Niall Griffiths, Sheepshagger

Laura Nee (Cardiff University)
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When it was published in 2001, Niall Griffiths' second novel,

Sheepshagger

, confirmed his reputation as one of the most exciting new voices on the British literary scene. Indeed, the cover of the paperback edition is full of superlatives from the likes of A. L. Kennedy and Irvine Welsh, extolling the virtues of the work's “beautiful prose” and “ferocious imagining”. Stylistically innovative and politically revolutionary,

Sheepshagger

(the perjorative term often used by the English to describe the Welsh) continues the story of Ianto, a minor character from Griffiths' previous novel,

Grits

(2000). Ianto is a slightly backward and dispossessed man, who had a childhood that “would've turned Mother fuckin Teresa into a murderer” (Griffiths 1). As a boy living in rural mid-Wales, he…

904 words

Citation: Nee, Laura. "Sheepshagger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22021, accessed 23 April 2024.]

22021 Sheepshagger 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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