The Reverend Professor David Benjamin Rees (born Llanddewi Brefi

Llanddewi Brefi

Llanddewi Brefi is a village of approximately 500 people in Ceredigion, Wales.In the 6th century, Saint David , the patron saint of Wales, held the Synod of Brefi here and it has borne his name since; "Llan" referring in Welsh place names to a church or holy place. The parish church is dedicated...

), widely known as D. Ben Rees, is a Welsh-language publisher and leader of the Welsh community in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. He leads one of Liverpool's five remaining Welsh chapels. His small publishing house, Modern Welsh Publications Ltd, was established in 1963 and from 1963 to 1968 it operated from Abercynon

Abercynon

Abercynon is a small village in the Cynon Valley in Mid Glamorgan, Wales. The unitary authority is now known as Rhondda Cynon Taff. It is composed of the village of Abercynon itself,Carnetown,Glancynon,Park View and Pontcynon. However, in recent years the sign to show motorists they are entering...

 in the Cynon Valley

Cynon Valley

The Cynon Valley , is a famous former coal mining valley within the South Wales Valleys of Wales. The Cynon Valley lies between the other mining Valley of Rhondda and the iron industrial Valley of the Merthyr Valley. Its main towns are Aberdare located North of the Valley and Mountain Ash located...

 of South Wales. Since 1968 it has operated from Allerton, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 and is the only Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 publishing house still operating in the city of Liverpool.

Literary work

In a forty-year span as a writer D. Ben Rees has worked largely in two areas:

Peace and pacifism

The biography Mahatma Gandhi: Pensaer yr India (Mahatma Gandhi: The Architect of India) was published in 1970. In a review in the monthly magazine Barn the Reverend Alwyn Roberts praised the title for bringing the contribution of Gandhi to a new generation of readers. This volume was the inspiration for a series of three books on Welsh pacifists

Pacifism

Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...

. Each volume included a portrayal of the peace initiatives of well-known peace workers by academics and authors under the titles Herio'r Byd (1980), Dal i Herio'r Byd (1983) and Dal Ati i Herio'r Byd (1988), all edited by D. Ben Rees.

Welsh culture

The author has written a number of books in English and Welsh on writers.

1) Wales: Culture Heritage (1982) is a popular introduction to the Welsh press and the eisteddfodic tradition, and seeks to define the contents of Welsh culture.

2) Samuel Roberts (1987), a biography of the prolific Victorian author Samuel Roberts of Llanbrynmair. The book was published in English by the University of Wales Press as part of the Writers of Wales series, under the editorship of Dr Meic Stephens and Dr R. Brinley Jones.

3) 12 further volumes between 1975 and 2006, addressing Welsh Nonconformity

Nonconformism

Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...

, Victorian Studies and the history of the Liverpool Welsh community.