Roger Boore (???-2021)

was a Welsh-language publisher and author who founded the Welsh publishing house, Dref Wen. Roger Boore was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1938, and was brought up in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, attending Warwick School. He was awarded a degree in Classics (“Literae Humaniores”) at Jesus College, Oxford in 1961 and a PhD in History at University of Wales Swansea in 2005. He was qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He was a life-long enthusiast of the Welsh language, which he began learning in his teens.

In 1969-70 Roger Boore and his wife Anne founded the Cardiff publishing house Dref Wen, which was the first press to focus mainly on full-colour Welsh language books for children, thus transforming this aspect of the Welsh book market and of Welsh culture.

Dref Wen under Roger Boore's management also produced bilingual and educational books for children (as it continues to do). Its many publications in that period included Llyfr Hwiangerddi y Dref Wen (the standard Welsh nursery rhyme collection), Y Geiriadur Lliwgar (Welsh children’s dictionary), the “Welsh History Stories” series and the prize-winning “From Start to Finish” series on religions (each collection being issued in both Welsh and English).