Tom Macdonald

Tom Macdonald (1900–1980) was a Welsh journalist and novelist, whose most significant publication was his highly evocative account of growing up in the north of Cardiganshire (now Ceredigion) in the years before the Great War, which was published in 1975 as The White Lanes of Summer. Biography Thomas Macdonald was born on 22 November 1900 at Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn in Cardiganshire, the son of John Macdonald (1860–1938), a tinker of Irish descent, and his second wife Ada Jones (1878–1946). He spent his early childhood in a small cottage in the village, before moving with his family first to Pen-y-garn and then going on to live in nearby Bow Street. According to his father the family name was actually MacDonnell, but had been inadvertently changed to Macdonald by the local registrar of births and deaths. Although his background was Catholic, he was deeply influenced by the Welsh Calvinistic Methodism of the community in which he lived. Tom Macdonald was initially educated at Rhydypennau Board School and then at Ardwyn Grammar School in Aberystwyth, before going on to study at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth., but, before he could graduate, his mentor died. He then embarked on a forty-year career as a newspaper journalist, first at the Cambrian News, Aberystwyth, then the Western Mail and the Daily Express. He later worked in China and Australia, before returning to Wales during the Great Depression. In 1939, he and wife, Eileen, travelled to South Africa where he eventually became chief reporter and news editor at The Sunday Times in Johannesburg, South Africa because childhood illnesses prevented him from joining up to take part in the Second World War.