Beryl and Idris Mathias of Cardigan have done something many people in their 80s dream of but never do—they both have just published books. Although the two books are very different, the authors had a similar goal: to preserve aspects of local history.

Beryl’s book—“A Time to Remember: A WWII Evacuee’s Childhood in Wales”—is a vividly told memoir of her experiences, both good and bad, of growing up in Pembrokeshire from 1939 to 1945. She came to Wales as an English girl of nine years old and was forced to return to her hometown in Kent six years later. But by then, she considered herself to be Welsh and spent several years saving her money so she could return to Wales, her “true” home.

Idris’s book is “Ghostly Tales of Old Cilgerran.” It is a collection of nearly lost stories told to him by his father and area residents more than half a century ago. His goal in writing the book was to preserve the oral tradition of folktales and scary happenings in that ancient village on the Teifi River. From the magical winds of Cilgerran Gorge to phantom black hounds on the Teifi River walks, the stories in this book capture the superstitions and fears of long-ago times.

Both books are available in bookshops, including Awen Teifi in Cardigan, and online at Amazon.co.uk.

Idris was born and grew up in the Mwldan area of Cardigan. He left to join the Royal Navy when the war began, returning in 1945. In 1998, he published a book about his growing-up years, called “The Last of the Mwldan.” The Mwldan district had become a slum area and was condemned in 1937; Idris’s family was one of the last to leave.

Beryl met Idris when she returned to Wales in 1950, and they were married that same year. Idris worked as a postman in Cardigan and surrounding areas for many years. During that time, he began a life-long project to research and draw a 58-foot-long map of the Teifi River, from St. Dogmaels to Newcastle Emlyn, detailing the names of the coracle fishermen and their trawls over the years. Some of the illustrations in his book were taken from that map.