This is a heavyweight tome in more ways than one, a study to which all those interested in Welsh political history will give a warm welcome.The Rt Hon Griffiths was one of the most prominent figures in the Labour Party in Wales from the 1930s until his death in 1975, and he served as the MP for Llanelli from 1936 until his retirement in 1970. In British politics, too, his contribution was formidable in several roles. Notably as Minister for National Insurance under Attlee, 195051, when he was personally responsible for many far-reaching legislative enactments; Minister for the Colonies, 195051, a post which saw his promotion to the Labour cabinet, and finally as the first Secretary of State for Wales under Harold Wilson, 196466. Small wonder that the people of west Wales hailed him early in his career as ''our Jim'', one who was sure to go far.Until recently, no one had attempted the sorely overdue task of drafting a full, academic biography of this towering politician. Griffiths himself had produced an interesting, but very guarded and self-effacingly cautious, volume of reminiscences entitled Pages from Memory published in 1969. Then, in 2014, the present author, who had been studying Griffiths with characteristic dedication particularly from 2009 onwards, published a Welsh-language biography Cofiant James Griffiths: Arwr Glew y Werin .

Dr Rees is an admiring, but not an idolatrous, biographer who has adopted throughout his task a warts-and-all approach to his subject.This English-language adaptation has very many positive strengths. The author''s personal involvement in Labour politics from his schooldays in the 1940s onwards is striking, a commitment which keenly informs his personal research and writing. Secondly there is his personal, if spasmodic, contact with Jim Griffiths from the general election of 1959, when Griffiths ventured to Cardiganshire to speak on behalf of the then Labour candidate Loti Rees Hughes, onwards.Thirdly, there is Dr Rees''s acquaintance with the substantial James Griffiths Papers deposited at the National Library of Wales. The author has also made use of many other archival groups in the custody of the National Library and elsewhere, and has read widely on the history of the Labour Party in Wales specifically and Great Britain more generally for this study and many others too. He was also able to speak with some of Griffiths''s closest political allies, such as the late Gwilym Prys Davies, whom both Griffiths and Rees admired with deep conviction.The result is a balanced, fair and pioneering biography which is a pleasure to read.

Rees''s understanding of the complex local history and family relationships which form the background to Griffiths'' early years and upbringing in the Amman valley, with its vibrant cultural and literary and nonconformist activities, is impressive. And one of his brothers was the well-known Welsh poet Amanwy (David Rees Griffiths) who appears in this remarkable story from time to time.In this area, heartland of the anthracite coal industry, Labour politics firmly took root between the wars, and, as is shown here, it was Jim Griffiths who was mainly responsible for the setting up of a branch of the Independent Labour Party at Ammanford. He and his left-wing colleagues rejected the deep-rooted Liberalism which had formed the backbone of their parents'' political allegiance with their veneration of figures such as Gladstone, T. E. Ellis and David Lloyd George. Labour politicians like Griffiths and Nye Bevan liked to claim that, after 1945, they were extending essential tasks for which solid foundations had been laid by Lloyd George before the Great War.There is throughout this study a finely tuned, impressive balance between the attention given to Jim Griffiths'' many political achievements and his personal and family life at Llanelli and at London, and between his contribution at Westminster and his role within his native Wales where he consistently pressed for cautious concessions to the ever growing sense of Welsh nationhood throughout his career.

Today, many Welsh devolutionists regard Griffiths as one of the fathers of the movement which led to the setting up of the National Assembly for Wales in 1999. These two impressive biographies will ensure that Griffiths''s many achievements will never be forgotten by a younger generation of readers much less familiar with the course of events so skilfully outlined by the author.The volume contains an impressive collection of well-chosen photographs and illustrations. It has been produced to a very high standard and is also well indexed. J. Graham JonesIt is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Books Council of Wales.

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