“Everyone’s kicked a football at some point in their lives,” Nicky Malson says. “It’s something everyone can relate to.” It’s also something a lot of people take for granted, just like a trip to the swimming pool in summer or a jog in the park or a kickabout with friends.

Samantha Bond is perhaps best known for her rôle as Miss Moneypenny alongside a gadget-obsessed James Bond, but, as she tells Kate Griffin, there's nothing tricksy about her directorial debut.

They certainly know how to build up an atmosphere at Cardiff's Glee Club. Five minutes before the show starts, there's a countdown - "Ladies and gentlemen, the show will be starting in X minutes" - accompanied by coloured spotlights and music which finally segues into the Pearl and Dean tune. Luckily, the compère, Simon Clayton, lives up to all the fanfare within a few moments of coming on stage.

Romance, female emancipation and streetwalkers - it's all in a day's work for novelist Iris Gower. Kate Griffin discovers the secrets behind her success.

Ask the average English person to tell you what they know about Welsh literature, and they might name Dylan Thomas, or mutter something about the Mabinogion. Poetry from the post-Glyndwr years and 17th-century religious writings have hardly made a blip on the modern world's literary radar.