Comprehensive and detailed biography of Gwyn Thomas, acclaimed Welsh teacher, novelist, playwright, broadcaster and TV personality, one of the great names of Anglo-Welsh writing. There was a strong political side to Thomas’s character which naturally impacted his writing and this is fully explored here. The biography will be of interest to those already familiar with Gwyn Thomas’s life and work but of especial interest to those who, like myself, have never heard of him. It’s a sympathetic and insightful portrait of this most interesting and accomplished man. After reading the book I have been inspired to search out his novels, and am looking forward to reading them.

Gwyn Thomas once admitted that whilst his novels were full of the love of people, they were not full of the love of life, an effect of the nihilistic worldview inherited from his mother. It was this cynicism, albeit with a strain of dark humour running through it, that coloured his life as a coruscating writer and celebrated raconteur.

In the most in-depth biography of Gwyn Thomas yet published, Daryl Leeworthy makes use of letters and documents, many published for the first time, to deliver an unprecedented portrait of a complex and often contradictory man. Fiercely political (at least in his heart) with communist leanings, Gwyn Thomas was an angry young man who experienced the “split-personality” due to the dwindling use of the Welsh language in his hometown and own home, in a sense growing up as both Welsh and English.

Affected at a young age by the early death of his mother which gave Thomas a cynical, often bleak worldview which informed his written work. Ill-health, both physical and mental, and the widespread unemployment and decline of his native South Wales also marked his writing. But the humour that would see him become a popular mainstay of ‘70s television never wavered. He drifted through a multitude of jobs, most of which drove him to various kinds of utter despair, before settling into married life and teaching in Barry.

Thomas’ skilful and lyrical way with words bursts from the page thanks to the many, sometimes lengthy, quotes from Gwyn’s letters and books, and his voice is clear and resonant throughout. There is also a wealth of welcome information about the many foreign editions of Gwyn’s novels, and his vast influence in Europe and the USA in general, although he was banned in Ireland. The longest chapter in the book is devoted to Thomas’ famed television and radio appearances, the media in which he made his biggest and best remembered impact. There is also deep insight into his mostly successful yet chequered life as a playwright.

Part biography and part savage, excoriating political and social history of South Wales and the wider world in the mid-20th century, Daryl Leeworthy makes a bold attempt at capturing Gwyn Thomas the man, but, through no fault of the author, he remains somewhat elusive. Nevertheless this is an excellent and readable book, and as thorough a biography of the towering man of Welsh letters as we’re ever likely to get.

Gwyn Thomas, born in 1913, the last of 12 children, Oxford educated, travelled to Spain before the civil war before becoming a teacher in South Wales, close to where he has been raised, before, in the 1940s beginning his career as a writer, novelist, playwright, journalist and short story writer. He published well received works such as The Dark Philosphers (which I adored), and over the following four decades became one of the resoundingly great names of Anglo-Welsg writing.

I have loved and admired every work of Thomas' that I have read (and intend to read those that I haven't yet), so I was deeply intrigued when I learned that Daryl Leeworthy was publishing this monumental biography. This work is built upon letters, writing and other works of Thomas, many of which are being reviewed by Leeworthy for the very first time, meaning this is the most complete biography of Thomas we have had. Leeworthy makes a very conscious and correct decision to quote, sometimes at length, from these items, meaning that we can hear Thomas' voice and Leeworthy's erudite and insightful commentary besides it.

I really liked the way that Leeworthy constructed this biography. It is not a typical birth to death narrative, rather a thematic overview, focusing principally on the creative aspects of Thomas' life. There was much here that I did not know, and it has helped re-shape my understanding and appreciation of those works by Thomas which I have read. It also made me wish that much of the TV work that Thomas was involved in be available and made me hope that much if the unpublished material Leeworthy refers to will see light of day (Parthian Books, I'm looking at you and your Library of Wales series through which I first discovered Thomas' novels).

For anybody interested in the writing of Thomas, the history of Anglo-Welsh writing, this is a must-read. I hope its publication brings more people to become aware of how significant a writer Thomas was, and how his writing can still speak to us today.

Thank you to Parthian Books, and to Daryl Leeworthy, for the ARC.