"The fiction establishes him as the supreme chronicler of (post-war) South Wales valley life, and his fascinating account of his upbringing in English-speaking Pontypridd raises questions about the complex plurality of modern Wales which still command serious attention." The New Companion to the Literature of Wales

At the heart of Dai Country - the central valleys of twentieth-century South Wales from the 1930s to the 1970s - was the metropolis of Pontypridd.

It is from this vantage point that Alun Richards casts his baleful eye on the personal relationships and social ambitions of its inhabitants, in a style stripped bare of cliché and sentiment.

This compendium volume combines the best of his short stories - as funny and savage as they are scathing and compassionate - with his entrancing autobiographical memoir Days of Absence.

Alun Richards was born in Pontypridd in 1929. From the 1960s he was a full-time writer and published novels and collections of short stories as well as plays for stage and radio, original screenplays and adaptations for television, including BBC’s Onedin Line. He died in 2004.