Rhiannon Davies Jones

Rhiannon Davies Jones (4 November 1921 – 22 October 2014) was a Welsh historical novelist, lecturer and Welsh nationalist who wrote in Welsh. Educated at University College Bangor, she won two prizes for short novels, two Prose Medals at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and the crown at the 1973 Anglesey Eisteddfod. Jones published ten novels with her works covering fictional diaries, her political beliefs and responses to political events, and Welsh kings and princes.

Biography Early life and education Jones was born at Meirion House in Llanbedr, Meirioneth on 4 November 1921, to the former Baptist minister of Salem chapel Hugh Davies Jones and his wife, the teacher Laura Jones (née Owen). She was the second child in the family after her elder sister Annie Davies Evans (née Jones).

Career That same year, Jones was employed as a teacher of Welsh at Brynhyfryd Grammar School, Rhuthin. There, she began writing with the support of acquaintances with literary interests in Rhuthin. Parry advised Jones to choose between poetry and prose without mixing the two. and the novel is credited by Meic Stephens of The Independent as having "gathered a momentum that it has maintained to the present day." Haf Llewelyn, writing in her entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, noted Jones' "passionate interest in her subjects is evident from the detailed research" was "the hallmark of her work" and "her beliefs and responses to political events of the period are clearly reflected in her work"