Editing Raymond Williams (section)

=== Early life ===
Born in [[Pandy, Monmouthshire|Pandy]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/01/the-guardian-view-on-raymond-williams-at-100|title=The Guardian view on Raymond Williams at 100|work=The Guardian|date=1 September 2021|access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.swansea.ac.uk/crew/raymond-williams/about-raymond-williams/|title=About Raymond Williams|publisher=[[Swansea University]]|access-date=14 May 2024|last=Williams|first=Daniel G.}}</ref> just north of [[Llanfihangel Crucorney]], near [[Abergavenny]], Wales, Williams was the son of a railway worker in a village where all of the railwaymen voted [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], while the local small farmers mostly voted [[British Liberal Party|Liberal]].{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=16}} It was not a Welsh-speaking area: he described it as "Anglicised in the 1840s".{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=25}} There was, nevertheless, a strong Welsh identity. "There is the joke that someone says his family came over with the Normans and we reply: 'Are you liking it here?'"{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=36}}

Williams attended [[King Henry VIII Grammar School]] in [[Abergavenny]]. His teenage years were overshadowed by the rise of [[Nazism]] and the threat of war. His father was secretary of the local Labour Party, but Raymond declined to join, although he did attend meetings around the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]].{{sfn|Williams|1979|pp=31–32}} He was 14 when the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out, and was conscious of what was happening through his membership of the local [[Left Book Club]].{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=32}} He also mentions the Italian invasion of Abyssinia ([[Ethiopia]]) and [[Edgar Snow]]'s ''[[Red Star Over China]]'', originally published in Britain by the Left Book Club.{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=31}}

At this time, he supported the [[League of Nations]], attending a League-organised youth conference in Geneva in 1937. On the way back, his group visited Paris and he went to the Soviet pavilion at the [[International Exhibition]]. There he bought a copy of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'' and read [[Karl Marx]] for the first time.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=72}}

In July 1939, he was involved in the [[1939 Monmouth by-election|Monmouth by-election]], helping with an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour candidate, Frank Hancock, who was a pacifist. Williams was also a pacifist at this time, having distributed leaflets for the Peace Pledge Union.{{sfn|Smith|2008|pp=73–75}}