Alexander Cordell
Alexander Cordell (1914-1997) was born George Alexander Graber in Colombo, Sri Lanka to a military family. He followed his father into the army and first came to Wales to convalesce after being wounded in World War II.
Alexander Cordell settled there in the 1950's and became fascinated by the passionate and turbulent history of a Wales undergoing the agonies of industrialisation. A series of highly evocative novels beginning with Rape of the Fair Country (1959) take this period as their inspiration. Alexander Cordell’s Welsh trilogy concluded with The Hosts of Rebecca(1960), set in rural Carmarthenshire and Song of the Earth (1969) much of whose action takes place on the miles of canals between Neath and Swansea.
Other Alexander Cordell books set in South Wales include Land of My Fathers, This Sweet & Bitter Earth, Beloved Exile and Land of Heart's Desire.