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Older readers will readily recall David Parry-Jones as the suave, unflappable newscaster and television presenter who regularly graced our television screens during the sixties and seventies. Younger people perhaps will remember his pungent, informed sporting columns in the national newspapers and his racy radio and (less often) television commentaries on international rugby matches and rugby world cups. His numerous publications on rugby football and other sporting topics – this is his fifteenth publication – have perhaps not received the currency and publicity they clearly deserve.
The present volume, focussing on the career of the now largely forgotten John Gwilliam, captain of the acclaimed Welsh squad in the late forties and early fifties, is a most worthy successor to his well-received Prince Gwyn, which focussed on Gwyn Nicholls and an earlier generation of Welsh rugby football. Parry-Jones's many books and articles on sporting themes, notably rugby, include studies of Gareth Edwards and Brian Price.
This volume is a thoroughly researched, lucidly crafted, readable biography of Gwilliam, an enigmatic individual who left his native land during the early 1940s to serve in the army and then held teaching posts in England and Scotland. He was a figure missing from the inter-club rivalry and local rugby in-fighting in Wales, and he thus never attained the same eminence as contemporaries like Cliff Morgan, Billy Cleaver and Lewis Jones. But Gwilliam's evident athletic prowess and technical expertise were complemented by a philosopher's approach to his game. In Parry-Jones's own words, his subject was 'always at the heart of the battle setting an example which could not but inspire his men to play a little bit better than they believed they could. They trusted him'. (p. 12)
In this volume, Parry-Jones displays a meticulous knowledge and deep love of his favourite sport. He has an eye for the striking quotation and the colourful detail. The text is enlivened by over thirty well chosen and carefully captioned photographs. One's criticisms are relatively minor. Some readers would have valued a fuller, in-depth study of the man, with more intimate personal detail, to complement the story of the rugby international. The few tantalising glimpses of Gwilliam's personal and family life serve simply to whet the appetite. Footnotes references identifying the direct quotations in the text and a bibliography of the sources used, newspaper columns quarried and many individuals interviewed would also have been a most welcome addition for the enquiring mind. But overall the volume is an engrossing, thoroughly enjoyable read. More power to the author's elbow!
J. Graham Jones
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
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