Huw's academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from the dangerous coal mines. His five brothers and his father are miners. After his eldest brother, Ivor, is killed in a mining accident, Huw moves in with his sister-in-law, Bronwen, with whom he has always been in love. [3] He also claimed to have worked down the pits in Gilfach Goch, on which the fictional town in How Green Was My Valley was based, but his knowledge of these communities came from conversations with mining families in the town.

The book has twice been adapted by the BBC for television, in 1960 and 1975. The 1960 adaptation featured Eynon Evans, Rachel Thomas and Glyn Houston. The 1975 production, scripted by Elaine Morgan, starred Stanley Baker, Siân Phillips, and Nerys Hughes.But the novel of the same name, which spawned the film version, professed to be a first-hand account of the lives led by miners in the south Wales Valleys from a Welsh writer named Richard Llewellyn. The novel has been translated into 30 languages and has never been out of print since it was launched two weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

But perhaps the novel's biggest disservice was to the communities it claimed to depict with the book and subsequent film failing to accurately mirror what it was like to live in those communities. Professor Bohata suggested that had the novel been published today it could be considered as cultural appropriation. Meic Stephens, creative writing lecturer at the University of Glamorgan, and editor of the Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales, knew Llewellyn. A few times in my reading life I have been so been so touched by a book that when it is over I feel a great loss and literally clasp the book to my chest like a loved-one just departed.He claimed to be a miner's son born in St David's who worked down the pits at Gilfach Goch, where his novel was set. In truth he was born in Hendon, London, in 1906, the son of a publican. His first job was washing dishes at Claridges. The 1941 Hollywood film adaptation, which was highly successful, had a cast that included Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Roddy McDowall (as Huw), Donald Crisp, and Barry Fitzgerald. None of the leading players was Welsh (though Welsh actor Rhys Williams made his screen debut in the film in a minor role). Directed by John Ford, How Green Was My Valley was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. How Green Was My Valley is available on DVD from 20th Century Fox as part of their 20th Century Fox Studio Classics collection.