Tributes have been paid to historical novelist Alexander Cordell, found dead at an isolated beauty spot in north Wales.
Cordell, 82, wrote passionately about the hard injustices of nineteenth century working class life in the industrial South Wales Valleys.
His best-seller of the early 1960s, Rape Of The Fair Country, was the first in a powerful series of books hailed by some critics as the most graphic fictional representation of Wales since Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley.
Cordell, clutching family photographs, was found in a stream at a disused quarry near the Horse Shoe Pass at Llangollen, Clwyd. His car was parked nearby.
North Wales police said his death was not being treated as suspicious.
His body is believed to have lain at the spot for some days before it was discovered. A report is being prepared for the coroner.
Cordell, of Rhosddu, near Wrexham, had been working on a new novel based on the life of the fifteenth century Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndwr.
Although English, he described himself as an adopted Welshman and was an active member of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist party.
Party president Dafydd Wigley MP said: ''Alexander was a great author and a true Welsh patriot.
''He truly believed that Wales should have self-government. It is tragically ironic that his life should end at a time when devolution and self-government are so close for the country he loved so much.''
Welsh authoress Iris Gower said Cordell had inspired other writers.
''He was able to tell a good story, about the real facts of life and about hard-working people who were subjugated. He had a wonderful sense of injustice, which I think is what most writers have,'' she said.
Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) while his father was serving in the Army, Cordell was himself a regular soldier for nearly 20 years.
His epic love affair with Wales began when he left the Army to become a quantity surveyor and was sent to Abergavenny to inspect a disused steel mill.
The industrial dereliction of south Wales and the turbulent history of mining communities inspired him to develop heroic characters against a vivid backdrop of grinding poverty, wealthy coal masters and the Chartist rebellion.
Cordell had led a reclusive life since the death of his wife. He is survived by a daughter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article