Sad to hear of the loss of Dr. John Davies whose books such as - Hanes Cymru/The History of Wales - and his many historical related television programmes have been a major source of our understanding of the Welsh past to many of us on the Forum.
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yes, very sad. He was a lovely man, a joy to work with and to speak to socially. A huge loss.
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I was terribly shocked. He is only a tad older than me and did not seem ill. A great loss to us all.
Oh I am saddened by this news. A historian second to none, and a stylish writer of Welsh. Hanes Cymru is a wonderful book, of course.
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An interesting article on John Davies by Meic Stephenson - worth a read…
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Here is a nice ten-minute clip of John Davies from a couple of years ago - it’s a short talk he gave in 2012 as part of LGBT History Month, and I think it gives a nice picture of the man and his character and qualities.
I met him on several occasions years ago in Aberystwyth - he was a charming, intelligent and erudite man, the best kind of academic (for he was devoid of arrogance or self-importance, and wore his considerable learning lightly, which is the best way). His Welsh writing style was wonderful, and I was delighted when he OK’d the use of some extracts from his brilliant Hanes Cymru for the Colloquial, and then much more recently the Reader. It is such a shame that he did not live a bit longer, isn’t it? I think they will miss him a lot in Wales.
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I really enjoyed that clip - thanks so much for sharing. I’ve been reading a lot about John Davies over the past couple of days (a number of tributes in Golwg, for example); I’m looking forward to the time when I’m able to read Hanes Cymru for myself in Welsh.
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That is a splendid target to set yourself!
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…and I very much look forward to seeing the Welsh for the term “ubiquitous lurker” as applied by John Davies to Macsen Wledig. That will be something to throw into a conversation in the Ship.
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