‘[Meic] has done more than justice...to the black humour of Davies’ writing and that of his life. This is a delightful book, which is itself a social history in its own right, and funny.’
--The Spectator
‘In writing this informative, intriguing biography, Meic Stephens has done the reading public a great service, as Rhys Davies is clearly a writer who should be read more of by people not just in Wales but everywhere.’
--Wales Arts Review
Rhys Davies (1901-78) was among the most dedicated, prolific and accomplished of Welsh prose writers. This is his first full biography, describing the early years of the Blaenclydach grocer’s son, his abhorrence of chapel culture , his bohemian years in Fitzrovia, his visit to the Lawrences in the south of France, his unremitting work ethic, his patrons, his admiration for the French and Russian writers who were his models, his love-hate relationship with the Rhondda, and above all, the dissembling that went into Print of a Hare’s Foot (1969), an autobiographical beginning , which proves to be a most unreliable book from start to finish.
Meic Stephens founded the magazine Poetry Wales in 1965. He joined the University of Glamorgan in 1994 and became Professor of Welsh Writing in English in 2000. He is the author, editor and translator of about two hundred books, including a number of anthologies, The New Companion to the Literature of Wales and the Writers of Wales series.