Roger Boore

Roger Boore (28 September 1938 – 30 July 2021 ) was a Welsh-language publisher and author who founded the Welsh publishing house Dref Wen.

Life and work

Roger Boore was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1938, and was brought up in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, where he attended Warwick School. He was awarded a degree in classics (“Literae Humaniores”) at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1961 and a PhD in history at University of Wales Swansea in 2005. He was qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He was a life-long enthusiast of the Welsh language, which he began learning in his teens.

In 1969-70 Boore and his wife Anne founded the Cardiff publishing house Dref Wen, which was the first press to focus mainly on full-colour Welsh language books for children, thus transforming this aspect of the Welsh book market and of Welsh culture.

Under Boore's management Dref Wen also produced bilingual and educational books for children (as it continues to do). Its many publications in that period included Llyfr Hwiangerddi y Dref Wen (the standard Welsh nursery rhyme collection), Y Geiriadur Lliwgar (Welsh children's dictionary), the “Welsh History Stories” series and the prize-winning “From Start to Finish” series on religions (each collection being issued in both Welsh and English).

Boore translated many children's books into Welsh, from a variety of languages, for publication by Dref Wen.

He retired in 1999.

In 1997 Boore received the Mary Vaughan Jones Award for his “notable contribution to the field of children’s books in Wales over a period of years”

Boore won the short story competition at the 1971 National Eisteddfod of Wales and the Prose Medal at the 1972 Pantyfedwen Eisteddfod. He published one collection of short stories, one children's novel, and, after his retirement from publishing, a ground-breaking series of five travel books.