Harri Webb

Disgrifiad

Poet, writer, journalist and public speaker, Harri Webb (1920 - 1995) was born in Swansea and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Romance Languages. After serving as an interpreter in the Navy during the Second World War, he worked with Keidrych Rhys at the Druid Press in Carmarthen. He worked as a librarian from 1954 to 1964 at Dowlais and, until his retirement in 1974, at Mountain Ash. During this time he published poetry and political essays, focusing on the history and social condition of Wales. Formerly a member of the Welsh Republican Movement and editor of its newspaper, he was active from 1960 on behalf of Plaid Cymru. While living in Merthyr Tydfil he was associated with Meic Stephens in the launching of Poetry Wales and they shared an interest in the writing of topical songs and patriotic ballads. During the 1970s Webb began writing scripts for television and published two collections of songs and ballads dealing with the more light-hearted sides of Welsh history. His adaptations for children of stories from the Mabinogion were published as Tales from Wales (1984). Information taken from Meic Stephens' New Companion to the Literature of Wales (University of Wales Press, 1998)