Azzopardi, TrezzaNovelist
Born in Cardiff Wales, her father hails from Xewkija, Gozo and migrated to Wales in the early fifties, where he married her mother who is Welsh. Ms Azzopardi wrote The Hiding Place (published by Picador) which in 2000 was listed for the Booker Prize, Britain's best-known literary award. It is the story of a migrant Maltese man raising a family in Wales. In her interview with Greta Borg Carabott (The Malta Independent, 12 October, 2000, p 8) she says: 'Some people I have spoken to did not even realise there was a Maltese language, let alone that there are distinct traditions and habits.' Novelist Trezza Azzopardi, was born in Cardiff in the early sixties. She is the daughter of a Welsh mother and Maltese father, who migrated to the UK from Xewkija, Gozo. Ms. Azzopardi was discovered when she began a postgraduate creative writing course at the University of East Anglia. She acquired a publisher shortly after writing the first chapter of her novel, The Hiding Place as as part of her course. The book centres on the life of a Maltese migrant, Frankie Gauci, and his family, who settled in Tiger Bay Cardiff, in 1948. Set in the Cardiff criminal underworld, the bleak story is told through the eyes of Frankie's daughter, Dolores. The book was published by Picador in August 2000 and has since been translated into 14 languages. In October that year,The Hiding Place was among six novels shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, as well as other awards. Azzopardi is now working on her second novel.
  
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