Llewellyn, Richard

(British, 1906–83)

Born in St David's, Llewellyn wrote film-scripts and stage-plays after army service and working in film studios. A Welsh environment in childhood, and his research, including several months as a collier, contributed to the authenticity of his best-selling novel How Green was My Valley (1939), made into a popular film. Llewellyn depicts, with lyricism, realism, and humour, a Welsh mining community and the gradual disintegration of its unity and ideals. There are strong emotional resonances in the narrative told by the central character who, with those left of his family (like many others before them), eventually has to leave their valley. A massive tip hangs over the community, symbolic of economic greed. Realism and romanticism are fused, with a power Llewellyn never achieved again. He wrote twenty-three novels, including None But the Lonely Heart (1943), set in 1930s’ London, and Bride of Israel, My Love (1974), a vivid story of love, danger, and idealism in modern Israel.

Dylan Thomas, Alexander Cordell  GC