It was during a time of poverty and conflict that Alexander Cordell set his novels. Eleven years after his death the Gwent author and his world is on the edge of national and international fame. Mike Buckingham reports.

ALEXANDER Cordell and the fictional characters who live through his books could be as great a pull to Gwent as Catherine Cookson is to the North-east a tourism chief says.

On the eve of the annual Cordell Festival Bogda Smreczak, tourism officer for Torfaen Council said "There has been a marked increase in Alexander Cordell's profile over the last couple of years.

"He has always had his followers but a new audience is coming to him as people take more of an interest in their background and culture."

The writer is best-known for his stories of working life in the North Gwent Valleys in the 1840s beginning with Rape of the Fair Country published in 1959 and including The Fire People and This Proud and Savage Land.

Although he set his stories in other locations notably China where he worked for a time as a quantity surveyor Cordell always returned to Welsh themes and the Gwent Valleys he loved.

Alexander Cordell was born George Alexander Graber in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, in 1914 into an Army family.

He served in the ranks of the Royal Engineers during the inter-war years and took part in the fighting retreat from France at the time of Dunkirk.

While recovering from his wounds at a military hospital in Wales he began to write short stories for magazines but when his post-war work as a Government quantity surveyor brought him to Abergavenny he began to write books about the area around Blaenavon.

Although unmistakably English and with the crisp voice and dress of a British Army officer Cordell was a hero for the Left and consistently took a literary stance hostile to the 19th century mine owners and ironmasters.

The Cordell Festival at Goytre Wharf near Abergavenny on Sunday ( Sept 14) with a literary competition sponsored by the South Wales Argus is expected to be the biggest yet with broadcaster Roy Noble, music and boating events as big draws.

"Cordell has certainly gone regional.

"Visit Wales which is the successor to the Welsh Tourist Board, Capital Regional Tourism and the heads of the valleys initiative which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government have all realised that Cordell is central to the region's identity" Ms Smreczak, who was herself a friend of the writer added.

"But it isn't just about tourism and bringing visitors to Torfaen and Gwent important though this aspect is.

"Alexander Cordell had a real connectivity with local people and we have managed to keep that intimate spirit.

"The commercial and bureaucratic profile at events like the Cordell Festival is remarkably low and when Roy Noble speaks about his hero you can sense the human and personal element.

"Next year is 50 years since the publication of the book which made literary waves all around the world which is Rape of the Fair Country.

"It is hard to overestimate the impact of this work set in Gwent which was among the world's ten best -sellers.

"We will be pulling out all the stops for that.

"The literary competition for which the first prize is £500 has attracted entries from an enormous geographical spread within the UK and one entry from Australia.

"This illustrates how appreciation of the author's work is widening.

"The aim is to make Alexander Cordell's name as familiar to a wider public as is Catherine Cookson.

"There is absolutely no doubt that his reputation as an author is up to it."

As an advance army in the campaign to promote Cordell 30 'blue badge' guides have been hired to supervise walks around Cordell Country.

"These are top-notch people who have immersed themselves in Cordell and his works" Ms Smreczak said.

"Sunday will in fact start with a guided walk from Goytre Wharf to Blaenavon and a shorter walk around Cordell's Blaenavon later in the day.

"We have had the whole-hearted co-operation of Gwent Boat-Owners' Assocaition and British Waterways have let us have the Wharf for free after the usual safety assessments.

"There is going to be folk music and an element of re-enactment in the canal trips.

"The Cordell Festival is a moveable feast between Torfaen and our partners in Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taff, and Neath Port Talbot.

"We have put packs of Cordell leaflets in 25 hotels around the region.

"It's fair to say that no planning decisions are taken without Cordell being factored in.

"One lady in Crickhowell who is a hotelier and Cordell enthusiast has named one of her rooms after him.

"In her eyes he's right up there with Dylan Thomas and other great writers of the last century and quite rightly too."

Alexander Cordell was writing right up to the time of his death in 1997.

His grave at Llanfoist is overlooked by the Blorenge mountain which was his inspiration.