Emlyn Williams

A long time ago I had a quite long article about Gwyn Thomas published in The Anglo-Welsh Review. I was paid £5 for it but I didn't very much care that the pay was little because getting published there was its own reward - it was considered an honour. I tried to think of another author I could write about; wasn't interested in many who wrote in Wales, didn't read much Anglo-Welsh literature.... Then I thought "Emlyn Williams", I'd write about him. I liked some of his plays; I enjoyed both volumes of his autobiography, "George" about his young life and "Emlyn" about his life particularly on the stage in The West End. I approached the editor who liked the idea and so got working on the article. But I found I couldn't write anything sensible, anything that carried any weight; I couldn't find anything in his works that told me anything about the literary quality of his work, only the autobiographical content of it. I think that when he wrote his plays he wrote about some aspect of his own life. If I were to attempt such an article now I think that autobiographical line might work well but it wasn't the sort of thing the Anglo-Welsh Review wanted I believed. So I didn't write an article; I told the editor why and we left it at that. I never wrote another article for the journal and soon after the editor retired.
I have just bought a copy of Emlyn Williams's "George" and started to read it again. I wish I had read it then more closely because it is a fine book, amusing and detailed about his close family and there is evidently a great affectionate tone to it. He was known as George when he was young but took his second name as his writing name Emlyn.
The second autobiograhy, Emlyn is as good if not better than the first; it is one of those books that you feel takes you behind the scenes of theatrical life in London in the thirtees and forties more truly that any other book.
I reviewed it for the TLS.