Ruth Jones is a Welsh actor and screenwriter who has appeared in Little Britain, Nighty Night and Gavin and Stacey, which she co-wrote with James Corden. Her most recent role was Stella in the Sky 1 series of the same name, which she also wrote and produced. Her debut novel, Never Greener, about a mid-life couple who try to recapture the lost love of their youth, is published next month by Bantam Press (£12.99).
Why did you decide to write a novel after so many years writing for television?
I originally wrote Never Greener as a screenplay and nothing came of it. Then a couple of years ago I went for a spa break and, flicking through my laptop, I came across the screenplay and 1,000 words I’d forgotten I had written trying to adapt it as fiction. I picked it up again and started writing, just for the love of it really, and found I really enjoyed it.
Where did the storyline come from?
The original idea came to me back in 2002. Facebook and Twitter weren’t around then, but everybody was into Friends Reunited. So you heard all these stories about people contacting not just old friends but also old loves, and thinking that if only they’d stayed with them then everything would have been fine in their life. That was the impetus.
What’s the difference between writing a script and a novel?
It was a completely different experience because there are no rules. I didn’t have to think, “Oh, I’ve got to write this to the part-break and it’s got to be X number of minutes long and will we have cast availability?” So it was great to have that freedom to be able to go wherever I wanted with it and also to be able to go inside the characters’ heads. You can’t really do that on screen unless you have a voiceover.
What’s more important, character or plot?
I like to observe people, and I find people pretty fascinating. So I think character is my strength. I also think you can get story from character and character can inform plot. That’s probably just an excuse for not being very good at plot. I wish my plot muscles were stronger.
How did you approach the sex scenes?
I hope I’ve done it elegantly without making it twee. It was quite a challenge. But it was an enjoyable challenge, to keep the sexiness but not rely upon the graphic. Having said that, I am still worried about my mum reading it.
What books do you have on your bedside table?
Marian Keyes’s The Woman Who Stole My Life and Munich by Robert Harris, which I have just downloaded on my Kindle. I don’t usually read political thrillers, although I love them on screen. But I heard him being interviewed on Today and thought: let’s go in a different direction.
Which genres do you particularly enjoy reading? Are there any you avoid?
I am never going to like sci-fi or horror. The world’s bad enough as it is, quite frankly. I love multigenerational sagas. I am just finishing the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I know it’s been televised before [in 2001, as The Cazalets] but you could easily do it again. It’s much better than Downton. What I love about it is how the legacies from people’s stories are threaded through the narrative and the way things that happen in childhood carry on having repercussions for generations. It uplifts me, which it shouldn’t do, because it also makes me aware of my mortality.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins. It was the answer I gave at my interview to do drama at Manchester University in 1985 when they asked me what bedtime reading I’d done recently. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get the place. So you could say it was a life-changing book in the wrong way – but also in a good way, because I ended up going to Warwick University to do theatre studies and spent the best three years of my life there, really.
Didn’t Jackie Collins also feature in Gavin and Stacey?
Yes, for some bizarre reason we called Smithy’s grandmother Jackie Collins. The real Jackie Collins was a fan of Gavin and Stacey and loved the fact she was referenced and she invited me out for dinner, which was amazing. She was absolutely charming and wore dark glasses the whole time, and I just thought she was very elegant.
Which authors working today do you admire?
Jojo Moyes is pretty much up there for me, with the whole tragi-romance thing she manages to achieve. I literally found myself weeping when I was reading After You. Not just delicately sobbing: I was gulping. I also think Dawn French is incredibly clever.
How do you organise your books?
We’ve got a room you walk through to get to the kitchen where we’ve got floor-to-ceiling books. They’re not alphabetised or ordered at all and we have to have a cull now and again to make some room for new ones. But I do love having books, so it’s hard to let go of them, especially ones that have been around for a long time. I’ve still got all my university texts with my little notes in them. What’s that saying, a house without books is like a body without a soul? I believe that.
Do you a favourite literary hero or heroine?
I love Betsey Trotwood from David Copperfield, with her harsh, stern, loving ways.
What kind of reader were you as a child?
We used to go to the library a lot in our home town, Porthcawl, where my sister still lives and still visits the same library. My mum used to encourage us to read, although I wouldn’t say we were particularly bookish. I used to read Enid Blyton – The Secret Seven, The Famous Five and Malory Towers. My mum loved Little Women and I’ve still got the copy she bought me as an Easter present. When I got older, I discovered Thomas Hardy and loved his whole idea of fate. Dickens as well: he was someone I got really into, and Wuthering Heights. Although I read that again when I was 30-ish and it really got on my nerves. I thought it was so hedonistic. I just wanted to bash their heads together and say, “Stop being so bloody selfish”.
What’s the best book you’ve ever been given as a present?
My dad gave me a copy of A Shropshire Lad a few years ago. He died in July, so now I keep that by my bedside.
To order Never Greener for £11.04 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
