Ray French was born in Newport, South Wales, to Irish parents from County Wexford. He started reading philosophy at Leicester University, but after discovering that this did not consist of trying to impress women by discussing the meaning of life while drinking coffee and smoking gitanes, he dropped out in disgust and worked as a labourer for a year. Discovering labouring wasn't to his taste either, he returned to further education, this time completing a B.A. in Religious Studies at Lancaster University. Since then has worked with people with disabilities, as a stagehand, cartoonist, freelance journalist, archivist, in libraries and as a creative writing tutor.
His first book, The Red Jag and other stories, was nominated for the Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and he adapted several of those stories for Radio 4. All This Is Mine, his first novel, was published by Secker & Warburg in July 2003, and is now a Vintage paperback. It has been translated into Italian and Dutch. His second novel, Going Under, was published in January 2007. He now lives in Leeds, the Milan of the north, with his partner and their daughter.
He is a member of The Welsh Academy, the Welsh Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers and a Friend Of The Newport Transporter Bridge.
Some Interesting Facts About Newport
Though Newport currently languishes in Cardiff's shadow, it has its own, distinct personality. Here are some interesting facts about Newport.
| It has one of only 2 working transporter bridges in the country (and, illuminated at night, one of the finest sights in south Wales). The Americans tried to buy it in the 70s - there was a plan to move it to Niagra Falls - but the people of Newport were outraged, and the proposed sale was scrapped. It featured in the 1959 film Tiger Bay, starring Hayley Mills, but was innacurately portrayed as being in Cardiff (never trust the movies!). |
| Kurt Cobain proposed to Courtney Love in TJ's nightclub in Newport. |
| W.H. Davies, author of Autobiography of a Supertramp, who wrote the famous lines 'What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare,' was born there (Whiny 70s Prog rock band Supertramp took their name from Davies' autobiography) |
| Film director Peter Greenaway was born in Newport. |
| The Chartist uprising took place in Newport in 1839. 3000 protestors marched on the town to demand the release of a fellow Chartist arrested for making 'inflammatory speeches.' 22 people were killed, and at least 50 wounded when troops concealed in the Westgate Hotel fired into the crowd. Queen Victoria was so impressed she knighted the mayor who ordered the shooting. |
| The Stone Roses liked the cherub and shield found on the Newport coat of arms so much they put them on the cover of their Second Coming album. This prompted a wave of thefts by fans, forcing the council to have to continually replace the endlessly stolen coats of arms. |
| One of The Man From Uncle books, 'The Stone Cold Dead In The Market Affair' is set in Newport. Well, the opening chapter is. |
| Charles Stuart Parnell, 'the uncrowned king of Ireland', a skillful and charismatic campaigner for Home Rule, changed trains there once. |
