“But she never forgot about doing the washing and cleaning as she was bringing us up at the same time. He said: “My mother had a real passion for writing about the industrial heritage of Swansea. Her son Paul Davies said he and his brother and sisters would “miss her madly”. People’s anecdotes are like gold nuggets.” If people are so damn good at writing why are they teaching and not writing? I research a lot and talk to people. So I just put my four children to bed at 7pm and wrote. Last year she told the Western Mail: “You can learn technicalities but not creativity. Then in 1981 she had her big break with Copper Kingdom, set against Swansea’s world-renowned early copper business and it was a best seller. Her first two novels Beloved Captive and Beloved Traitor were published by the now defunct McDonald Futura publishing house. She began her craft in her 20s by writing short stories for magazines including Woman’s Own and Jackie. She was a former nursery school teacher who brought up four children, Paul, Angela, Susan and Tudor Junior, as well as finding time to write. “I remember once after I got a publishing contract she warned me about publishers’ meetings in London and told me ‘It’s a jungle up there’.”īorn Iris Davies in Mumbles, Swansea, Gower wrote more than 30 historical novels centred on the copper, pottery and other industries in her home city of Swansea. “She was very down to earth and always ready to give help and advice. She has carried the Swansea story universally. “I think people sometimes forget her books not only sold in the UK they sold around the world. “A lot of people who read her books said it put into context stories they had heard from their great-grandparents or grandparents when they were growing up in the old industrial Swansea. “Her work was Swansea history come to life. She said of the best-selling historical romance writer, who has died at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital after a short illness: “I remember Iris’ warmth and helpfulness to me when I first joined the Swansea Writers’ Circle, a time when I had not published a single, solitary thing.
That is the view of her friend and protege Catrin Collier, the Pontypridd-born historical novelist who now lives on the Gower peninsula. AUTHOR Iris Gower, who has died aged 75, will leave a lasting legacy which has carried the “Swansea story” around the world.
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