Gareth Williams was born and brought up in Barry, and is a graduate of the universities of Oxford, London and Chicago. In 1970 he became a lecturer at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he became Professor of History before in 2001 moving to the University of Glamorgan where he is Director of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Wales. He has written and broadcast extensively on the popular culture of the south Wales valleys, especially sport and music, and his books include the prize-winning Fields of Praise (with Dai Smith), 1905 and All That, George Ewart Evans, Heart and Souls, and More Heart and Soul (both co-edited with Huw Richards) and Valleys of Song: Music and Society in Wales 1840-1914. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.