Welsh Journals

achievements of bilingual education in post-war Wales is abundant testimony that the bequest of O.M. Edwards is not entirely ana- chronistic nor utopian. W. Gareth Evans THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND STONELAKE, edited by Anthony Mor-O'Brien. Mid Glamorgan County Council, 1981. 193pp. £ 4.75. Edmund Stonelake was a stalwart of the Labour movement through- out the first half of this century. Born in Pontlottyn in 1873, the youngest of ten children, he began work underground (via a forged birth certificate) at eleven. In 1889 he moved to Aberdare attracted by higher wages in the bustling Cynon valley. In his later years he wrote memoirs; a long-standing prerogative of the upper class, its transference to those in other parts of society is more than welcome. These memoirs are now brought together as an autobiography the work of Pontypridd school teacher, Anthony Mor-O'Brien. He deserves fullest praise for his organisation of the material, his excellent introductory notes to each chapter and his imaginative use of documents and photographs. I applaud the editor's decision not to censor only that could convey the flavour of the man writing the memoirs. Thus the book provides an immense service to all interested in the history of South Wales. We are indebted to the editor, local authority and its history adviser, David Maddox. The book mixes narrative, impressions, reminiscences, insights and value-judgements. There are omissions. The housing funds scandal* which ruined Stonelake's political career in the 1920s and damaged his health is the greatest one. Nevertheless the memoirs cover a wide range: despoliation of en- vironment; wages, conditions and practices of work; housing; work as a J.P.; religion; education; culture; local government; experiences at Ruskin and London, industrial disputes, the growth of the Labour party; the family. These and other themes all fit in to a natural flow