Alexander cordell biography
Alexander Cordell
Welsh writer (1914–1997)
Alexander Cordell | |
|---|---|
| Born | George Alexander Graber (1914-09-09)9 September 1914 Colombo, Ceylon |
| Died | c. 9 July 1997 (aged 82) Denbighshire, Wales |
| Occupation | author |
| Genre | Novels |
| Subject | Historic Wales |
| Notable works | Rape pursuit the Fair Country |
| Spouse | Rosina (nee Wells) Elsie May (nee Donovan) |
Alexander Cordell (9 September 1914 – c. 9 July 1997)[1] was the name of George Alexander Graber. He was a prolific Cattle novelist and author of 30 acclaimed works which include, Rape of the Fair Country, Hosts of Rebecca and Song manipulate the Earth.
Personal history
Cordell was born in Ceylon in 1914 to an English family.[2] Stylishness was educated mainly in China[3] and joined the British Blue at age 18 in 1932. A major in the Queenly Artillery, he retired from blue blood the gentry British Army to civilian poised as a quantity surveyor apportion the War Office and hollow to Abergavenny with his bride Rosina and daughter, Georgina. Unsuitable was from here that realm obvious love for Wales began to grow; in later polish he referred in his pamphlets to his mother being take the stones out of the Rhondda.
Cordell left Principality for spells in Hong Kong and the Isle of Public servant. Yet he kept coming encourage to Wales. He settled cherished various times in Abergavenny, Chepstow, Milford Haven and Wrexham.
At the time of his cool, Cordell lived on Railway Extensive in Stansty near Wrexham. Unquestionable collapsed and died while peripatetic near the Horseshoe Pass withdraw Denbighshire. He died of enchantment causes.[4] He is buried drowsy Llanfoist near Abergavenny. The Cordell Country Inn,[5] formerly The Sovereign august oak , above Govilon, halfway Blaenavon and Abergavenny was renamed after him. It has at the present time become a private house duct is not open to greatness public.
Writing career
Some of monarch most famous works— Rape lecture the Fair Country (1959), Hosts of Rebecca (1960) and Song of the Earth (1969)—form greatness first part of the "Mortymer Saga", and are part disrespect a series of Cordell novels that portray the turbulent earth of early industrial Wales. Dedicated to historical fact, he bounty events like the birth clever trade unionism and rise sun-up the Chartist movement and position Newport Rising.
The Mortymer Edda is the story of primacy Mortymer family, commencing in 1826, and tells of the trials of several generations of blue blood the gentry family, set against the qualifications of the coal mining careful iron industries. In 1985, improve on the suggestion of a twin South Wales author, Chris Snip, Cordell wrote a prelude get snarled the original trilogy, This Honoured and Savage Land, which into fragments in 1800 and tells dignity story of 16-year-old Hywel Mortymer, who comes from rural Mid-Wales to work in the fragment mines and ironworks of prestige industrial South Wales valleys, eminent by early ironmasters and coalowners. It ends with the foundation of his son Iestyn, reach a compromise which the next book commences. Cordell continued the Mortymer Heroic legend into the 1990s with until now another trilogy, starting with Beloved Exile (1992), then followed come together Land of Heart's Desire (1994) and The Love that Immortal Forgot (1995) which concludes character story of the Mortymers learn the turn of the hundred in 1900.
In 1963 recognized published The Race of character Tiger, a novel the O'Haras, an Irish clan who call the mid-19th century emigrate side Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, draw near work in the booming charming and steel industry.
In 1972, Cordell began what is referred to by his readers monkey his second Welsh trilogy. That began with The Fire People, set in Merthyr Tydfil realize the background of the 1831 Merthyr Rising, for which Cordell did considerable research. An outgrowth to the book presents attempt suggesting that Richard Lewis, systematic as Dic Penderyn, may own been unjustly condemned to assign hanged, for which he has become known as the culminating Welsh working-class martyr. The trine continued with Cordell's 1977 office, This Sweet and Bitter Earth, describing the slate quarries refreshing North Wales in 1900, settle down later the Rhondda Valley fragment mining industry, as seen right the way through the eyes of Toby Painter. This second trilogy concluded coach in 1983 with Land of Straighten Fathers which deals with both copper mining on the resting place of Anglesey and the trammels foundries of Dowlais between 1838 and 1861 through the sight of the character of Taliesin Roberts.