Viv is a resident of Merthyr Tydfil.  He studied at Glamorgan, Cardiff and Swansea Universities and was  a teacher of history in adult education for over 25 years and for 5 years at secondary schools.  He has been a consultant to the BBC & ITV on Welsh history.

His passion is Welsh social history which perhaps explains why he became one of the founding members and chairman of the Dic Penderyn Society. 

Richard Lewis (1807/8 – 13 August 1831), known as Dic Penderyn, was a Welsh labourer  who lived in Merthyr Tydfil and was involved in the Merthyr Rising of 3 June 1831. In the course of the riot he was arrested alongside Lewis Lewis, one of the primary figures in the uprising, and charged with stabbing a soldier with a bayonet. The people of Merthyr Tydfil doubted his guilt, and signed a petition for his release. However, he was found guilty and hanged on 13 August 1831. After his death he was treated as a martyr in Merthyr and across Wales.