Ronald Anthony Berry (23 February 1920 – 16 July 1997) was a Welsh author of novels and short stories. Born in the
Rhondda Valleys where he remained for most his life, his books reflect the working class of the industrial valleys though his vision is more optimistic and there is less concern for politics and religion which was expressed by many of his contemporaries.
Although largely overlooked during his lifetime, Berry has been embraced by contemporary Welsh authors including
Rachel Trezise
Rachel Trezise (born 1978) is a Welsh author, born in Cwmparc, Wales. Her debut collection of short stories, ''Fresh Apples'', won the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006.
Early life
Rachel Trezise was born in Cwmparc, Rhondda in 1978. Her fam ...
and
Niall Griffiths
Niall Griffiths (born 1966) is an English author of novels and short stories, set predominantly in Wales. His works include two novels ''Grits'' and ''Sheepshagger'', and his 2003 publication ''Stump'' which won the Wales Book of the Year award. ...
, and also by contemporary researchers.
Personal history
Berry was born in 1920 in
Blaencwm
Blaencwm ( cy, Blaen-y-Cwm) is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, lying at the head the Rhondda Fawr valley. Two collieries were opened here during the Industrial Revolution, the Dunraven Colliery in 1865 and the Glenrho ...
, a small village at the head of the Rhondda Fawr.
The son of a coal miner, Berry left school at the age of 14, and he too took employment at a local colliery.
He remained a coal miner until the outbreak of World War II where he served in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and later in the
Merchant Navy.
Berry undertook several roles in his younger days, including amateur boxing and also played association football for
Swansea Town, reportedly scoring a vital goal in a cup match.
Though a knee injury in 1943 ended his sporting career.
He later became a carpenter, working around Wales and in London.
He married Rene Jones in 1948, with whom he had five children, two sons and three daughters.
He took up various jobs, and wrote some early essays and poetry for which he was unable to find a publisher.
In the 1950s, Berry studied at
Coleg Harlech
Coleg Harlech was a residential adult education college for mature students in Harlech, Gwynedd, later on part of Adult Learning Wales - Addysg Oedolion Cymru.
History
It was Wales' only long-term, mature-student residential education colle ...
, a further education college in
Gwynedd. There he became an avid reader and honed his left-wing political views.
A failed attempt to enter teacher training college saw he and Rene return to the Rhondda, taking up residence in
Treherbert
Treherbert () is a village and community situated at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Historically part of Glamorgan, Treherbert is a former industrial coal mining village which was at its e ...
.
It was in Treherbert, where he took on a job as the assistant manager of the local swimming baths, that he first began writing his first published novels.
His written works were never successful enough to allow Berry to be financially secure and in the 1970s he relied on several friends, and the support of
Sir Wyn Roberts in obtaining for him a Civil list pension.
In his later life he was plagued with arthritis and poor health and he died in Pontypridd in 1997.
Written work
Berry's first work was ''Hunters and Hunted'' (1960), which followed the sexual adventures of three men over three seasons in a Welsh valley. It received good reviews.
Over the next ten years he published a further four novels, ''Travelling Loaded'' (1963), ''The Full-Time Amateur'' (1966), ''Flame and Slag'' (1968) and ''So Long, Hector Bebb'' (1970). After ''So Long, Hector Bebb'', Berry's published output waned. He wrote an account of watching
peregrine falcons in the upper Rhondda 1987, entitled ''Peregrine Watching''.
Berry's final novel ''This Bygone'' was published in 1996.
The autobiographical ''History is What you Live'' was published by Gomer in 1998) and an edited collection of short stories, ''Collected Stories'' (2000) were both released posthumously.
Berry also wrote several short stories and essays, and wrote several plays for BBC television.
''So Long Hector Bebb'' and ''Flame and Slag'' were both reprinted by the Library of Wales series in 2006 and 2012.
Berry also left an extensive collection of unpublished writing (including the unpublished novel 'Below Lord's Head Mountain', draft manuscripts, and correspondence, which was deposited at the Richard Burton Archives,
Swansea University
Swansea University ( cy, Prifysgol Abertawe) is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. ...
by Berry's family.
