Last night on the Cyfrinachau’r Llyrgell programme the author Caryl Lewis had a glimpse into the iconic works by the illustrator Margaret Jones which are housed within the National Library’s collections. Margaret Jones became celebrated in the 1980’s for the illustrations she created for Gwyn Thomas’ adaptation of the Mabinogion tales which are kept here in the Library, and as could be seen on the programmes last night many other treasures by the artist are also housed within our store rooms. Recently we were tremendously grateful to Margaret’s family for gifting her remaining 200 works to the Library’s collections.
The works now held at the Library span the entirety of the artist’s career, from her iconic Mabinogion Map and Mabinogion illustrations from the 1980s, to her works based on the Tale of Taliesin in the 1990s and her Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf illustrations from the 2000s to name only a few. Also housed within our archives are works she created in collaboration with Cricket magazine, the American magazine for children between 1997 and 2004, and also works which were never published, such as her 12 drawings based on Dafydd ap Gwilym’s poetry for Gregynog Press. In 2000 the Library commissioned Margaret to illustrate a book written by Rhiannon Ifans and a map to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Owain Glyndwr’s reign, and it was a pleasure to show examples of these works to Caryl Lewis on the programme. It was especially interesting to hear Caryl talk from her extensive experience of how authors and illustrators collaborate on publications.
MARGARET JONES
Margaret Dorothy Jones was born in Bromley, Kent in 1918. She showed a keen interest in fairy tales and a talent for art from a young age and was inspired by the works of illustrators such as Arthur Rackham. In 1941 she trained as a teacher at a Methodist College in Birmingham where she met her husband, Basil Jones. The two went as missionaries to Mizoram, India where she developed a strong interest in the country’s mythology. Here she began to paint the local people and landscape and created papier-mâché puppets which she would perform at local hospitals and schools. They returned to live in Wales in 1955 and made their home in the Aberystwyth area, raising six children.
In Wales her creative talents blossomed. She continued to create puppets for small local productions and created various toys for her children. She would enjoy sketching in the Rheidol and Ystwyth Valleys and would exhibit her work with the Ceredigion Art Society. After a small exhibition of her work at her Church, St David’s Church, Bath Street, Aberystwyth in 1974, Margaret gained the confidence to ask for an exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, and therefore in 1979, at 64 years of age she opened her first professional exhibition titled Welsh Landscape and Mythology. This exhibition led to a commission from the Books Council of Wales and the Arts Council of Wales to illustrate a coloured publication of the Mabinogion tales written by Gwyn Thomas. From this point onwards Margaret became known as one of Wales’ leading illustrators and the foremost illustrator of the Mabinogion tales. In 2024 she also became an author and published her first book, Nat at 86 years of age.
After such a prolific and successful career, it is a wonderful and fitting tribute to the artist that her works are now treasured in the Library for future generations to view, research and enjoy.
You can watch Cyfrinachau’r Llyfrgell on S4C Clic or BBC iPlayer.
Morfudd Bevan
Art Curator
Category: Article