Dr Sarah Morse from the Learned Society of Wales, and Dr Daryl Leeworthy, Rhys Davies Research Fellow at the South Wales Miners’ Library, Swansea University, joined me to celebrate February 2022’s Art of Sporting Heritage Month to discuss the significance of football and other sports in the fiction of Rhondda writer Ron Berry (1920-1997).
Berry was a keen sportsman and athlete himself: the ‘Tarzan of Treherbert’ as one friend affectionately put it. He was a bodybuilder, avid and competitive cyclist, swimmer and local authority lifeguard, and a decent enough footballer to attract the attention of Swansea Town, where he played alongside Trevor Ford, before injury put an end to his career.
Few Welsh writers have had such a keen eye for the everyday life of working-class communities – where sport so often plays a central role – and their collective imagination. Sponsored by Parthian Books, Literature Wales and Sporting Heritage CIC. Produced by Mimosa Productions.
