Author of new Welsh history book says ‘children can handle more complexity than we give them credit for’

Llinos Dafydd

The author of a new history of Wales for children has said that young people need a history of Wales that goes beyond “great men”, simple heroes and villains and events within the country’s borders.

Writer and educator, Darren Chetty has said young people are capable of dealing with far more complexity than adults often give them credit for.

Chetty has co-written Our Wales: A People’s History with historian Martin Johnes, with illustrations by Matt Abbott – a new Rily Publications book which traces more than 200 years of Welsh history while placing ordinary people, migration, class, race, empire and inequality alongside more familiar events and figures.

For Darren Chetty, the project also has a personal dimension.

Growing up in Swansea in the 1970s and early 1980s, he remembers learning little about migration, race, class or empire at primary school, despite being a child of migrants himself and having classmates from similar backgrounds.

“We learnt more about the Tudors and a particular view of Welsh history and of Welshness,” he said.

What was largely absent, he recalls, was the history visible in the city around him: Swansea’s copper industry, its relationship with the British Empire, the struggle for better working conditions, housing and healthcare.

Darren Chetty believes things have changed since then, but says ambitious changes to the curriculum need to be accompanied by practical resources and professional development if they are to reach classrooms.

His hope is that Our Wales can work both as a book children pick up independently and as something teachers can use to begin wider conversations.

Wales ‘can’t be understood in isolation’

A key part of that is resisting the temptation to treat Wales as an isolated story.

“We can’t really make sense of events in Wales without some knowledge of events in England, Europe, and the rest of the world.

“The history of Wales has often been side-lined, even in Welsh schools. But if the response to that is to only look at what happened within the borders of modern-day Wales, we’re not giving young people the knowledge to understand Wales or history.”

The book consequently moves between events within Wales and the wider forces shaping them, including industrialisation, empire, migration and global conflict.

Beyond ‘great men’ and simple heroes

It also rejects what Chetty calls a “great men” approach to the past.

“There is often a tendency to want to use history to foster a particular type of patriotism that involves seeing ‘us’ as good and ‘them’ as bad – or lesser.

“People are complicated and I believe children can handle more complexity than they are often offered.”

Darren Chetty said schools understandably use stories of individuals to teach values, but warned against reducing history to a succession of role models.

“I think it’s a mistake to reduce history to ‘role model’ narratives where you implicitly tell children to be like someone ‘great’.

“We wanted to tell a history of the people of Wales and not a ‘great men’ history.”

David Lloyd George is one of the few figures to receive his own chapter, but Darren Chetty said that reflected his historical significance rather than an attempt to present him as a straightforward hero.

The book itself describes Lloyd George as a complex figure who can be both admired and criticised, arguing that history is not simply a story of “heroes and villains”. 

‘Children can discuss difficult history’

Darren Chetty, who spent 20 years teaching in primary schools, said his experience had also convinced him that children could discuss difficult subjects when given the opportunity.

“I’d encourage them to ask questions and then to think about the kinds of evidence that would help them to construct sound answers.

“Most children seemed to enjoy the process. It’s often adults who feel they have more invested in defending a position even when the evidence no longer supports them.”

He hopes the book will leave young readers questioning equally simple stories about Wales itself.

“I’d hope the book might give readers cause to consider whether simple narratives of progress – things are always getting better in Wales and the world – or decline – Wales was once great and is losing its culture, language, etc – stand up to historical scrutiny.”

Our Wales: A People’s History / Ein Cymru: Hanes Ein Pobl will be published by Rily on 2 November 2026 and is available to pre-order now.

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