15 Facts About Ron Berry

Ronald Anthony Berry was a Welsh author of novels and short stories.

Ron Berry was born in 1920 in Blaencwm, a small village at the head of the Rhondda Fawr.

The son of a coal miner, Ron Berry left school at the age of 14, and he too took employment at a local colliery.

Ron Berry remained a coal miner until the outbreak of World War II where he served in the British Army and later in the Merchant Navy.

Ron Berry undertook several roles in his younger days, including amateur boxing and played association football for Swansea Town, reportedly scoring a vital goal in a cup match.

Ron Berry later became a carpenter, working around Wales and in London.

Ron Berry married Rene Jones in 1948, with whom he had five children, two sons and three daughters.

Ron Berry took up various jobs, and wrote some early essays and poetry for which he was unable to find a publisher.

Ron Berry's written works were never successful enough to allow Berry to be financially secure and in the 1970s he relied on several friends, and the support of Sir Wyn Roberts in obtaining for him a Civil list pension.

Ron Berry wrote an account of watching peregrine falcons in the upper Rhondda 1987, entitled Peregrine Watching.

Ron Berry wrote several short stories and essays, and wrote several plays for BBC television.

Ron Berry's work was deeply-rooted in the south Wales coalfield, in particular the Rhondda Fawr valley.

Ron Berry's work was a shift from the romanticised popular work of Richard Llewellyn and Alexander Cordell, and in an interview criticised 'industrial' authors, including Gwyn Thomas and D H Lawrence, who although he admired their work, wrote of coal mining from above, and 'never sampled the muck and the mire' of working underground.

Ron Berry wrote on behalf of those afflicted by working underground - both those killed and injured in industrial accidents, and those suffering with lung diseases.

Ron Berry's work is set during the process of the de-industrialisation of the south Wales coalfield; the early novels consider the more prosperous days of the early 1960s, The Full-Time Amateur sees a more affluent working class allowing the workers to purchase televisions, cars and even go abroad on holidays.