A POWYS author, who only turned to writing after being made redundant, has just released her third novel – and her first since signing a book deal with iconic publishing house Harper Collins.
Kathy Biggs’ third novel, ‘Attention All Shipping’, is the first from the Bradford-born writer since she signed with the industry giant – one of the big five global publishing companies.
Attention All Shipping was released last Thursday, May 8, with Kathy holding an official local release in Llanwrtyd Wells, where she lives, on Friday evening.
“There were around 90 people there and I sold 80 books,” said Kathy, who has lived in Powys for more than 40 years.
“My editor, who is a co-director at Harper Collins, came up and did the interviewing; she stayed at the Neuadd Arms in town and loved it.”
She’d never harboured any desire to write, but after attending a creative writing course in Builth Wells, something clicked.
She released ‘The Luck’ in 2022, a story about an Irish crop duster who leaves for a new life in America.
‘Scrap’, about how a young boy found in the back of a car at a scrapyard changes the lives of the people who find him, followed in 2023.
Then, 18 months ago, Kathy got herself an agent, which was when “everything changed”.
“It’s my third novel and I feel like a fully-fledged novelist now,” said Kathy. “It’s strange.”
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The married mother-of-two, who first moved to Powys in the 1980s, originally living in Glascwm, near Builth, published her first two novels through Honno – an Aberystwyth-based company which champions and publishes writing by the women of Wales.
“It was a tricky decision to leave Honno and go to someone with bigger resources, but now I have an agent, Sara O’Keeffe, and she has changed everything,” admitted Kathy.
“I signed a contract with Harper Collins in around March or April 2024 and Sara went for the bigger publishing houses.
“It’s not anything that I ever expected to happen, especially after being made redundant and at my age. It feels unbelievable.”
Having a totally new career take off, in her 60s, has been a shock – Attention All Shipping has even landed Kathy a contract in Germany, while she had to select actors to read the audiobook version.
“I’ve also got a contract in Germany, with DTV, so the book roughly translates to ‘Ships On Stormy Seas’, and it’s being translated into German,” she added.
“It’s also in audiobook format and I had a say in choosing the actors. I got sent voice samples to choose, which is not something I ever thought I would do.”
A tender, hopeful novel about losing and finding family, Attention All Shipping is about father and daughter Jack and Grace.
Grace lives with her father on their crumbling family farm in Wales. Jack, who has dementia, lost his son Michael in a tragic accident at sea and each night he is soothed by an old recording of the shipping forecast, lulled to sleep by the belief that Michael is safe.
While he sleeps, Grace wonders how she ended up back here, caring for her father rather than living her own life.
One day, a young woman turns up on their farm, claiming to be Michael’s daughter.
Kathy’s portrayal of dementia is based on her own experience of caring for her father, while 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the first broadcast of the Shipping Forecast.
You can get your hands on a copy of Attention All Shipping locally at Verzon Books, which Kathy describes as a “fabulous place”, in Llandrindod Wells.
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