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How Green Was My Valley is a novel of 1939, by Richard Llewellyn. The author's claims to have based it on his own knowledge of the Gilfach Goch area were proven false, as Llewellyn was English-born and spent little time in Wales, but gathered his facts from conversations with local mining families. The title of the novel is taken from its last sentence: How green was my valley then, and the valley of them that have gone.

The novel tells the story of the Morgans, a poor but respectable mining family of the South Wales valleys, through the eyes of the youngest son, Huw Morgan. Huw's academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from this troubled industrial environment. His five brothers and his father are miners; after the eldest brother, Ivor, is killed in an industrial accident, Huw moves in with his sister-in-law, Bronwen, with whom he is secretly in love. Later, Huw's father is also killed in the mine. Meanwhile, one of Huw's three sisters, Angharad, gets married to a wealthy coal-owner whom she doesn't love and the marriage is an unhappy one. She never overcomes her clandestine relationship with the local minister. After everyone Huw has known either dies or moves away, he decides to leave as well, and tells us the story of his life just before he does.

Main article: How Green Was My Valley (film)

The successful 1941 film of the book had a cast which included Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Roddy McDowall (as Huw), and Barry Fitzgerald. None of the leading players were Welsh. Directed by John Ford, How Green Was My Valley is one of the films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It should be noted that, although respected by critics both then and now, the production is not highly regarded by Ford's fans. This may have something to do with the fact that How Green Was My Valley competed with Citizen Kane that year, a film which many consider the greatest of all time. How Green Was My Valley is available on DVD from 20th Century Fox as part of their 20th Century Fox Studio Classics collection.

The book has twice been adapted by the BBC as a serial for television, in 1960 and 1975. The 1975 production – scripted by Elaine Morgan – starred Stanley Baker, Siân Phillips, and Nerys Hughes.

The 1975 version of How Green Was My Valley is available on DVD in the UK.