My First Colouring Book

by Lloyd Jones

Alternating between serious and absurd, these 25 very short stories are written in a variety of styles and often from an unexpected viewpoint, such as that of an old woman, a young man with a missing wife, and a surgeon who becomes a shepherd. A wry, experimental system of color coding—with red for tragic stories, yellow for confessionals, gold for flights of fancy, blood red for laugh-out-loud humor—these stories unfold in a bizarre town somewhere in Wales, where the inhabitants cross paths with each other, miss each other, and weave a weirdly familiar pattern of human existence.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

Lloyd Jones was a novelist from Wales.

He formerly worked on a farm and as a newspaper editor, a lecturer and a mencap nurse. His first two novels were both published through Welsh publishing house Seren. Mr Vogel (2004), winner of the McKitterick Prize, was based partly upon Jones' walking completely around Wales, a 1000-mile journey (he is the first Welsh person to do so). His second book, Mr Cassini (2006), was partially inspired by his walking across Wales in seven different directions; it won the Wales Book of the Year award 2007. His third book, My First Colouring Book, a collection of short stories and essays, was published in October 2008. He published a novel in Welsh, Y Dŵr, with Y Lolfa in June 2009.

Reviews

[Ceri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaking as a hard-core short story fanatic, I can honestly say that Lloyd Jones' "My First Colouring Book" has been the high point of my literary year so far. It's great to see a Welsh author who has so far mastered this genre as to be worthy of mention alongside Carver, Cheever, Maupassant, Mansfield and, dare one even suggest it, Chekhov himself. MORE HERE