Ronald Anthony [Ron] Berry (1920–1997) was born and brought up in Blaen-cwm, in the valley of the Rhondda Fawr, Glamorgan. He had a variety of jobs during his life including mining, military service and boxing. Chronic ill health prevented him from finding regular work but he began to write essays, stories and poems. His first novel was Hunters and Hunted (1960), and other works followed.
The collection includes published and unpublished novels such as Flame and Slag, Hunters and Hunted, So Long, Hector Bebb, The Full Time Amateur, This Bygone, Travelling Loaded, Below Lord’s Head Mountain, Jonesy Makes Connections and More Guts Than Sense.
Elaine Morgan (1920-2013) studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and went on to have a long and varied career as a writer. As well as the screenplays for numerous well known dramas and adaptations for television, she was also known for her writing on biological anthropology and newspaper columns. She received numerous awards, including two BAFTAs, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2009 she received an OBE for services to literature and education.
The collection includes scripts for Dr Finlay’s Casebook, Marie Curie, Lil, Lloyd George, as well as many other titles written or adapted by Elaine Morgan.
Raymond Henry Williams (1921–1988) is known as a literary scholar and novelist, but also wrote a number of short stories. He attended King Henry VIII Grammar School, Abergavenny, and later read English at Trinity College, Cambridge. He served in the no. 21 anti-tank regiment during World War Two. He taught as a staff tutor of the Oxford University Extra-Mural Delegacy (1946–1961) and later returned to Cambridge. His output included academic works, fiction and book reviews, as well as writing for The Listener. His debut novel was Border Country (1960).
The collection includes Border Country and the associated Border Village as well as The Fight for Manod, The Volunteers, The Grasshoppers and People of the Black Mountains.
Alun Morgan Richards (1929-2004) was a prolific and professional writer whose work included television dramatisations, novels, short stories, plays, and pieces for radio. Before taking up writing full time he served in the Royal Navy and worked as a teacher in Cardiff and a probation officer in London. His work was particularly connected to the non-Welsh speaking south Wales and to maritime themes.
The collection includes text for the maritime novels Ennal’s Point and Barque Whisper.