The Gwilliam Seasons John Gwilliam and the Second Golden Era of Welsh Rugby

"This informative mix of biography and social and sporting history is a sequel to the award-winning Prince Gwyn: Gwyn Nicholls and the First Golden Age of Welsh Rugby. The state of Welsh rugby is described through the filter of John Gwilliam, captain of the Wales team in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when it beat all challengers. Against a background of postwar austerity and reconstruction, the flamboyant Wales side offered glamour and thrilling, Corinthian sportsmanship on the field. Off the field, this book contends, rugby was beset by timeserving committeemen and conservative institutions and was failing to keep pace with the new Britain created by the Labour government elected in 1945. With his customary attention to detail and love of the game of rugby, Parry-Jones offers an enthralling, triple-layered biography of Gwilliam, rugby, and Wales in a time of great social and cultural change."