In 1895 one of Huw’s older brothers went to Windsor with the Welsh choir to sing before the Queen and one of the big moments towards the end of the story, centred around the disastrous miners strike of 1898. I’m also sure I remember one of the characters referring to the Queen’s Jubilee early on which would probably be her Golden Jubilee in 1887 rather than her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Given that several of Huw’s older brothers were also instrumental in establishing a miner’s union in their area, the time frame could be even a decade earlier as most of the South Wales unions were first established during the 1880’s. However, the book was set much earlier, during the reign of Queen Victoria, which means the majority of the book was set during the 1890’s. A number of sites also claimed that the book was set during this period of time. Llewellyn wrote HGWMV in the late 1930’s before publishing in 1939. The other confusion, for a number of the websites I looked into, was around dates. The trust between writer and reader becomes diminished by the deception. The problem lies when you claim to have had that actual experience that you’re writing about, that somehow there is an element of memoir in your story.
It’s quite possible for authors to research their topic and write a fabulous story, without actually experiencing it themselves.
It is now believed, that at best, he had conversations with miners from Gilfach Goch, but every bio site I checked had conflicting information around this. He claimed to have spent some time down the mines in Gilfach Goch, whilst visiting his grandfather, but there is no record of him ever having done so.
The next controversy surrounds Llewellyn’s claims about how he attained his knowledge to write this book. “ Only after his death was it discovered that his claim that he was born in St Davids, West Wales, was false.”īut still publishes his birth place as being St David’s, Wales, not Hendon, London, where he was actually born. Wikipedia discretely told me that Llewellyn was born in 1906 to Welsh parents. My first alert was when Karen Talk mentioned (in a comment/post that I cannot now find) that Llewellyn was not a Welsh author after all. But it quickly became apparent to me that there were a number of issues surrounding this work and the author. They’re big-hearted, community-minded, salt-of-the-earth folk. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Huw and his large family.
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