DYLAN THOMAS’S entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that he considered his ‘play for voices’, Under Milk Wood, a poor relation to his poetry. Yet, with its array of characters, from Captain Cat dreaming of his lost loves to the twice-widowed, obsessively neat Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, it is the work for which he is best known. Despite it only being first performed in the last year of his life, he had been working on an idea for a tale or play about a small Welsh seaside town since he was in his late teens.
The fictional town of Llareggub, (the ‘joke’, such as it is, lies in reading its name backwards) made its first appearance in the Surrealist story The Orchards, written in 1935, with references to ‘the reverend madmen in the Black Book of Llareggub’. Further inspiration arrived in 1938, when Thomas and his new bride, the dancer Caitlin Macnamara, moved to Laugharne on the Taf Estuary in Carmarthenshire. Clearly, he was fascinated by the inhabitants of what he called ‘the strangest town in Wales’, remarking to fellow resident and writer Richard Hughes (author of the bestseller A High Wind In Jamaica) that what the place really needed was ‘a play about well-known Laugharne characters’. His working title was The Town That Was Mad.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
