Formidable though the task promised to be, for a variety of reasons I was very pleased to accept this commission. I had always believed, and still do, that no self-respecting historian should forego the opportunity of writing the entire history of his or her native land. I also relished the intellectual challenge of preparing a concise and digestible account that would not fall into the trap of squeezing the life out of the past. Moreover, the prospect of completing a work which would meet the needs of an international audience as well as the people of Wales was too tempting to resist. Wales and its history deserves to be much more widely known and appreciated.

I have tried to give due weight to events, movements and ideas in each period, and if the chapters on the modern period are somewhat longer than the others this simply reflects the fact that the material available since the coming of the printed word is much more voluminous and diverse. A book of this kind inevitably owes an irredeemable debt to a great many scholars, both past and present, whose work has stimulated me profoundly. The further reading list at the end of the volume indicates my principal debts, though I have also ventured (gingerly in some periods) into the thickets of original sources, as well as into a mass of articles and Welsh-language publications.