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John Davies (25 April 1938 – 16 February 2015) was a
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
historian, and a television and radio broadcaster. He attended university at Cardiff and Cambridge and taught Welsh at Aberystwyth. He wrote a number of books on Welsh history.


Education

Davies was born in the
Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fa ...
,
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, and studied at both
University College, Cardiff , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...
, and
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
.


Life and work

Davies was married with four children. In later life he acknowledged that he was bisexual. After teaching Welsh history at the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...
, he retired to
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...
, and appeared frequently as a presenter and contributor to
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
programmes on
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
. In the mid-1980s, Davies was commissioned to write a concise
history of Wales The history of what is now Wales () begins with evidence of a Neanderthal presence from at least 230,000 years ago, while ''Homo sapiens'' arrived by about 31,000 BC. However, continuous habitation by modern humans dates from the period after ...
by
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.A History of Wales, Preface "I seized the opportunity to write of Wales and the Welsh. When I had finished, I had a typescript which was almost three times larger than the original commission," wrote Davies. The original voluminous typescript was first published in hardback under the ''Allen Lane'' imprint. Davies took a sabbatical from his post at the
University College of Wales Aberystwyth University ( cy, Prifysgol Aberystwyth) is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying ...
and wrote most of the chapters while touring Europe. Davies dedicated ''Hanes Cymru'' to his wife, Janet Mackenzie Davies. ''Hanes Cymru'' was translated into English and published in 1993, as there was "a demand among English-speakers to read what was already available to Welsh-speakers," wrote Davies. A revised edition was published (in both languages) in 2007. In 2005, Davies received the
Glyndŵr Award The Glyndŵr Award ( Welsh: Gwobr Glyndŵr) is made for an outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales. It is given by the Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust to pre-eminent figures in music, art and literature in rotation. The award takes its name af ...
for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during the
Machynlleth Festival The Machynlleth Festival takes place in the Auditorium of The Tabernacle, Machynlleth, Wales in late August every year. During the week eminent performers take part in events ranging from recitals for children to jazz. Events The festival begi ...
. He won the 2010
Wales Book of the Year The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently ad ...
for ''Cymru: Y 100 lle i'w gweld cyn marw''. Davies lived in Grangetown,
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...
. To mark his 75th birthday in 2013, the
Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...
television channel
S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...
broadcast a programme, ''Gwirionedd y Galon: Dr John Davies'', about his life and his home and in 2014 published his autobiography in Welsh. Davies died at the age of 76 in 2015 and, as a tribute to his longstanding friend, Jon Gower republished Davies' autobiography in English.


Works

*''Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute, (Writers of Wales)'', University of Wales Press, January 1980, *''A History of Wales'', Penguin, 1994, (Revised edition 2007, ) *''Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales'', University of Wales Press, 1994, *''The Making of Wales'', The History Press, 2nd edition printing: Oct 1, 2009, *''The Celts'',
Cassell & Co Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell & ...
, 2000 , based upon the S4C documentary series ''
The Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
'' *'' The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales'',
University of Wales Press The University of Wales Press ( cy, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru) was founded in 1922 as a central service of the University of Wales. The press publishes academic journals and around seventy books a year in the English and Welsh languages on six general ...
, April 17, 2008, *''Wales: 100 Places to See Before You Die'' (with Marian Delyth), Y Lolfa, 2010, *''Fy Hanes I: Hunangofiant'' (autobiography in Welsh), Y Lolfa, 2014, *''A Life in History'' (autobiography translated into English by Jon Gower), Y Lolfa, 2015,


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John 1938 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Welsh historians Alumni of Cardiff University Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of Aberystwyth University People from Treorchy Historians of Wales Welsh-speaking academics Welsh-speaking writers 21st-century Welsh historians