Girlo Wolf longs for something beyond the defunct slag heaps of post-industrial Wales and nurtures dreams of becoming a poet. But, struggling with mental health challenges and the repercussions of childhood trauma, she falls into a dark underworld of sex, drugs and alcohol. Poet and activist Gemma June Howell discusses her darkly comedic novel The Crazy Truth, which sheds light on the harsh realities of economic poverty and present-day oppression, with author Rachel Trezise. Howell is director of Women Publishing Wales.

‘The oral tradition in Welsh poetry stretches back centuries to the roots of Welsh culture and these poems are its modern version. They are to be read out and heard, to be experienced in the real world which Gemma lives in, the streets and public places of the South Wales valleys and it is a hard world of bus shelters as community centres, job-seekers offices and dead-end housing estates. If you want to hear the authentic voice of a young woman whose anger and contempt for the establishment burns in her verse, buy this.’