'"For years afterwards the farmers found them - the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades." So run the blunt, grimly beautiful opening lines of the Welsh poet Owen Sheers's elegy for the men, 4,000 of them from the 38th (Welsh) Division, who were killed or wounded in the Battle of Mametz Wood in July 1916. Sheers revisits that chapter of carnage in a stirring, sprawling promenade show. He draws on the writings of two survivors in particular. One is the poet David Jones whose fractured, enervated, modernist response to his war-time experiences, In Parenthesis, was hailed as a "work of genius" by TS Eliot. The other key influence is the writer Llewelyn Wyn Griffith. driven to wondering how the sun "could shine on this mad cruelty and on the quiet peace of an upland tarn near Snowdon"... We end up in dark woods and a place of numb desolation, bombarded by words that pierce the heart and vignettes that capture the stomach-churning sacrifice. The finest commemoration of the First World War centenary I've seen to-date, this deserves a much longer life.' Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph Mametz by Owen Sheers was premiered by National Theatre Wales in June 2014. It is one of the set plays on WJEC's A level Drama specification. This dual edition combines the original English-language play with a Welsh-language translation by Ceri Wyn Jones, one of Wales's most eminent poets.

The Battle for Mametz Wood is normally associated with the endeavors of the 38th Welsh Division and was the first of those great battles to secure possession of the woodlands of the Somme. The author looks at events after the 1st July, but also relates the story of the 17th Northern Division who attacked the quadrangle, a defensive system guarding the western approaches to the wood. Also related is the demise of both generals commanding these divisions who were sent home.

This is the latest book in the Battleground Europe series focusing on the Somme sector. Full of stories of both endeavour and heartbreak, it deals with action around the Triple Tambour Mine Craters, Bois Francais, Mansell Copse, Danzig Alley and the approaches to Mametz Wood.

Llewelyn Wyn Griffiths Up to Mametz, published in 1931, is now firmly established as one of the finest accounts of soldiering on the Western Front. It tells the story of the creation of a famous Welsh wartime battalion (The Royal Welch Fusiliers), its training, its apprenticeship in the trenches, through to its ordeal of Mametz Wood on the Somme as part of 38 Division. But there it stopped.General Jonathon Riley has discovered Wyn Griffiths unpublished diaries and letters which pick up where Up to Mametz left off through to the end of the War. With careful editing and annotation, the events of these missing years are now available alongside the original work. They tell of an officers life on the derided staff and provide fascinating glimpses of senior officers, some who attract high praise and others who the author obviously despised. The result is an enthralling complete read and a major addition to the bibliography of the period.Llewelyn Wyn Griffiths was born into a Welsh speaking family in Llandrillo yn Rhos, North Wales. He joined the Civil Service as a Tax Surveyor. Aged 24 on the outbreak of War, he was accepted for a commission in the 15th (1st London Welsh) Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and served in the Battalion or on the staff for the rest of the War. Returning to the Inland Revenue he was responsible for the pay-As-You-Earn tax system, retiring in 1952. He filled many distinguished appointments, such as the Arts Council, and was a regular broadcaster. Awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Wales, he was holder of the CBE, OBE, Croix de Guerre and an MID. He died in 1977.

Thomas Oscendale, a military policeman based in France, investigates the suicide of a corporal of the Welsh Regiment and two related murders in June 1916. His investigation reveals a map marking a spot in Mametz Wood which is also of interest to British and German Intelligence. Oscendale is determined to pursue his investigation despite being warned off by the authorities.

This work is a new interpretation of the First World War battle for Mametz Wood in July 1916, telling the story of those terrible days from the viewpoint of soldiers on both sides. It uses primary sources, including personal accounts and photographs which are published for the first time.

LC copy of volume 2 has "This is copy number 132 of 750."