A FORMER deputy editor of the Journal has published his memoirs in short story form.
In Khaki and Commas, Elwyn Edwards looks back over his life as a journalist with a two-year interlude doing National Service, taking readers on a light-hearted journey along these two very different paths.
Elwyn, 79, has dedicated the book in memory of his friend, retired Journal photographer Terry Williams, who died at the end of last month.
Elwyn, originally from Mochdre and now living in Rhyl, said: “My career led me through the tragic moments of people’s lives, the elation of happier moments, man’s inhumanity to man and the glory of a front page lead.
“I was lucky to have come across the good, the bad and decidedly ugly sides to society... made many friends and still have many talented colleagues who have helped towards this hopefully colourful missive.”
“I kept the announcement of the book back because of the news of Terry’s death and I have decided to dedicate it to him.”
Elwyn worked with the Journal for 38 years after starting his career at the the North Wales Pioneer in 1955.
He has been working on the book for since retiring in 2003.
As a journalist, Elwyn covered stories including the Towyn floods in 1990 and was one of the few journalists Kwik Save supermarket king Albert Gubay granted an interview.
Elwyn reflected: “I’ve obviously never written anything like this before. Mine were always short stories . When I came out of the Army, I wrote a few of the stories then in rough form, but wasn’t until later on in life I looked at them again and decided to grab the bull by the horns and put them in a collection. I had submitted a few from my National Service days to the North Wales News colour magazine that went down well, so after that I decided to take a really good look at it and think this made a nice little paperback.”
“One of the stories I return to in the book is the Towyn floods and the background behind covering that story. I was already in the town at a caravan park when suddenly I was surrounded by water. It took a long time to get out because rescue helicopters couldn’t get to us because of overhead cables.
“When I got back to the office, I fired my copy straight to the Evening Leader. It was quite the exercise.”
Unlike with journalism, Elwyn's “khaki” moments in National service were never optional, rather a compulsory interlude offering a mixture of abject fear, mind-blowing confrontations, tears and yet, forming friendships of unimaginable strength and sustainability.
Elwyn added: “For many it was a complete and utter waste of time, but for others it offered the opportunity to shed the shackles of mundane lives.”
“Any former National Serviceman or regular will identify such moments and, without doubt, raise a smile.”
The book also pays tribute Elwyn’s friend, the award-winning journalist Don Hale, who help publish the paperback edition, due to be released on Tuesday, July 3. An ebook edition is available now from Amazon, Bing and Google, priced at £7, with all profits to Rhyl’s Poppy Appeal.