Meg Elis

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Meg Ann Elis (born 26 October 1950), also known as Marged Dafydd, Marged Elis or Margaret Dafydd, [1] is a Welsh writer, translator and language activist. [2] She stood unsuccessfully as a Plaid Cymru candidate for the Delyn constituency in the National Assembly for Wales election in 1999 and again in 2007. [3]

Life and work

Meg Elis was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Aberystwyth, [1] the daughter of politician T. I. Ellis and his wife, Mari Ellis, [4] and studied at Bangor University. She was a director of the translation company NEWID ("CHANGE"), and has worked as a Welsh/English translator, journalist and radio producer.

Elis worked as a full-time secretary of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (a direct action pressure group working to defend the Welsh language) in 1973 and 1974. During this time she took part in a 1973 Cymdeithas yr Iaith direct action protest against the television transmitter at Holme Moss, south Pennines in England in 1973. She was taken to court and received a six month suspended sentence. In 1974, Elis was again involved in further Cymdeithas protest action, this time at Aberystwyth Post Office. As a consequence of these actions, in 1975 Elis was sentenced to six months imprisonment at (the now closed) HMP Moor Court, an open prison for women located at Oakamoor, Staffordshire. [5]

During the 1980s, she was a member of the protest group at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. [6]

In 1985, her novel, Cyn Daw'r Gaeaf won the Prose Medal, [7] one of the major prizes at the National Eisteddfod in Rhyl. Her other works included Carchar and I'r Gad, both published by Y Lolfa. [8] Her novels have been cited as good examples of the more controversial themes a younger generation of Welsh-language writers dealt with in the 1980s. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 Former Literature Director Meic Stephens; Welsh Academy (1986). The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales. Oxford University Press. p. 124. ISBN   978-0-19-211586-7.
  2. ↑ Sally Baker; B J Brown (1 February 2011). Mothers, Wives and Changing Lives: Women in Mid-Twentieth Century Rural Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 54. ISBN   978-0-7083-2335-9. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  3. ↑ "Delyn at a glance". Daily Post. 21 April 2007. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  4. ↑ Meic Stephens (15 March 2015). "Mari Ellis: Writer who worked for the New Wales Union and championed women's rights" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  5. ↑ Chríost, Diarmait Mac Giolla (2013), Chríost, Diarmait Mac Giolla (ed.), "Meg Elis I'r Gad (1975), Carchar (1978) and Cyn Daw'r Gaeaf (1985)" , Welsh Writing, Political Action and Incarceration: Branwen’s Starling, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 105–126, doi:10.1057/9781137372277_6, ISBN   978-1-137-37227-7, archived from the original on 3 June 2018, retrieved 30 April 2025
  6. ↑ "BBC – Llais Merch" (in Welsh). BBC Cymru. 18 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  7. ↑ Hywel Teifi Edwards (20 July 2016). The Eisteddfod. University of Wales Press. p. 65. ISBN   978-1-78316-914-6.
  8. ↑ "Meg Elis". Y Lolfa. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  9. ↑ World Literature Today. University of Oklahoma Press. 1985. p. 35.
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