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A Welsh eye.
It is a very personal book--Gwyn Thomas's not a guidebook (though the reader learns much about places off the tourist track); not a solemn sociological study (though the chequered story of Welsh life in this century is the author's story too); but the idiosyncratic testament of one Welshman's love for his country and his compatriots, at times moving, often hilarious, shot through with insights no outsider could possess and sharpened by criticisms no outsider would dare make. [from back cover]
Unknown Binding
First published April 29, 1989
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About the author
Gwyn Thomas
27 books9 followersGwyn Thomas (6 July 1913 – 13 April 1981) was a Welsh writer who has been called 'the true voice of the English-speaking valleys'.
Gwyn Thomas was born in Cymmer, Porth in the Rhondda Valley, the youngest of 12 children to coalminer Walter Morgan Thomas and his wife. His mother died when he was aged six, and he was resultantly brought up by his sister, often with handouts from the local soup kitchen.
After winning a scholarship, Thomas studied Spanish at the University of Oxford. Plagued by mysterious health problems, terribly poor and depressed, it was only after spending a summer and a term at the end of his second year at Complutense University of Madrid, thanks to a miners' scholarship, that he decided to complete his studies. Thomas was diagnosed at the age of 23 with an undiagnosed thyroid malfunction that had been poisoning him for years, which was operated on to avoid his death.
On graduation and wanting to be a writer, Thomas struggled to establish himself during the 1930s depression. He took on part-time lecturing jobs across England, while trying to get his novel Sorrow For Thy Sons published.
He married his childhood friend Lynn Williams in Pontypridd Registry Office on 5 January 1938. Failing to pass the British Army medical at the outbreak of World War II thanks to 20 years of smoking, he returned to Wales in 1940 and taught at the WEA. He then became a schoolteacher, first teaching French in Cardigan, and then Spanish in Barry at Barry County Boys School for 20 years.
Post war, his wife decided to send some of his short stories to three publishers, who all accepted the scripts for publication. Approached in 1951 by a BBC Radio Wales producer to write for the radio, he returned to his childhood memories of 1920s South Wales to create Gazuka!
A prolific novelist and short-story writer, he became a regular on chat shows such as the Brain's Trust, and after 20 years of teaching in 1962 he became a full-time writer and broadcaster, retiring with his wife to Peterstone.
However, due to a combination of diabetes, heavy drinking and smoking, his health began to fail in the late 1960s. In 1981 Thomas collapsed and was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where he died on 13 April, shortly before his 68th birthday
Gwyn Thomas was born in Cymmer, Porth in the Rhondda Valley, the youngest of 12 children to coalminer Walter Morgan Thomas and his wife. His mother died when he was aged six, and he was resultantly brought up by his sister, often with handouts from the local soup kitchen.
After winning a scholarship, Thomas studied Spanish at the University of Oxford. Plagued by mysterious health problems, terribly poor and depressed, it was only after spending a summer and a term at the end of his second year at Complutense University of Madrid, thanks to a miners' scholarship, that he decided to complete his studies. Thomas was diagnosed at the age of 23 with an undiagnosed thyroid malfunction that had been poisoning him for years, which was operated on to avoid his death.
On graduation and wanting to be a writer, Thomas struggled to establish himself during the 1930s depression. He took on part-time lecturing jobs across England, while trying to get his novel Sorrow For Thy Sons published.
He married his childhood friend Lynn Williams in Pontypridd Registry Office on 5 January 1938. Failing to pass the British Army medical at the outbreak of World War II thanks to 20 years of smoking, he returned to Wales in 1940 and taught at the WEA. He then became a schoolteacher, first teaching French in Cardigan, and then Spanish in Barry at Barry County Boys School for 20 years.
Post war, his wife decided to send some of his short stories to three publishers, who all accepted the scripts for publication. Approached in 1951 by a BBC Radio Wales producer to write for the radio, he returned to his childhood memories of 1920s South Wales to create Gazuka!
A prolific novelist and short-story writer, he became a regular on chat shows such as the Brain's Trust, and after 20 years of teaching in 1962 he became a full-time writer and broadcaster, retiring with his wife to Peterstone.
However, due to a combination of diabetes, heavy drinking and smoking, his health began to fail in the late 1960s. In 1981 Thomas collapsed and was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where he died on 13 April, shortly before his 68th birthday
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May 9, 2021
One raconteur's idiosyncratic testament to the sadness, solemnity, and hilarity of the mining communities of the south Wales valleys. Gwyn habitually writes with bitter-sweet humour; outpourings of sardonic, self-deprecating wit often disclose as well as attempt to disguise a deep ambivalence surrounding the relationship to community and self. Ultimately, the prevailing sentiment always seems to be of love - intense, unabashed love.
The book is an eclectic mish-mash comprised of semi-autobiographical vignettes, short stories, and introspection. Interspersed throughout are wonderful illustrations by John Dd. Evans, the perfect compliment to this unique book.
The book is an eclectic mish-mash comprised of semi-autobiographical vignettes, short stories, and introspection. Interspersed throughout are wonderful illustrations by John Dd. Evans, the perfect compliment to this unique book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review