Owen Sheers (1974-) grew up in Abergavenny and has received considerable acclaim for his poetry, drama and prose. Owen was named by The Independent on Sunday as one of Britain's Top Thirty Young Writers and was picked out by former poet laureate Andrew Motion as "poetry's great hope". He presented the six-part series 'A Poet's Guide to Britain', first aired on BBC Four in 2009. Sheers' debut novel, Resistance (Faber and Faber, 2007), begins in an imagined 1944 in which Russia fell and the D-day landings were unsuccessful. Half of Britain is occupied, and in the isolated Olchon Valley, a group of farm women, abandoned by their husbands and sons, are forced to endure winter alongside the occupying force. Derivative themes of simmering restlessness and anxiety permeate the narrative. A film adaptation, with a screenplay written by Sheers, was released in autumn 2011.