Dylan Thomas: A new Life: Amazon.co.uk: Andrew Lycett: Books

Review

'Andrew Lycett's scrupulously researched book is a model of scholarly objectivity...definitive, revealing and painful.' (John Carey THE SUNDAY TIMES (12.10.03) )

'[Lycett's} narrative benefits from many unpublished sources...The biography tells the story of Dylan's life with plenty of energy and local colour...Lycett's assiduous examination of letters and diaries has swelled the list of his love-affairs and exposed a body of unedifying unpublished verse characterised by schoolboy profanities.' (Jonathan Bate THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (12.10.03) )

'This is a disturbing and impressive book about a sad man, a tragic man, a drunkard, a lovable cad, a Welshman and a poetic genius, all subsumed in the endlessly equivocal person of Dylan Thomas. No poet of our time has been more thoroughly analysed than our Dylan, but Andrew Lycett approaches the exhausting task with thoroughness, scholarship and true humanity.' (Jan Morris NEW STATESMAN (16.10.03) )

'What does Andrew Lycett give us in this biography that is new? He helps us to recognise that Thomas was a more various poet and versifier than we would have imagiuned by quoting a number of excellent examples of unpublished light verse, which demonstrates what a great verse mimic Thomas could be. He makes it clear to us how much Thomas learnt from his years of filmmaking in the 1940s, how it helped to hone and clarify his later writing.' (Michael Glover FINANCIAL TIMES (18.10.03) )

'[an] astonishingly detailed, deeply and expertly researched, and captivatingly written biorgraphy...frankly, stunning...[Lycett] has not only chronicled Thomas's life intricately and almost month by month but also interpreted his relationships with others, putting Thomas's work into context...Apart from being a biography, this book is in many ways a readers companion - it is that detailed. Andrew Lycett's magnificent book has to be the definitive study of Thomas's life.' (Martin Booth LITERARY REVIEW (November) )

'Andrew Lycett sheds much new light on the work and personal life of Thomas's early life, which have been glossed over by previous biographers...an absorbing page-turner.' (Vanessa Curtis THE HERALD (Glasgow 18.10.03) )

'this is the best biography of the poet I have ever read. Andrew Lycett has turned up plenty of scandalous new material about Thomas's private life, including a previously unknown diary of his last days kept by his American mistress Liz Reitell...he [Lycett] seems actually to like and understand Thomas's poems, bringing an intelligent discrimination to the business of relating them to his subject's life. All in all this is a book that no-one interested in Dylan Thomas can afford to be without. (Robert Nye THE SCOTSMAN (1.11.03) )

'he [Lycett] is particularly good on Thomas's income, translating figures to 2003 values to show how much the poet squandered.' (Stephen Knight INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (26.10.03) )

'Andrew Lycett's excellent new life, brutally clear in many places, though never short of compassion, should make a just evaluation of Thomas possible at last.' (SUNDAY HERALD (Glasgow, 2.11.03) )

'Lycett narrates a fascinating story...Panoramic in its scope with heaps of anecdotes and a magnificent cast of supporting characters, this might well be the last workd on Dylan Thomas that the reader will need for some time.' (Philip Hamer CITY LIFE (Manchester) )

'a fine new biography...Mr Lycett does not overlook his subject's faults - he would have precious little to write about if he did - but he is never judgemental, leaving us to make up our own minds about his subject.' (Christopher Gray OXFORD TIMES (24.10.03) )

'As a biography of one of the major poets of the 20th century. A New Life is a breakthrough is its emphasis on historical and political contexts. As an intimate account of Dylan Thomas's life, it is irresistible.' (Kate Templeton ANTIQUARIAN BOOK REVIEW (November) )

'Lycett is a diligent and dutiful biographer.' (David Wheatley IRISH TIMES (15.11.03) )

'[an] excellent biography...a scintillating read.' (John Patten COUNTRY LIFE (13.11.03) )

'This is a big and deliberately entertaining book...To produce a fuller narrative than previously seen and to do so with a fresh eye is a real achievement.' (Victor Golightly MORNING STAR (24.11.03) )

