John Davies FLSW
Born	25 April 1938 Treorchy,Wales
Died	16 February 2015 (aged 76)[1] Cardiff, Wales
Occupation(s)	Historian and academic
Children	4
Awards	Glyndŵr Award (2005) Wales Book of the Year (2010)
Academic background
Education	University College, Cardiff Trinity College, Cambridge
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Welsh history Social history Political history
Institutions	Swansea University Aberystwyth University
Notable works	A History of Wales (1990)

John DaviesFLSW (25 April 1938 – 16 February 2015) was aWelsh historian, and a television and radio broadcaster. He attended university at Cardiff and Cambridge and taught Welsh at Aberystwyth. He wrote a number of books on Welsh history, includingA History of Wales (Hanes Cymru inWelsh).

Davies was born in theRhondda,Wales,^[2] and studied at bothUniversity College, Cardiff, andTrinity College, Cambridge.

Davies was married with four children. In later life he acknowledged that he was bisexual.^[3] After teaching Welsh history atSwansea University andAberystwyth University, he retired toCardiff, and appeared frequently as a presenter and contributor tohistory programmes ontelevision andradio.^[4]

In the mid-1980s, Davies was commissioned to write a concisehistory of Wales byPenguin Books to add to its Pelican series of the histories of nations. The decision by Penguin to commission the volumein Welsh was "unexpected and highly commendable," wrote Davies. The Welsh version is titledHanes Cymru, whilst the English version is titledA History of Wales.^[5][6]

"I seized the opportunity to write of Wales and the Welsh. When I had finished, I had a typescript which was almost three times larger than the original commission," wrote Davies.^[5] The original voluminous typescript was first published in hardback under theAllen Lane imprint. Davies took a sabbatical from his post at theUniversity College of Wales and wrote most of the chapters while touring Europe.^[5] Davies dedicatedHanes Cymru to his wife, Janet Mackenzie Davies.^[5]

Hanes Cymru was translated into English and published in 1993, as there was "a demand among English-speakers to read what was already available to Welsh-speakers," wrote Davies.^[5] A revised edition was published (in both languages) in 2007.

In 2005, Davies received theGlyndŵr Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales during theMachynlleth Festival. He won the 2010Wales Book of the Year forCymru: Y 100 lle i'w gweld cyn marw.

In 2011, Davies was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.^[7]

Davies lived inGrangetown,Cardiff, for which he coined the Welsh-language name Trelluest.^[8] To mark his 75th birthday in 2013, theWelsh language television channelS4C broadcast a programme,Gwirionedd y Galon: Dr John Davies, about his life and his home^[9] and in 2014 published his autobiography in Welsh.

Davies died at the age of 76 in 2015^[10] and, as a tribute to his longstanding friend, Jon Gower republished Davies' autobiography in English.^[11]

• Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute, (Writers of Wales), University of Wales Press, January 1980,ISBN 0-7083-0761-2
• A History of Wales, Penguin, 1994,ISBN 0-14-014581-8 (Revised edition 2007,ISBN 0-14-028475-3)
• Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales, University of Wales Press, 1994,ISBN 978-0708312735
• The Making of Wales, The History Press, 2nd edition printing: Oct 1, 2009,ISBN 0-7524-5241-X
• The Celts,Cassell & Co, 2000ISBN 0-304-35590-9, based upon the S4C documentary seriesThe Celts
• The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales,University of Wales Press, April 17, 2008,ISBN 0-7083-1953-X
• Wales: 100 Places to See Before You Die (with Marian Delyth), Y Lolfa, 2010,ISBN 978-1847713087
• Fy Hanes I: Hunangofiant (autobiography in Welsh), Y Lolfa, 2014,ISBN 978-1847719850
• A Life in History (autobiography translated into English by Jon Gower), Y Lolfa, 2015,ISBN 978-1784612177

• 1938 births
• 2015 deaths
• 20th-century Welsh historians
• Alumni of Cardiff University
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• Academics of Swansea University
• Academics of Aberystwyth University
• People from Treorchy
• Historians of Wales
• Welsh-speaking academics
• Welsh-language writers
• 21st-century Welsh historians
• Bisexual academics
• Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales

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