A FORMER journalist from Penarth has launched his new novel, a fact meets fiction work which takes a look at the dramatic events leading up to the 1979 Welsh Referendum.

Ten Million Stars Are Burning is journalist and politics expert John Osmond’s new novel.

The book features real people and situations alongside the main fictional protagonists – a journalist Owen James and a Welsh language activist Rhiannon Jones-Davies.

Readers will recognise characters, including Leo Abse MP, Gwynfor Evans MP who were active at the time, as well as Lord Neil Kinnock and Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas.

Mr Osmond, a father of three, was working as political correspondent with The Western Mail during the 1970s, the period covered in Ten Million Stars Are Burning.

He has combined his memories of the time with extensive research to piece together Ten Million Stars Are Burning.

“A lot of research has gone into the book,” said Mr Osmond.

“I spent many hours in the National Library in Aberystwyth. Virtually everything that happens in the novel actually took place in real life.”

He says Rhiannon’s role is especially important.

“I wanted to have female characters in the novel but this proved a challenge because during the 1970s there were so few women at the forefront of politics,” he explained.

“There were no female MPs and only a handful of female councillors in Wales at that time. Cymdeithas yr Iaith was an exception in having women in leadership roles.”

In Ten Million Stars Are Burning, Mr Osmond follows in the footsteps of classics such as War and Peace and Dr Zhivago – setting a drama against real historical events.

“The book started life as a history,” he explained.

“But in the course of the writing it became clear to me that getting across the full meaning of what happened in this crucial period would be better achieved if treated imaginatively.

“At the same time, it is often the case that real life events can be more vivid than fiction. What I’ve set out to do is combine the two.”

The title of the book comes from the poem Gwalia Deserta by Idris Davies.

“It contains for me the idea that Wales has survived against the odds thanks to the will and determination of individual personalities,” Mr Osmond said.

“The existence of a Welsh identity, the relationship of land with language, and our sense of nationhood depends upon the will of a small minority of people.

“Despite everything – we are still here – ‘Yma o hyd’.”

Ten Million Stars Are Burning published by GOMER is available now in local bookshops or online at gwales.com or amazon.co.uk priced £11.99.