Former Machynlleth man Dave Morgan will talk about his books at the town’s Tabernacle on Friday, 21 November (7pm).

Under the name David W Morgan, he has written a trilogy of intergenerational e-books about ‘The Bebb Saga’ in America.

Born and educated in Machynlleth until 1976, he went away to college, joined the police, and concluded his career with West Mercia Constabulary as a Detective Chief Inspector, serving his last five years there as a Senior Investigating Officer on the Major Investigations Unit, leading numerous murder investigations and other major crimes.

Once retired, he started researching his family history.

“My second great-grandmother on my maternal side was a lady named Elisabeth Bebb from Llanbrynmair.

“Whilst trying to unravel the mystery of her extended family, I soon realised how many Bebbs have lived in and around mid Wales, particularly Llanbrynmair.

“I hadn’t realised such a huge number of Welsh immigrants had left to begin new lives in America. Furthermore, many wanted to retain their Welsh Identity so far away from home. I became fascinated by the remarkable stories of those who left Llanbrynmair in 1795 and the 1850s to carve out new lives for themselves.

David has been uncovering the lives of Edward Bebb and Ezekiel Hughes, “ambitious first cousins from Llanbrynmair, young men determined to succeed because they had simply nothing to lose”.

He added: “The more I read about these men, the more I thought what a great family they were. They had started in America with nothing and achieved great success in their lives across several generations.”

This struck a chord with David, “sparking the germ of an idea to write fictional adventure books about their remarkable lives”.

“So, at the ripe old age of 65, I began writing a novel for the first time. It had been a very long time since I passed my O Level English, but I was determined to self-publish my books.

“My initial thoughts were that the main characters, or protagonists, would obviously be Welsh. They would also be from Llanbrynmair, strong characters who faced numerous challenges before ultimately succeeding in life. They were also going to be based on the Bebb family.

“I also wanted the Welsh theme to continue through the narrative and the different generations.

“I have based my first novel, Forever West, on the lives of Edward Bebb and Ezekiel Hughes, and their struggle to establish themselves in the wilds of the Northwest Territory. They fought river pirates, hostile Indians and wild animals where law and order simply did not exist.

“My second novel, Paddy’s Run, is based on Edward Bebb’s son, William.

“He worked his way up the greasy pole of local and national politics and ultimately became elected as the Governor of the state of Ohio in the late 1840s.”

David hopes his books - available as e-books on Kindle, Google Play, Apple Books, and Kobo - will be of great interest to the people across mid Wales, especially in the Llanbrynmair and Machynlleth area.