Emlyn Williams: The Making of a Dramatist

Critical biography of first five decades of life of Emlyn Williams, playwright, director, producer, stage and screen actor and inventor of the one man show. Williams was a major talent in British theatre. Writer, producer, director, star of stage and screen, he enjioyed popular and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic, acclaimed for his ensemble acting and his virtuoso one-man shows. He was also a man divided: the grammar school boy who went up to Oxford; the labourer’s son with gilt-edged bonds; the Welsh speaker at ease in the metropolis; devoted husband yet lover of men. Taking in the first five decades of Williams’ life, this book examines the diverse influences which shaped his complex character. The relationship with his parents; his influential teacher, Miss Cooke; the relocations - geographic, cultural and social; the allure of bohemia and the obsession with serial murderers: Russell Stephens weaves a compelling narrative which leads us from the Welsh-English border to 20s Oxford; from lloyd George’s home in Criccieth to West End associations with Gielgud, from gay haunts at the Alhambra Gardens to the National Eisteddfod of wales. Stephens also provides a critical overview of all Williams’ major works, including ‘The Corn is Green’ and The Last Days of Dolwyn’, and explores his impact and influence on theatre in Britain during one of its greatest periods. Full of carefully researched new information and penetrating analysis this will be the leading volume on Williams for years to come.