The Noisy Valley

THE NOISY VALLEY

True stories of protest from the Rhondda Valley

• Publishing Company:

  MYFANWY TRISTRAM

• Imprint:

  PEARLMAN AND LACEY

• Format:

  ONE SHOT

• Creator(s):

  MYFANWY TRISTRAM (WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR)

• Number of Pages:

  120

• Publication Date:

  TBC

• Age:

  ADULT, ALL AGES

• Fiction/Non-Fiction

  NON-FICTION

• Key words:

  POLITICS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, DOCU-DRAMA, DOCUMENTARY, PROTEST,

• Summary:

  The Noisy Valley is a documentary comic, depicting the true stories of protest based on interviews with residents of the Rhondda Valley, a beautiful and resilient, yet politically overlooked and deprived area of South Wales.

  The artist met with local people and asked them to tell her about times when they had stood up in protest for what was right. The resulting stories are universal in their appeal, and deeply touching. They range from a first person account of visiting the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, to a mass singalong in the valley to protest a waste processing plant. In total there are ten stories – or 12 if you also count those included in the book’s introductory chapter.

  The work is a direct response to the current erosion of our rights to protest in the UK – something that is being replicated in many countries around the world as our politics swing to the far right. Protest is in the air right now, thanks to several factors: the climate movement, dismayed at the lack of governmental action to tackle carbon emissions; the rise of Black Lives Matter; the cost of living crisis and stagnated wages in our public services; war in Gaza and Ukraine. And it’s because of the rise in protest – and new tactics from movements such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil – that the police have been given new powers to crack down on it.

  We’re living through a time of tension, when authority is struggling to contain the voice of the people. It’s a fascinating subject, and everyone seems to have an opinion on it. With The Noisy Valley, we’re able to zoom into one small area of the world and see the massive value of protest, and the way it has righted wrongs through the years.