Catrin Collier
Karen Watkins (née Jones, born 1948), writing as Catrin Collier, is a Welsh novelist known for her historical works, especially those in the ''Hearts of Gold'' series, set in her home town of Pontypridd between 1930 and 1950, the first of which was adapted as a BBC drama in 2003. She also writes under the pen names Katherine John/ K. A. John (crime novels), Katherine Hardy (novelisations of television programmes) and Caro French (modern fiction). Early life Collier is of East Prussian descent, with her mother, Gerda Salewski, born in Allenstein, East Prussia, in 1926. Her father, Glyn Jones, was a Welsh Guardsman serving in Germany when he met Gerda. They were married in Pontypridd in July 1947. Collier was born there in 1948 and grew up in the town. As a comprehensive school teacher, she taught English and drama to A level in schools in Swansea and West Glamorgan. Career Her book ''One last Summer'' is based on war-time diaries kept by her mother and maternal grandmothe ...
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Pontypridd
() (colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng (Trallwn) and Treforest (). The town mainly falls within the Senedd and UK parliamentary constituency by the same name, although the and wards fall within the Cynon Valley Senedd constituency and the Cynon Valley UK parliamentary constituency. This change was effective for the 2007 Welsh Assembly election, and for the 2010 UK General Election. The town sits at the junction of the and Taff valleys, where the River Rhondda flows into the Taff just south of the town at War Memorial Park. community recorded a population of about 32,700 in the 2011 census figures. while Pontypridd Town ward itself was recorded as having a population of 2,919 also as of 2011. The town lies alongside the north–south dual carriageway A470 between Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil. The A405 ...