Book
The Fire People
First published 1972
Merthyr Tydfil in 1831 is a town strained by low wages, debt, unemployment and the power of ironmasters. Cordell follows working people as anger becomes the Merthyr Rising, when crowds seized control of the town and confronted troops sent to restore order. Richard Lewis, better known as Dic Penderyn, becomes a central historical presence in the story.
Penderyn’s conviction and execution for wounding a soldier turned him into a lasting symbol of Welsh working-class injustice, and Cordell makes that disputed case part of the novel’s moral argument. The uprising is presented not as isolated disorder but as the product of industrial hardship and political exclusion. The book begins Cordell’s second Welsh trilogy with one of the defining confrontations of early industrial Wales.
Historical Periods
Genres
Historical people
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