As the last Remembrance Sunday of the Millennium approached, many people’s thoughts turned to the part their own families and communities played in the two great conflicts which punctuate the history of the twentieth century, especially the Second World War, since 1999 also marked the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of the war which many alive today knew at first hand.

This new book, written by a local author whose Victorian Pontypridd, published three years ago, was warmly received both in Pontypridd and further afield, provides a detailed and very readable account of life in the town and neighbouring villages during the Second World War, and also the sharply contrasting years immediately before and after. There are chapters on the impact of the rationing of food, petrol and other goods, including the history of Pontypridd’s famous market; the Home Guard and other civil defence services; the uniformed cadet forces; air raids, bombs and blackout; the highly successful wartime savings and salvage campaigns in the town; the arrival of thousands of evacuee children from Kent and the London area, and also a large contingent of U.S. troops; how people spent their spare time during the war, in the home, at cinemas, dance-halls and elsewhere; and, above all, how this vibrant Welsh valleys community worked and played during the momentous years of the 1940s.

Dozens of well known local personalities and events of the period are recalled in a book that will bring back many memories for those who remember the war years in Pontypridd. For those born since 1945, the book will help them to understand how the modern community has evolved, while those who study the Second World War as part of school or college history courses will find a wealth of local detail to add colour to more general accounts of the period.