James Kitchener Davies

Davies's work is highly influenced by the industrial landscape of his adopted village of Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley and his own nationalistic beliefs.

Born and brought up in Llangeitho in Ceredigion, Davies spent his working life in the newly industrialised coalfields of the Rhondda Valley.

Davies was part of the Cadwgan Circle, a literary group of likeminded writers from Rhondda, that centred their image of Wales on the new industrialised society they were brought up in.

His early play Cwm Glo (1934) was seen as controversial because it dealt with the social impact of the depression without the cultural romanticism which was stereotypical of Welsh literature.

His verse play Meini Gwagedd (1944) is set in the Tregaron area and again looks at the harshness of the industrialised Wales and the self-destructive nature of people when drawn into a spiral of ill fortune.