Gwyn Williams

Professor David Gwyn Williams, usually known simply as Gwyn Williams (24 August 1904 – 24 December 1990) was a Welsh poet, novelist, translator and academic.

Born in Port Talbot, he was educated at the University College of Wales and Jesus College, Oxford. As an academic he taught at Cairo, Alexandria where he first became Professor of English Literature, Benghazi, and Istanbul. While in Egypt he befriended a number of expat writers including Lawrence Durrell. In Egypt he began to work on translations of Welsh poetry into English, pioneering works which were published during the 1950s. On his retirement in 1969 he returned to Wales and concentrated on writing, producing a series of novels, four travel books (including one in Welsh), and numerous other works. A fluent Welsh-speaker, he was a committed member of Plaid Cymru.