''a fresh and informative biography which sets Thomas's life and work firmly in the context ofthe prevailing social and historical influences.' (YORKSHIRE EVENING POST (15.11.03) )

'This is a painstakingly researched biography...[it] is an illuminating and sometimes shockingly intimate portrayal of a talented man in turmoil...a compelling but often agonising read.' (Alex Gazzola RED HANDED (Winter 2003) )

'Andrew Lycett's new biography asks what Thomas's life meant: both to those who witnessed its spectacular self-destructiveness and those for whom he will alwyas be the icon of the passsionate, maladjusted romantic poet...Lycett has a sharp eye for the milieux in which Thomas lived' (Gwyneth Lewis INDEPENDENT (19.12.03) )

Stephen Knight, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (26.10.03)

'he [Lycett] is particularly good on Thomas's income, translating figures to 2003 values to show how much the poet squandered.'

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

Hard to imagine how it could be any better! 6 Jan 2004

By Clive Adonis

Format:Hardcover

I had read and admired Andrew Lycett's previous biographies (of Ian Fleming and Rudyard Kipling), and so when I was in London recently I went to hear him lecture, and I picked up a copy of this book, knowing it might take months for a US publisher to pick it up. I suggest they move fast, because this book is absolutely brilliant.

Lycett understands and clarifies what seem to be the important components of Dylan Thomas's life - his "Welshness" (or not), his poetry, his relationships, particularly with Caitlin, his drinking, his sexual behavior (or not), and his response to America (and vice versa). And as with his previous masterworks, Lycett puts it all into its social and historical context. Even I - who has not, till now, been a great reader of poetry - found his analyses of the poetry highly seductive. And in so many ways Dylan Thomas comes across as a highly contemporary - and relevant - figure.

This book is beautifully and fluidly written, and it puts Andrew Lycett in the very top class of biographers.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

Getting close to Dylan 6 Mar 2004

By David Irwin

I apologise for the flippant nature of my earlier review, realising now that it was not helpful. I can only plead that, in the excitement of reading, I felt moved to write something that one of his companions in Soho might have typed out, on the old Remington, late at night, after a chaotic evening in Dylan's presence.
The genius of Lycett's book, it seems to me, is that his research enables him to take us there, literally day by day, to follow an extraordinary life. Lycett also adds his own wry comments, never harsh but always illuminating, as though he, in fact, were one of that raucous, happy and sad crowd who knew they were experiencing a special, yet impossible being. Some of the stories about Dylan's behaviour keep me laughing out loud. The sadnesses move me to tears. And, above all, is the beauty of Dylan's words. My favourite poem in English, with plenty of runners up,(Donne especially, whom I think Dylan appreciated), has long been 'Fern Hill' and 'Under Milk Wood' can only grow upon one every time of reading, or, better still, listening. Lycett lets us know how these masterpieces came about. The photographs are also wonderfully revealing. Can you beat the one on the cover?
A further strength of Lycett's assessment is his placing Dylan in the contemporary and historical context of English poetry, something of which Dylan was very aware. Although, I hesitate at this point, because Dylan Thomas was not simply (?) a poet. Lycett shows how many talents he had in other fields, especially screen writing & broadcasting &, above all, his effect on others who were in his presence & who usually loved him.
As a family therapist myself, I also admire the way that Lycett has sought to reveal the influence upon Dylan of life at his parents' lovely address, over the years ... the teenaged Rimbaud.
We can all learn so much from this wonderful book.

' ... though I sang in my chains like the sea'.

David Irwin.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

do not go gently.... 2 Sep 2009

By Ellie

Format:Paperback

I read this because by accident I went to the beautiful area of the Boathouse and decided to visit the house - Dylan having been a big poet in the 60's when I was at school. I had grown used to the idea that his poetry was passe and overblown but going through the exhibits it struck me agin how good some of it was, and what a strange thing his alcoholism was fluffed over...Reading this book was a revelation; richly researched with perhaps a bit too much detail on his contacts it brought home how far we are from the 50s and also what an amazing man he was in many ways. I'd have loved to have seen him recite live or perhaps even been in the pub when his acute way with words was at his best. One of the books I mulled over for days afterwards and now have an expression 'going for a Dylan' (beer) said in fondness actually..!