Dafydd Elis-Thomas

Dafydd Elis-Thomas, The Rt Hon. the Lord Elis-Thomas of Nant Conwy, is an outstanding Welsh public figure. His political career spans from his first election as a Westminster MP for Plaid Cymru in 1974 at the age of twenty-seven, until May 2021 when he finally retired after twenty-two years of service as a member of the Senedd in Cardiff. Both controversial and magnetic, his life is captured in this biography. He has been branded a ‘maverick’, an ‘intellectual acrobat’ and a ‘political chameleon’ – as well as being labelled a ‘terrorist’ for his interventions in Northern Ireland, and a ‘traitor’ for opposing nationalism. As the first Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales, he helped stabilise the new institution and embedded devolution during its first tentative decade. His career has often been marked by controversy, and this is what makes his story remarkable – just as his political life has proved to be unpredictable.