Jones, Jack

(British, 1884–1970)

Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Jack Jones became a miner at the age of 12 and was later a journalist. A notable left-wing speaker during the 1930s, his novels documenting conditions in industrial South Wales are coloured by his socialist convictions. Begin with Rhondda Roundabout (1934), which centres on the love between a chapel minister and a shop assistant. Jones depicts the Rhondda community retaining its identity in the face of growing economic hardship through its enthusiasm for religion, music, and sport. Black Parade (1935) chronicles the fortunes of a mining family from the beginnings of the coal boom in South Wales through to the aftermath of the General Strike. In River out of Eden (1951) the Regan family's rise to prosperity from their beginnings as Irish immigrants follows upon the growing prosperity of Cardiff as a major port.

Richard Llewellyn  DH