Fiction
ISBN: 9781854110015
Publication date: November 12, 1009
Price: £6.95
Out of stock
Most of the stories are set in Gwyn Thomas’s native South Wales Valleys during the Depression of the 1920s and 30s. The conditions then – massive unemployment, poverty, emigration, loss of self-esteem – are the basis of Thomas’s art. The result is not a grey or embittered writing; a highly developed sense of irony couches Thomas’s indignation at social injustice and economic decline in a whirl of comic invention. He portrays a comradely, egalitarian community exploring itself in cramped houses, Italian cafes, pubs, Workingmen’s Instituates and back lanes. Selected Short Stories shows that Thomas’s vision of South Wales remains unsurpassed in humour and compassion. This edition is introduced by his biographer, Michael Parnell.
Gwyn Thomas
Gwyn Thomas (1913 – 1981) was a novelist, playwright, broadcaster and raconteur who, by the time of his early death, was widely admired as all these things, in addition to being a much-loved columnist in Punch. Once described as ’the greatest talker in the world’ he was the veteran entertainer of The Brains Trust and Tonight, and a moving commentator on the Aberfan disaster. A former schoolmaster turned novelist turned programme maker, Thomas’s friends included Richard Burton, Jack Hylton, Stanley Baker, Sam Wannamaker and Donald Houston.
Michael Parnell
Michael Parnell (1934-1991) was for many years Senior Lecturer in English at the Polytechnic of Wales. In addition to editing Gwyn Thomas’s Selected Short Stories, he was also the author of Eric Linklater: A Critical Biography, which won the Yorkshire Post Prize for Best First Work in 1984.
