BLACKOUT: The Dark Side of the Valleys

Wales Versus England. Ambition Versus Apathy. Technology Versus Mother Nature. Tonight's the Night: Ready for a Fight? Beneath the blackout of oblivion caused by alcohol, drugs and abuse of power which has all but destroyed a seemingly irrelevant community, lays chronically unexpressed human love. Two generations after the coal mines closed down, a metaphorical blackout has seized control of a tiny community in the South Wales Valleys. Life is truly toxic for Tessa, a factory worker who makes clocks by day and drinks herself into oblivion by night. Trapped not only in her own situation, but also by her abusive mother, Tessa has one ambition left: to become the human resources manager at the Tick-Tock factory. Meanwhile, the London-based owner of the factory sends his son to do the job but Sam wants to be a famous musician instead. In a fit of despair, Tessa screams the Welsh National Anthem on top of the Brecon Beacons. There she meets Sam who recruits her as his 'backing singer,' convincing Tessa that, in the year 2000, there is only one ambition worth pursuing: Fame. Amidst much abuse from her mother, Tessa quits the council estate and moves in with Sam, unaware of his true identity. Sam quickly finds himself the target of a culture in which there is no 'Welcome in the Hillside' as the popular myth would have strangers believe. Driven by his obsession for fame and armed with state-of-the-art technology, Sam sets out to control Tessa’s every move while simultaneously maintaining a false identity for himself. Determined to supersede the condescending title of ‘backing singer,’ Tessa sets out to prove Sam wrong about absolutely everything. The idyllic rural setting becomes a stage for psychological warfare in which class, gender and history clash to the point of catastrophe. When a blackout plunges the valley into darkness, Tessa and Sam are forced to face each other and their innermost selves. By candlelight they exchange genders and are offered the opportunity to finally know human love for one night alone. Written in partial streams-of-consciousness, the reader is intermittently taken inside Tessa's tortured mind throughout the novel, making the book an intimate rendering of the psychology of addiction. Not for the fainthearted, this story is an unflinching portrayal of the implacable effects of child abuse and resultant substance addiction and their effects upon the human spirit. Read more