On 8 September 1936 – in what is recognised as one of the defining moments in modern Welsh history – a Baptist minister, a university lecturer and a schoolteacher set fire to the partly built RAF aerodrome at Penrhos on the Llŷn Peninsular, then calmly reported their actions to the police at nearby Pwllheli.

The 'Fire' represented the final act in a high profile, passionate, yet ultimately unsuccessful eighteen-month campaign to prevent the destruction of  Penyberth, the renowned farmhouse which had iconic cultural and religious significance in Wales, in order to construct a military training facility, a  bombing school for the RAF.

Pleas from eminent literary and religious figures, backed by over half a million people, were dismissed by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin – who had earlier agreed to divert the bombing school away from sites in Northumberland and Dorset due to local protests – incensed Welsh public opinion resulting in a resurgence in nationalist sentiment and increased support for the recently established Welsh  Nationalist Party, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.

In a sensational outcome to the court case held in Caernarfon, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The case was then controversially transferred to the Old Bailey in London where Lewis Valentine, Saunders Lewis and D. J. Williams were convicted, merely seconds after the prosecution concluded, and imprisoned for nine months at Wormwood Scrubs: their place in Welsh political folklore assured.

Penyberth - A Nation on Trial, Ann Corkett’s meticulous and engaging translation of Prof. Dafydd Jenkins’ study, Tân yn Llŷn, was first published in 1998 with an updated Introduction by the author sixty years after his original edition and is now republished in paperback and ebook editions. 

"Without a doubt, the events of September 8th 1936 ensured that Welsh politics would never be the same. This book is an opportunity for a new non-Welsh speaking generation to appreciate the exact significance of those events in the context of our past and present, and an opportunity for all readers to reassess Penyberth's influence on Wales."
Y Cymro

"This important book throws a good deal of light on one of the defining   moments of Welsh politics in the 20th century. Reading it sent a cold shudder down my spine"
Western Mail

"To understand what has happened, in ideological terms, in Wales since [Penyberth]...the growth of a great patriotic movement and the long-awaited dynamic towards self-determination, this story needs to be read"
Cambria Magazine

Professor Dafydd Jenkins (1911-2012) was Emeritus Professor of Law and Welsh Law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.