The lot of the South Wales working classes over the centuries has provided much inspiration for creative artists of all kinds. Patrick Jones is a product of that struggle and his work as a poet, writer and dramatist reflects the economic, political and social changes that have affected his native Gwent Valleys over the past 25 years.

He is characterised as a modern, passionate writer who wears his heart on his sleeve. Raised in Blackwood, Gwent, he has observed the slow decline of traditional industries such as coal and steel and the profound effect it has had on his community.

A rebellious streak also fights against the traditional social structure of valleys life and it is this complicated relationship he has with the place he was born and bred that feeds his creative appetite.

His best-known work is the play Everything Must Go, a bruising story of despair and violent revenge that successfully toured the UK in 1999. It shares its title with the album by the Manic Street Preachers released in 1996 and, indeed, one of the play’s characters speaks almost exclusively in Manics lyrics.

Of course, the link between the playwright and the band is more than just a convenient marketing ploy. Jones is the elder brother of Manic Street Preachers lyricist and bass player Nicky Wire. The band has frequently contributed music for his plays and also to his 1999 album of spoken word collaborations Commemoration And Amnesia.

Beyond attracting media interest, this relationship has been something of a mixed-blessing for Jones. His work has often been harshly judged as a result.

Nonetheless, he continues to produce challenging plays such as the fictional meeting of a World War 1 soldier and a Gulf War veteran The War Is Dead, Long Live The War and he remains one of the few contemporary Welsh writers of his kind to take his work beyond the narrow confines of traditional theatre.