Expect to hear a lot about the wordy Welsh wizard Dylan Thomas next year because it's the centenary of his birth and it's going to be all over the media. That's my prediction, anyway.
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| Dylan and Caitlin |
In the last few weeks I've been working on commission from a magazine that has involved going to see the home of Dylan and Caitlin Thomas at Laugharne in Carmarthenshire. And it has resulted in a couple of discoveries that I won't share with the magazine's readers - but thought you might like..
In case you don't know it the 1940s radio play has become a classic of Welsh writing in English. It's at its best on the version voiced beautifully by Richard Burton and was also a film with Elizabeth Taylor and Burton.
Have a look at the trailer here. The topless girl in the pink pants is at Fishguard Old Town, Pembrokeshire, and I think she's the lovely Angharad Rees (who went on to star in the BBC's Poldark series).
Anyway, startles.The first is a line or two from 'Under Milk Wood' that I can really relate to. It comes in a section that describes the sleeping townspeople's dreams; this is it:
SECOND VOICE: Willy Nilly, postman, asleep up street, walks fourteen miles
to deliver the post as he does every day of the night, and
rat-a-tats hard and sharp on Mrs Willy Nilly.
MRS WILLY NILLY: Don't spank me, please, teacher,
SECOND VOICE: whimpers his wife at his side, but every night of her married
life she has been late for school.
Every night... such commitment. Then when I was reading up about Laugharne I spotted this article. It's in section two about the corporation.
I'd heard about the tradition of beating the bounds before - it happens in lots of other British villages. But I particularly like the detail that the owner of the bottom that gets beaten at Laugharne is 'usually a young lady'.
There was a whole spanko world out there back then, but you're usually only aware of it through the odd nudge or wink.
A little moment of startle today while I wandered through the home section of our local department store. I think it's meant to be a baguette board, but to me it looks like the perfect attitude adjuster...
I was tempted to buy one, but couldn't face the embarrassment at the cash desk. I knew that I'd end up blushing.
Not that 99 per cent of the world's population would see it as anything other than a weird-shaped bread board. Which made me think of you, dear reader (and I had taken a pic on my blackberry to share with you).
So, why so few posts around here recently? I know that my lack of effort has been quite shocking - and deserves disciplinary intervention of the sternest kind!
It's a long story and one that my bother-in-law (the corporate guy) would call 'a multi-factorial situation'. A bit complicated really.
Firstly, there's my health. I managed to hurt my neck a couple of months ago and it has taken a long time to sort itself out. At first my doctor told me to avoid computers altogether until I was pain-free, which was really difficult for somebody who is a writer for money, a blogger and a wannabe novelist.
So as I've got back to writing with a keyboard I have been rationing the time I spend tip-tapping. As all this was happening this blog passed its first birthday - I found myself looking back and realised how much time I have spent putting it together.
To be honest I'd got a bit obsessed, and time I should have been putting into paid work was going into this 'hobby'. As SO has been out of work just lately that felt like an indulgence that we couldn't really afford.
Now some good news, I have had a double helping of work-related luck in my vanilla life. Two book proposals to publishers have both come good at the same time, so it looks as though 2013 is going to be a very intense time - lots of writing to do.
But when I look at the stats here I am amazed to find that my humble little blog is still attracting some readers, and I feel a bit ashamed that I have done so little just recently to deserve that loyalty. Which is a sort of wordy way of saying that in the New Year I will try to find some time to do better.
