Lewis Jones

The Old Red Lion and Dragon

Me: The Authorised Biography, by Byron Rogers

issue 11 July 2009

In the 1970s, when Byron Rogers was appointed speechwriter to the Prince of Wales, the Daily Telegraph, where he was for many years a prolific contributor, report- ed the story in a one-sentence paragraph: ‘The Prince of Wales has appointed as speechwriter Mr Byron Rogers, a colourful Welshman.’ Nearly 40 years on, he still resents that announcement — ‘as though being a colourful Welshman was a job,’ he complains, ‘like a bus driver.’ To judge from Me: The Authorised Biography, though, the Telegraph’s subs had it right — being a colourful Welshman is Byron Rogers’ job, and he is extremely good at it.

He was born in monoglot Carmarthen- shire, an only child, ‘amongst people who heard a different drum’. When he was five the family moved four miles up the road to Carmarthen town, in the shadows of the English castle and unusually hideous chapels.

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