Sowing bulbs in Cwmdonkin Park

Short film shot last month.

Listening to Dylan Thomas reading is so relaxing. His voice is so clear and pitched to almost hypnotise. No wonder he was so successful on radio. When the BBC studios in Swansea were unusable programmes were recorded in Swansea Uplands. In a grove where Martin Amis grew up with his parents. Martin slept in an open draw in his parents bedroom. My mother in law lived next door and says she found these bohemians strange folk!!

Dylan lived in a nearby avenue. He died in 1953. Martin Amis as born in 1949 so they might as well have lived in different centuries.Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914-1953)
Reading by Dylan Thomas

Love In the Asylum
A stranger has come
To share my room in the house not right in the head,
A girl mad as birds

Bolting the night of the door with her arm her plume.
Strait in the mazed bed
She deludes the heaven-proof house with entering clouds

Yet she deludes with walking the nightmarish room,
At large as the dead,
Or rides the imagined oceans of the male wards.

She has come possessed
Who admits the delusive light through the bouncing wall,
Possessed by the skies

She sleeps in the narrow trough yet she walks the dust
Yet raves at her will
On the madhouse boards worn thin by my walking tears.

And taken by light in her arms at long and dear last
I may without fail
Suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars.

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas Walks re-instated

We are pleased to announce that the Dylan Thomas walks are being started again in this, the centenary year of the birth of the Great Man.
 
It is intended to run these as follows.
 
Until March 2014
Uplands Walk     1st & 3rd Saturdays each month at 11.30 outside the Uplands Tavern, Swansea
      
Literary Pub Crawl  1st & 3rd Wednesday each month 6.30 outside No Sign Wine Bar Wind Street, Swansea

Walks from April onwards to be announced.

Group walks can be arranged to suit you. Call 07976 364681

The Hunchback in the Park.

On the Uplands Walk we stop by the actual fountain that Dylan Thomas floated his tin boat in. Now refurbished it's looking good but the tin cup is missing.

We usually read verses from this poem and we soak up the atmosphere and imagine the Hunchback behind every tree as Dylan runs home in the twilight.

Painting By Jeff Phillips. Swansea illustrator with a huge Dylan Thomas collection

Under Milk Wood

The walks are up and running again

They are back. Both the Dylan Thomas Literary Pub Crawl and the Uplands & Cymdonkin Park Walk are running from the 19th June and then in the first and third weeks of every month. Come along and learn about Dylan Thomas's life, what inspired him and his local connections.

Come and join us on Thursday 20th June for the Dylan Thomas Literary Pub Crawl. This is a fun evening with loads of stories about Dylan and the area. 

 

And the Uplands and Cymdonkin Park walk is on Wednesday 19th June and then twice a month. There are meeting points for disabled people or ambulant walkers so you'll enjoy this experience too. Call for details. Check this walk is running if weather is wet or very windy.



 

 

 

I do hope you'll join us.

 

Mike Leahy 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Thomas Literary Award

 The Dylan Thomas Literary Award is here again. This most prestigious event celebrated young authors (under thirty years) from around the world.

We followed three of them this week from Mozart's where they read excepts from their short-listed books, across to Noah's in Swansea Uplands where they were interviewed by Peter Stead, who created the awards back in 2006. There is a glittering prize - of £30,000. A bonus to any author today: and particularly to a young author in this very competitive market. The readings were such a contrast and all held the packed room audience spell-bound.
 


Introduced by Hannah Ellis, grand-daughter of Dylan Thomas. This was a warm and inspiring event.

 Lighting was extremely poor at this location as was the sound but we have managed to capture the essence of the intimate atmosphere. Watch out for footage on SwanTV

Tuesday evening the  Dylan Thomas Literary Finalists went to the Swansea Print Workshop where there was a presentation on the Dylan Thomas Project run 10 years ago with both original and new artists. The work is very delicate and cotton gloves were the order of the day. Touching the paper may have a damaging effect.

As a memento of the occasion the Print Workshop had set each author's name in cold type and produced a simple poster for each to take away. They actually printed off their individual copies.  

There are some really interesting old printing presses at the Swansea Print Workshop that are still used today.