Sian Jennings Editor

About the author:
Mary James was born on 8 July 1902 in Llandaff North, Cardiff. She was the first child of William Gwalchmai James, a building contractor, and his wife Hannah Candina, and the grandchild of a family of boatbuilders at Gabalfa Dock on the Glamorganshire Canal. She studied at Aberystwyth University. These diaries were discovered by a family member, and chronicle her life from 1916 to 1920.

About the editor:
Sian Jennings is a retired lawyer and freelance writer who has a Master's degree in Family and Local History and has been actively researching her Welsh roots since 1994. She is the granddaughter of Mary's cousin Madge, who is mentioned in the diary entry for 5 September 1917.