But he’s excited by his first glimpse of the city’s tall buildings and wide streets so he stays, marries Mary (an “immigrant” of sorts, having moved to Cardiff from the valleys of South Wales) and becomes the father of six daughters. Maltese-born Frankie Gauchi arrived in Cardiff as a sailor, intending to stay only long enough to get another passage. Her story of the Gauci family from the early 60s to the end of the nineties is a stark portrayal of the reality of life for many immigrant families in Cardiff in the post-war decades: one of poverty, neglect and mental illness. The decline of this once vibrant community forms the backdrop to The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzorpardi, a deeply immersive saga of one Tiger Bay family. Even the name Tiger Bay has largely disappeared, the victim of a re-branding to “Cardiff Bay.” What remained became a victim of a docklands regeneration scheme in the late 1990s.

Most of the original terraced housing was demolished in the 1960s, replaced by an anonymous housing estate and high rise blocks of flats. Tiger Bay exists now only in people’s memories and in popular culture. They arrived from Norway, Spain, Italy and further afield from Somali and the Caribbean, making their home in Butetown, an area near the docklands that came to be known as Tiger Bay. This part of Wales was once a magnet for seafarers, merchants and workers from around the world. The Hiding Place evokes a time when the city of Cardiff was one of the oldest multi-racial communities in Britain.

The hiding place by trezza azzopardi