In Ross-on-Wye, the name Joyce Thomas is extremely well-known. Mrs Thomas MBE has been an active member of the community as a Councillor and Mayor. Yet her sister, Myvanwy Jenn, is perhaps better known around the world – and Joyce could not be more proud.

After a lifetime starring in various stage and television productions Myvanwy has now written a book, The Hallowed Ground, using diaries, letters and music to tell the story of the Civil War in America from 1861 to 1865. The war, which had its origins in the issue of slavery, was fought between the states in the North, known as the Union, against those in the South or the Confederacy. Four years of intense combat left 750,000 soldiers dead, and destroyed much of the South’s infrastructure. The Confederacy collapsed and slavery was abolished.

A very talented stage actress Myvanwy won the Herefordshire Competitive Festival when she was just 18, 60 years ago. She then went on to study at the Guildhall in London and at RADA.

She spent nearly ten years as a member of Joan Littlewood’s legendary Theatre Workshop where she starred in London and on Broadway in Oh What a Lovely War.

Other Broadway credits include I Remember Mama with Liv Ulman and Rose with Jessica Tandy, in which she understudied Glenda Jackson.

She also had a wonderful singing voice and appeared many times on television, and will be particularly remembered with Nigel Hawthorne in Mrs Wilson’s Diaries.

Now living in Palm Springs, Myvanwy has set up theatre workshops for deprived children in the USA, and over the past 25 years studied this traumatic time in America’s history.

She describes it as ‘not a play nor a musical review,’ instead Ms Jenn refers to it as an ‘Enactment.’

She has retold the story through Mary Chesnut, a famous diarist who described the war from within her upper class circle, she was married to a lawyer who served as a United States senator and Confederate office. Her diary was published after her death, in 1905, and together with many of the well-known songs of the era Myvanwy has woven a thrilling, evocative piece.

Joyce told the Ross Gazette that her sister was very talented but always worked hard and she is delighted that this book is being well received in America.