Jen Wilson (1944-2023)

Swansea’s Jen Wilson, who died in May, was a musician, writer and historian who lived a life packed with experiences, achievements and creativity. In 1986 she founded Jazz Heritage Wales …

Emyr Humphreys (1919-2020)

In recent years I have found it increasingly difficult to write about Wales. The attacks on our very existence by the thuggish, destructive Tory government in London and their agents …

Eddie Butler (1957-2022)

The death of public figures I didn’t know personally usually has no more effect on me than a brief pause to register age, nature of demise and purpose of life, …

Some more lives

Miscellaneous briefer profiles HANEF BHAMJEE (1948-2022)Redoubtable activist and campaigner Hanef Bhamjee, who died in January, was born in apartheid-era South Africa and from the age of 10 had already acquired …

Burke Shelley (1950-2022)

The global counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s was not a monolithic bloc. Hippiedom had many branches and sub-branches, with differing motivations, priorities, approaches and attitudes: back-to-nature flower children, …

Jeffrey Steele (1931-2021)

Over the years a few exceptional Cardiffians have had the awareness and the integrity to rise above the city’s all-pervading dim, unquestioning, passive conformity and become true originals – none …

John Jenkins (1933-2020)

The sensationally adventurous life of Welsh freedom-fighter John Barnard Jenkins, who died at the end of last year, had all the elements of a blockbuster thriller. He was the charismatic …

Jan Morris (1926-2020)

In the obituaries published since the death of irreplaceable Jan Morris last month, it is noticeable how many of them concentrated on comparatively inconsequential events in her extraordinary life (the …

Patti Flynn (1937-2020)

All you need to know about contemporary Cardiff is encapsulated by the 2016 closure of the Butetown History & Arts Centre (BHAC) in Bute Street. Founded by African-American Glenn Jordan …

Sion Eirian (1954-2020)

Wales feels a poorer, diminished place following the death in June of playwright, poet, novelist and scriptwriter SiĆ“n Eirian. We have been deprived not just of his multi-talented artistry and …