A new programme on S4C will show how a promising young author from the Swansea Valley was completely shattered by a tragedy in Israel.

The programme Dylan ar Daith: O Ystalyfera i Israel follows Welsh-speaking Jewess Lily Tobias, from Ystalyfera, from her early days in the south-west Wales coalfield to her new land and visits the exact spot where the tragedy happened that changed her life for ever.

Lily had published four novels and a volume of short stories, but didn’t publish another book after her personal trauma.

She had been a campaigner for peace during the Great War, but after the terrible incident when she lost her husband, she gradually became a strong supporter of Israel’s right to fight fiercely to protect itself.

“It’s that massive change that makes Lily Tobias such an interesting person,” says journalist Dylan Iorwerth, who follows in the novelist’s footsteps as she left Wales for Palestine – for her, the Promised Land.

“And intertwined with her story is all the tragedy of what’s happening in Israel and Palestine today – as I learnt when I saw the brutal wall that divides Bethlehem today.”

Lily Tobias is also unique in Welsh history – in her early days she was a socialist and Welsh nationalist and wrote about the interlinked experience of the Jews and the Welsh.

Back home, her family became famous – she was an aunt to the controversial MP, Leo Abse, and to Dannie Abse, one of Wales’s greatest poets.

As he travels through Israel, Dylan also meets a young Welsh Jewess who lives in Jerusalem today – Sarah Liss moved from Cardiff to start a new life in Israel, much as Lily did about three quarters of a century earlier.

The programme raises difficult questions about liberty and peace as well as giving a flavour of life in Israel today – from independence celebrations to a street that is now a military zone.

The programme is produced by independent television company Unigryw, from Talybont near Aberystwyth, and the cameraman is Aled Jenkins, from Cardiff.

You can catch Dylan ar Daith: O Ystalyfera i Israel on S4C this Sunday, October 8 at 8pm or on S4C Clic.