Gwenlyn Parry

197 Pages·2013·2.276 MB·English

by  Roger Owen

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Writers of Wales
Gwenlyn Parry
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Editors:
Meic Stephens
Jane Aaron
M. Wynn Thomas
Honorary Series Editor:
R. Brinley Jones
Other titles in the Writers of Wales series:
Welsh Periodicals in English 1882–2012 (2013), Malcolm Ballin
Ruth Bidgood (2012), Matthew Jarvis
Dorothy Edwards (2011), Claire Flay
Kate Roberts (2011), Katie Gramich
Geoffrey of Monmouth (2010), Karen Jankulak
Herbert Williams (2010), Phil Carradice
Rhys Davies (2009), Huw Osborne
R. S. Thomas (2006), Tony Brown
Ben Bowen (2003), T. Robin Chapman
James Kitchener Davies (2002), M. Wynn Thomas
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Writers of Wales
Gwenlyn Parry
Roger Owen
University of Wales Press
Cardiff 2013
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© Roger Owen, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium
by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to
some other use of this publication) without the written permission
of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the
copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this
publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10
ColumbusWalk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-7083-2662-6
e-ISBN 978-0-7083-2663-3
The right of Roger Owen to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher acknowledges the financial support of the Welsh Books
Council.
Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Fenn Typesetting, Cardiff
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
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To Sally, with all my love
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of illustrations xi
Introduction xiii
1 ‘Llanbabo it is to us and Llanbabo it will remain’:
Early Life 1
2 ‘God help me, I cannot escape from this’:
Three Short Plays 13
3 ‘A kind of self-therapy’: Saer Doliau 31
4 ‘A revolution . . . where one man takes over the empire
of the other’: T} ar y Tywod 45
5 ‘A Welsh Tom and Jerry’: Fo a Fe and Y Ffin 60
6 ‘In the middle of the seventies experience’:
Pobol y Cwm and Grand Slam 78
7 ‘They will also argue and fight and talk about their
fear of death etc.’: Y T{r 88
8 ‘You know who’s in the balance?’: Sal 108
9 ‘Any bloody fool can play dame’: Panto 121
10 ‘Everything will be fine now, you’ll see’: Later Life 137
Postscript 145
Notes 147
Select Bibliography 160
Index 167
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