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. His friend John Ormond, produced his well-regarded 1972 and 1974 series on Welsh history, The Land Remembers, for the BBC, which was accompanied by his book of the same title. His autobiography, ABC of (D.) G. W, was published in 1981, while his Collected Poems, 1936–86 were published in 1987. Williams died in 1990 in Aberystwyth. His diaries of family life in Mynydd Bach were published as Summer Journal 1951.