Alun Gibbard

Alun’s career started in broadcasting and he’s now an author. He’s been involved in media, Welsh language and strategic consultancy with LARS for over two years and he’s also compered LARS events.

He began his career with the BBC, as a news reporter and producer with BBC Wales, then moving to presenting and producing features and documentary programmes in English and Welsh, for BBC Wales and BBC UK, HTV and S4C. He has produced and directed Songs of Praise programmes for BBC UK, and was producer of Dechrau Canu, Dechrau Canmol on S4C for two years. He covered four Classical Brits Awards in the Albert Hall, for S4C. A Light Entertainment series he presented gained a Finalist Certificate in the New York TV Festival two years running.

He notes meeting two Nobel Peace prize winners as highlights of his TV work. He interviewed Desmond Tutu for a BBC Wales documentary and Lech Walesa, in Poland, for an S4C documentary. A documentary he made for HTV won a BT Current Affairs Award.

In 2008, he left the TV in order to pursue a childhood ambition to write. He was advised to turn to writing about rugby to start his new career, and that was no hardship for someone who saw his first Scarlets game in 1970!  He has co-written the stories of Delme Thomas, Simon Easterby and George North as well as writing The Official History of the Scarlets. His book Who Beat the All Blacks? was short listed for the British Sports Book Awards, as was his critically acclaimed biography of Carwyn James. His take on rugby is about rugby as social history.

He has written many non rugby books, such as Pink Ribbons for April, the reaction of the Machynlleth community to the murder of five year old April Jones and a Welsh language novel on the Miners Strike of ‘84/’85. His next book, his co-writing of former First Minister Carwyn Jones’ lifestory, will be out soon. He is currently working on an English novel.

He has compered many concerts, including two for BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as for The Tourettes Society, Carmarthenshire County Council, Rotary International and many local events.

Music is central to his unwinding and switiching off and he likes a wide range of music, believing there’s only two types of music really, good and bad. He loves watching most sports. Finding out about his ancestry is slowly but surely becoming an obsession!

LARS he says, “Is a unique organisation that I’ve not seen the like of anywhere else. It’s been an inspiration for me to see young people develop throughout their time with LARS develops. Their talent is amazing and their commitment and drive is astounding! Keeps me going!”