizes for novelists was written almost entirely on the number 12 bus.
Guto Dafydd lives in Pwllheli but works in Caernarfon and travels between the two towns on the busy service run mostly by the Clynnog & Trefor Motor Company.
He said Carafanio is the story of a week’s holiday to Yorkshire and Blackpool by a family in a caravan.
“It’s the mundane activities of the family, visiting National Trust properties and other places.
“It isn’t autobiographical but most of the things mentioned have happened,” he said.
Guto was named as the winner of this year’s Daniel Owen Memorial Medal during a special ceremony at the 2019 National Eisteddfod at Llanrwst.
He is more than familiar with standing in National Eisteddfod ceremonies, having won the 2019 Eisteddfod Crown on Monday and the Crown at Carmarthenshire in 2014.
It is also the second time he has won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize having won the award at the 2016 Eisteddfod in Monmouthshire.
Beaming broadly the audience gasped when he stood in the main pavilion to reveal he is Arglwydd Diddymdra, his chosen nom-de-plume.
But when ceremony host Alun Evans quipped “and it’s only Tuesday” Guto shook his head.
He said later he would not be standing in the pavilion again this week.
Unlike the crown competition in which he won “by the thinnest of whiskers” Guto was described as standing head and shoulders above the eight entrants.
The task set to writers was to create a novel with a strong storyline of no less than 50,000 words.
The adjudicators were Haf Llewelyn, Dyfed Edwards and Llwyd Owen, and delivering the adjudication from the stage, Haf Llewelyn said: “There was only one in the race, and the three of us were in full agreement – Carafanio – Arglwydd Diddymdra.
“Having experienced mixed emotions going through the other seven entries, we were rather worried, as we wanted Conwy County to have a winner. But then, we turned to the first page of Carafanio, and we were engulfed by a huge sense of relief.
“This writer is way ahead of everyone else in the competition.
“The novel is a reflection on life, a reflection on those things which worry us, but there is no wallowing in angst or pain, only telling it as it is, cynical and satirical.
“This is the story of a family going on a caravanning holiday, there’s no big story or mind-blowing events, no gangsters or detectives. And that’s the greatness of the novel, it’s a story about life – insightful observations about human nature, aspirations and expectations, and about our fragile worldly state.
“The objective style appealed to me straight away, the author almost remotely spying on his text, mocking him, making sharp comments about us Welsh, and humanity more widely.
“Arglwydd Diddymdra is also a linguistic acrobat; under his care the Welsh language is sprightly, it can touch every emotion, it is a multilayered modern language, and is fun.
“Carafanio is an honest, clever, humorous novel – sometimes nostalgic, and in its company, I laughed out loud. I nodded and responded, I was sad and despairing, but in its company, I experienced prose at its best.”
Earlier last Tuesday Guto was seen wandering about the Maes with his wife, Lisa and their children, Casi and Nedw. They were stopped every few steps by well-wishers congratulating him on his success on winning the crown.
He has been a keen competitor at local and national eisteddfodau for many years. He won the Urdd National Eisteddfod Crown in 2013, the National Eisteddfod Crown in 2014 and the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize in 2016. He wrote the words for A Oes Heddwch, the National Eisteddfod’s opening concert in 2017.