Writing style
Berry's work was deeply-rooted in the south Wales coalfield, in particular the Rhondda Fawr valley.
His work was a shift from the romanticised popular work of
Richard Llewellyn
Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (; 8 December 1906 – 30 November 1983), known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn ( , ), was an English-born novelist of Welsh descent, who is best remembered for his 1939 novel '' How Green Was My Va ...
and
Alexander Cordell
Alexander Cordell (9 September 1914 – 9 July 1997) was the pen name of George Alexander Graber. He was a prolific Welsh novelist and author of 30 acclaimed works which include, '' Rape of the Fair Country'', '' Hosts of Rebecca'' and '' So ...
,
and in an interview criticised 'industrial' authors, including
Gwyn Thomas and
D H Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
, who although he admired their work, wrote of coal mining from above, and ‘never sampled the muck and the mire’ of working underground. As he stated in ''History is What You Live,'' he argued that to be fully understood, ‘coal mining had to be experienced day by day, year in and year out, the whole ingested for as long as oxygen fans the skull-mix’ in order for the experience of the industry to be adequately expressed in fiction.
Berry wrote with a strong sense of responsibility, as he was driven to write the testimony of the experience of working underground on behalf of his colleagues who were unable to do so. He also wrote on behalf of those afflicted by working underground - both those killed and injured in industrial accidents, and those suffering with lung diseases.
His work is set during the process of the de-industrialisation of the south Wales coalfield; the early novels consider the more prosperous days of the early 1960s, ''The Full-Time Amateur'' sees a more affluent working class allowing the workers to purchase televisions, cars and even go abroad on holidays.
His later novels however, in particular ''Flame and Slag'', see the closure of mines, and the shift in the labour market as women started to work in factories as men lost their jobs underground. ''Flame and Slag'' is also a post-
Aberfan novel, featuring a fatal tip slide which engulfs a row of houses.
Regarded as one of the Wales' more significant post-war authors, along with the likes of
Glyn Jones and
Emyr Humphreys
Emyr Humphreys (; 15 April 191930 September 2020) was a Welsh novelist, poet, and author. His career spanned from the 1940s until his retirement in 2009. He published in both English and Welsh.
Early life and career
Humphreys was born on 15 ...
, some critics have shown preference to his short stories, believing that the shorter text constrained his writing away from the sometimes over-lush prose style of his novels.
A perhaps unexpected element of Berry's work is his eco-writing. Both the non-fictional ''Peregrine Watching'' and ''History is What you Live'' feature a strong engagement with nature, ecology and landscape, and aspects of this also feature in his fictional work. Berry's archive papers also reveal his environmental activism.
Legacy
The ''Glamorgan County History'' series describes Berry as "...unjustly neglected... ...whose fiction thrives on those very aspects of Rhondda life that broke the spirit of Gwyn Thomas's imagination."
Despite being largely neglected during his lifetime, modern readers and writers have rediscovered his work.
Niall Griffiths
Niall Griffiths (born 1966) is an English author of novels and short stories, set predominantly in Wales. His works include two novels ''Grits'' and ''Sheepshagger'', and his 2003 publication ''Stump'' which won the Wales Book of the Year award. ...
cites Berry as one of the most important influences on his writing style, being struck by the vernacular language after discovering a copy of ''So Long, Hector Bebb'' at the age of nine. Rachel Trezise also picks out ''So Long, Hector Bebb'' as a notable Welsh novel, drawn by the 'fighting, boozing and fornicating' left out of more romanticised novels such as ''
How Green was my Valley
''How Green Was My Valley'' is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own persona ...
''.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Ron
1920 births
1997 deaths
People from Treherbert
20th-century Welsh writers
Welsh novelists
Swansea City A.F.C. players
Welsh miners
20th-century Welsh novelists
Proletarian literature
Association footballers not categorized by position
Welsh footballers
British Army personnel of World War II
British Merchant Navy personnel of World War II