As poet, critic, teacher and editor, Raymond Garlick has been of central importance in the advancement of Welsh literature in English.

Born in a London suburb, Raymond Garlick came to Wales first as a schoolboy and later as a student at Bangor, where he began to learn the Welsh language. While teaching English at Pembroke Dock he was one of the co-founders of Dock Leaves (later The Anglo-Welsh Review), and as its editor he published the work of all the significant Anglo-Welsh writers of the time, and placed the literature of both languages of Wales within a wider European context.

As editor and critic (his Introduction to Anglo-Welsh Literature in the Writers of Wales series; numerous essays; and the anthology of Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480-1980, edited with Roland Mathias) he has been crucially influential in obtaining academic recognition for the 500-year tradition of Welsh writing in English.

This first book-length study of Raymond Garlick - who has played such a distinguished part in uniting writers in the two languages of Wales and in promoting the recognition of Wales's cultural distinctiveness, richness and independence - is long overdue.