ABOUT OUR SOME OF OUR WRITERS THIS MONTH · 29 July 05 · Issue 2

E. Ronald Morris is one of Mid Wales best known and best respected historians. From the Llanidloes area, he graduated in history from Cardiff University and spent his working life teaching history at Llanfyllin High School and also teaching adults for the WEA. On his retirement, he returned to Llanidloes where he still pursues his love of history having been Chairman of the Arwystli Society for a while and is now a member the Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society. He has special interest in radical politics, Chartism in particular, as his great-grandfather, David Morris, was imprisoned as one of the Chartists involved in the 1839 Riot in Llanidloes. He was edtor of the Montgomeryshire Collections for 21 years and he has written many books including Atlas Hanesyddol Maldwyn (the Welsh edition of the Montgomeryshire Historical Atlas), Llanidloes Town and Parish: an illustrated account, and Chartism in Llanidloes 1838-39.

Brian Poole was a staff member of Coleg Powys. His teaching career, which began in 1967, rising to Assistant Principal, within the Agricultural Department of the then Montgomery College took him to many farms within every parish in Powys. He retired in 1996 and in 1998 he was asked to research the reason for a Heavy Conversion Unit Halifax crash at Bwlch-y-ffridd. This honed the skills of archive research and of recording the recollections of local people and the family of the crew; as a result, Down in Aberhafesp was published. The same technique was used to revise the story of the Mawddwy, Van and Kerry branches and now two volumes on the Clwyedog have been completed entitled Cement to Llanidloes and Concrete in Clwyedog. He is now working on the history of the Montgomeryshire bus companies.

Reginald Massey, journalist, broadcaster and film maker has written for The Times and The Guardian and specialist magazines such as The Dancing Times and The Stage. He is the author of several books the latest of which is a collection of short stories. He has an MA in English Literature and is an FRSA and Member of the Society of Authors. He and his actress wife Jamila Massey moved to Llanidloes over 15 years ago. His website:www.reginaldmassey.co.uk

Peter Dean was born in London although his family have lived in Llanyre for 400 years. With diplomas in Public Administration from the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and sociology from the University of Keele, he has spent most of his life working in the voluntary sector with special interests in culture and the arts and was awarded a life fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts for services to the development of three regional arts associations. After a 2-year break in the mid 1970s when he bought and ran the Mid-Wales Inn in Pantydwr, he returned to the voluntary sector to work for the Centre for International Affaires in Cardiff, to fund raise for UNICEF’s the Year of the Child for the children in Lesotho in S. Africa raising £120,000 in the process, and to head up the Year of the Disabled Appeal, which he left prematurely in 1980 to become the director of Powys Rural Council. Now retired, he lives in Mid Wales, contentedly tending his garden.

Norma Allen is a native of Llandrindod Wells, although her mother’s family came from Llanidloes. She worked at a special needs teacher in England for many years and has now returned to Wales on her retirement, to Llandinam, where she has lived for the past three years. A love of writing has drawn her to study for an MA in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth. Her Grandfather was a lamplighter in Llanidloes and this is what has inspired her story.

August Mullen
Nothing is known about Mr. Mullen except the facts at hand…

Dr. David Stephenson is an authority on Welsh Medieval History. With books published in all leading Welsh history journals, he came to Wales from Oxford University and Cambridge and he is now Honorary Research Fellow in Welsh History at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Tyler Keevil is a Canadian who lives currently in Llanidloes. A published writer and winner of several awards, he is about to attend Aberystwyth’s Creative Writing MA programme.

Maus, Matt, a practising lycanthrope, is approaching, (from the wrong side), the latter stages of his early middle age. His hobbies include addition, freshwater drinking and collecting letters.

The Editor. Gay Roberts is an experienced writer and editor, who came to Mid-Wales in 1972 and has resented leaving it ever since. A “Jill-of-all-trades” (a butterfly mind really), she writes articles and the occasional booklet but nothing longer because she can’t be bothered to spin her ideas out to book length. PenCambria is full of things she likes to read about and she hopes you do too.