The latest announcement on plans for the Mumbles Pier redevelopment are out this weekend for public consultation.
The Bollom family who have owned the pier since before the war have long being trying to convince the local authority about their ambitious plans. (more…)
The news this week that the much heralded Swansea 
Ilfracombe ferry link is unlikely to get under way until next year is a bitter blow to tourism operators on both sides of the channel.
Mystery surrounds the announcement with the ferry company first blaming Swansea City Council for not providing suitable landing facilities (more…)
Last week was the start of the festival season in and around Wales and I could not have witnessed two more diverse events only 50 miles or so apart.
Remember that I’m writing this in the knowledge that, although Dylan spoke only English, (more…)
Oh dear – I’ve just offended an American!
I stumbled across a blog called the Ten Minute Ramble with some videos of Bob Dylan and just pointed out that he took his name from our own Dylan.
If I did! (more…)
Dylan had a youthful interest in left wing politics and attended a rally at the old Plaza Cinema (what a place - huge! I remember watching Gandhi – the film! – there in a packed cinema) with his communist grocer friend Bert Trick (strangely our next door neighbour at Number 5 is called Robert Trick although I’m pretty sure that he is not a communist!). The story is that they got ejected.
I don’t know what Dylan would have made of modern elections but I’m sure he would have plenty of comments about candidates strutting their stuff over the past four weeks.
Yesterday we arrived home from an extended holiday in Spain – thanks to the fallout (or should it be “fallouts”?) from the Icelandic volcano eruption our stay was extended from seven to fourteen days.
Most people who I’ve spoken to today congratulated us on our good fortune – an extra week they exclaimed – none realised that we were away for a week longer from our businesses at a crucial time of the year. (more…)
I came across an hilarious book today – Gastronimus and the Legend of Mr Grrrumblebum (3 x Rs!) and also learned that the author Charlie Duncan was brought up in Swansea not two miles from Number 5.
Charlie’s story is aimed at eight to eleven year olds which is great because it brought out the kid in me. (more…)
CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR 2010 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
Third award of world’s biggest literary prize for young writers
Entries are being invited for the world’s biggest literary award for young writers – the £30,000 ($45,000) Dylan Thomas Prize – which will be awarded for the third time in December 2010 to the best published work in the English language by an author under the age of 30 from any country in the world. (more…)
Dawn over Swansea Bay and the Swansea Cork ferry waits at Mumbles Head to dock
Yesterday’s early morning sight of the Swansea Cork ferry looming out of the mist off Mumbles Head got me thinking about our Irtish literary links.
The new service is in operation for the first time in three years and its appearance reminded me of Dylan’s admiration of James Joyce and Brendan Behan. (more…)
Sculptor Peter Nicholas with the head of Dylan which will form part of a new sculpture in the Uplands by 2014
The announcement today of the death at 95 of David Slivka who sculpted Dylan’s death mask brings to an end another link with the writer.
Both were born on 27th October 1914 and celebrated their 39th birthdays just days before Dylan died in a New York hospital on 9th November 1953.
Four years after Dylan’s death he made five bronze busts. Two are now in America, one in the National Museum of Wales, one in the BBC Headquarters and the fifth in the Dylan Thomas Centre. (more…)
