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…)
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.
CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR £30,000 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
The world’s biggest literary prize for young writers
Entries are invited each year for the world’s biggest literary award for young writers – the £30,000 ($45,000) Dylan Thomas Prize – which will be awarded for the best published work in the English language by an author under the age of 30 from any country in the world.
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…)
Evelyn Hannon (left) of journeywoman.com and welsh Blue Badge guide Bill O''Keefe are among the guests taking afternoon tea at Dylan Thomas Birth House
We recently welcomed a group of Canadian writers to the house and they were amazed by the attention to detail of the conversion.
Among them was Evelyn Hannon who is the webmaster of the hugely successful Journey Woman website. Her travel experience is vast and the website emails thousands of subscribers each week making it one of the largest and most influential in North America. (more…)
Particularly towards the end of his life Dylan Thomas has periods when the words never came. Actually, that’s not strictly true – the words of his poetry didn’t come but his film scripts and his radio work gave him new life – and money!
That is why the Dylan Thomas Prize accepts entries in all the genres that Dylan worked – fiction, short stories, poetry collections, film and media scripts. It was strange then to hear that Tessa Dahl (she’s the one squashed between Roald and Sophie) at the launch of the Prize in Boston on St David’s Day question whether you could differentiate and find a winner. (more…)
I first saw inside 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in October 2003 when the house was open to visitors during the Dylan Thomas Festival on the 50th anniversary of his death.
At the time the house was leased to City and County of Swansea. As I walked up to the door I didn’t really know what to expect. The outside had the same drab, down at heel look as it done for many years before. (more…)
The front of Dylan Thomas Birth House at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea - the writer's home for 23 years
Dylan Thomas Birthplace / Family Home 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, Wales, UK 