THE Elaine Morgan STATUE

Our statue celebrating the wonderful Elaine Morgan was unveiled on the 18th March 2022.  The statue is located at the Meddygfa Glan Cynon Surgery, Tŷ Calon Lân, Oxford Street, Mountain Ash, CF45 3HD.  The unveiling was carried out by members of Elaine's family.  The statue was created by artist Emma Rogers  and beautifully tells the story of Elaine Morgan's achievements as screenwriter and revolutionary evolutionary theorist.  She sits atop an ocean wave that mutates into a sheaf of her writings, fluttering away from her.

Elaine Morgan was a woman of many talents who changed the world from her desk in Mountain Ash.  Excelling in both the arts and science, she became a top TV writer, a feminist icon and a ground-breaking evolutionary theorist.  Born into a poor mining family, she won a scholarship to Oxford University. When she arrived, they heard her valleys accent and assumed she was applying for a job as a cleaner. But Elaine became a star student, chairing political societies and honing her literary skills.  

After graduation she taught for three years with the Workers’ Educational Association. Married with three sons by the 1950s, she began writing plays to help make ends meet. One of the first women to make an impact in the male-dominated world of the small screen at this time, her first television scripts were accepted before she even owned a TV set. 

 In a career spanning 30 years, she won a host of awards and scripted some of the best-loved dramas in television history – including How Green Was My Valley and The Life and Times of Lloyd George.  Sian Phillips, who starred in How Green was my Valley explained Elaine’s screen-writing gift: “There was a time when the writer was king and she was one of the stars. If you saw that name on your script then you really wanted to do it.”  She added: “She was a wonderful plotter. She was a very good storyteller for a start so nobody ever had to do any tweaking. Not a word.”  Elaine’s script for a Horizon documentary about Joey Deacon, the disabled fundraiser, won her the Prix Italia in 1975 while her serialisation of Vera Brittain’s wartime memoir, Testament of Youth, won her the Royal Television Society’s writer of the year award in 1979. 

 In the 1970s Elaine also switched her focus to science, taking on the might of the male-dominated establishment with a new theory of human evolution.  In her book The Descent of Woman, she argued human evolution wasn’t just about the mighty male hunter – females were an equally vital part of the story.  The Descent of Woman was an instant global best-seller. Feted in America as a feminist heroine, Elaine’s book became a key text in the Women’s Liberation movement. In the States she became something of a celebrity as she was invited to promote the book on television in a coast to coast tour.  

She went on to publish several more books on evolution – including The Aquatic Ape (1982), which again captured global attention; The Scars of Evolution (1990); The Descent of the Child (1994); The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (1997) and The Naked Darwinist (2008).  Championed by Sir David Attenborough, she was still being invited to discuss her ideas across the world well into old age. 

More than a million people viewed the Ted Talk Elaine gave at the age of 89 when it was put on the internet. Closer to home, she wrote her award-winning Western Mail column into her 90s.  She was appointed OBE in 2009 and the same year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  A Valleys girl to the end, she made a global impact but never left her Welsh roots behind.  

We would also like to thank Emma Rodgers, the renowned artist,  who has created a beautiful, evocative sculpture that perfectly captures Elaine Morgan's spirit and tells the story of her many achievements. Click on the pages below for more information about the statue and how it was made.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Assura PLC,  Welsh Government, The Moondance Foundation, the Waterloo Foundation and all our individual supporters who  so generously donated to make this beautiful work of art possible.  It is a fitting tribute to an incredible woman.  Thank you also to Elaine Morgan's family for providing an insight into her life and their unstinting support throughout the commissioning process.