Saunders Lewis

Later plays like "Siwan" (1956), "Brad" ("Treachery") (1958) and "Esther "(1960) would establish his reputation as a poet and a philosopher.

Saunders Lewis was a Welsh nationalist, author, critic and playwright. On 20 January, 1937, Lewis and two others were sentenced to nine months imprisonment for arson. Lewis, then president of the Welsh Nationalist Party (Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru) and lecturer at Swansea University, along with Rev. Lewis Edward Valentine, pastor of the Llandudno Welsh Baptist Church and David John Williams, senior schoolmaster at Fishguard County School had in protest set fire to a structure on a RAF base at Pwllheli, Caernarfonshire, Wales. They felt the recently built RAF base "was an immoral violation of the sure and natural rights of the Welsh people". After setting the blaze, the trio informed the police what they had done and turned themselves in. Lewis, who during the First World War served as an officer with the South Wales Borderers, remained neutral throughout the Second World War. Though considered one of the leading Welsh political figures of the Twentieth Century, Lewis will probably be best remembered for his literary legacy.

His play "Buchedd Garmon" ("The life of Germanus") was broadcast on the BBC in 1937.

Lewis wrote two novels, "Monica" in 1930 and "Merch Gwern Hywel" ("The daughter of Gwern Hywel") in 1964.

His first play, "Blodeuwedd" ("The woman of flowers") opened in 1923.